Building new bridges across professions

Paul Deol, McElhanney and Lee Madruga, Dragados Canada.

The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) held its 24th annual conference at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel and welcomed more than 1,200 senior publicand private-sector participants to the world’s largest and premier event on public-private partnerships (P3s).

One of the social highlights of the conference is the annual First Night Reception. This year’s reception took place at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and saw the movers and shakers in the infrastructure sector from both Canada and abroad come together for the evening.

The private-sector delegates at this annual “must-attend” P3 event represent a cross-section of P3related professions, including law, finance, construction, engineering, project management, architecture, consulting, communications, real estate development and building services. There are also a number of attendees from other countries looking for Canadian opportunities or to learn best practices.

“The only thing that rivals the high-performance programming we offer is the depth of networking opportunities attendees enjoy during two days in Toronto,” said CCPPP chief executive

“They’re the two most important days on the international P3 calendar.”

Established in 1993, CCPPP is a member-based organization with broad public- and private-sector representation. Its mission is to promote innovative approaches to infrastructure and service delivery through P3s with all levels of government. The council is a proponent of evidence-based public policy in support of P3s, facilitates international best practices, and educates stakeholders and the community on the benefits of P3s.