EDMONTON — A study undertaken for the Redford government indicates that Alberta’s plan to build 50 new schools is “a mess” and the schools won’t be built on time — if they are built at all, says the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Federation President Gil McGowan said a Deloitte review of the P3 procurement process, which the AFL obtained through freedom of information legislation, shows why companies don’t want to bid on public-private partnership projects that require them to finance, build and maintain schools for 32 years.

Deloitte’s examination of the latest P3 program’s failure to attract more than a single bid on a 19-school bundle found that slim margins, a robust construction market and shortages of skilled workers have chased many of the large construction companies away from the projects.

“It looks to us like they’re promising something they’re not going to be able to deliver and that they know they can’t deliver it, but aren’t being straight with Albertans about it,” McGowan said. “The reason they can’t deliver it is because their P3 process is falling apart.”

Infrastructure Minister Ric McIver rejected the AFL premise and vowed the schools will be built on time.

In its report, Deloitte surveyed 14 companies, including the sole bidder Gracorp Capital Advisers and Graham Plenary Group, about the process and determined the size of the project realistically meant there were likely only two teams with the capacity to successfully complete a project of such size.

The companies said there would be more interest if the province shelved the P3 model and switched back to tendering smaller numbers of schools constructed under the government’s traditional design and build model.

The report says the increasingly price competitive nature of the P3 model has resulted in diminishing returns that “simply do not provide enough incentives for proponents to bid.”

It added that too many resources are required to build such a large number of schools, and that companies would prefer to use those scarce resources on higher value projects.

McIver said he plans to meet with as many of the major construction companies as he can to get their opinion on how the Progressive Conservative government should tender the remaining 31 schools to ensure they bid on them and the facilities get built.

“We’re against the clock but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it right, and if we learn something from the very people that build these things, I am not sure it will do anything but help us get the projects delivered on time and on budget,” he said in an interview.

McIver said schools can be built in 18 to 20 months, so there’s still time to open them in 2016.

“The fact is we know the PC P3 process has delivered almost all projects on time and on budget and it has saved the Alberta taxpayer literally billions of dollars, and we feel good about that,” he added.

The government’s own value-for-money assessments show the government has already invested nearly $1.2 billion on the 40 schools promised by Redford and her predecessor, Ed Stelmach, in 2007, 2008 and 2011.

By the government’s calculations, the P3 model will save taxpayers $245 million on those schools, although the 29 per cent estimated saving on 10 schools in 2008 dwindled to a mere 13 per cent estimated saving on the last round of 12 schools announced in 2011.