HALIFAX—As the Liberal government negotiates a contract for a 20-year private partnership to expand and maintain a stretch of Nova Scotia highway, officials are keeping mum on many of the project’s details.

The 38-kilometre section of Highway 104 from Sutherlands River to Antigonish spans two counties and, according to Paul LaFleche, deputy minister for the department of transportation and infrastructure renewal (TIR), it’s a “crucial corridor” for moving people and goods through the province.

The government made it a priority to turn the two-lane section of the 104 into a four-lane highway based on public consultation done in 2017, but LaFleche said it wouldn’t be possible to complete the twinning project quickly under a traditional procurement model.

Instead, the province has been looking to strike up a public-private partnership (P3) — a decision that has raised the ire of some critics. LaFleche and his department colleagues defended their plans during a meeting of the public accounts committee Wednesday at the legislature.

“We have conducted a thorough value-for-money analysis and we are confident that this model will deliver to Nova Scotians a safer and more efficient highway, years earlier than we would have had with a traditional build,” the deputy minister told the committee.

“We have done our homework, and I believe at the end of the day, the P3 model for this project is in the best interest of the taxpayer. It delivers good value for money and it is an appropriate fit for this project based on the business case.”

New Democrat MLA Susan Leblanc came out vehemently opposed to P3 projects, generally, and said she did not understand the government’s reasoning on this case.

“Why is Nova Scotia going forward with P3 projects when other jurisdictions are justifiably abandoning this failed model?” Leblanc asked the TIR officials at Wednesday’s meeting.

She pointed to the construction of 39 public schools in the 1990s and the expansion of the Cobequid Pass highway as examples of past P3 failures. Over the course of 20 years, the province bought back 37 of those schools at a cost of about $216 million. By the estimate of an independent report prepared for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Cobequid Pass cost $100 million more as a P3 than it would have as under conventional procurement.

“Isn’t it a risky and irresponsible decision to go ahead with new P3 builds without revealing the full details and when the government cannot point to a single P3 success story?”

LaFleche disagreed with Leblanc’s assertions.

“I don’t know where those facts are from, but we feel we have many P3 success stories,” he said.

LaFleche said the schools preceded his time at the department so he wouldn’t address them, but he characterized the Cobequid Pass as a success — in part because after it was twinned, the number of fatal collisions dropped.

Leblanc urged TIR to release the request for proposals for the 104 project to the public, but LaFleche said that would hinder their ability to negotiate for the best deal. He said TIR would be able to justify the decision to use a P3 to twin the 104, but the public would have to wait until the deal was done to hear that justification.

“It’s the equivalent of me playing poker with five cards face forward and then the other guy with five cards face back,” he told reporters after the public accounts committee meeting adjourned.

When the contract is signed, he said, the province would release its value analysis and the details of the request for proposals.

“At the end of the game, everybody puts their cards out,” he said, concluding his analogy.

The province approved three qualified bidders for the P3 at the start of 2019 — Dexter Nova Alliance, Osprey Transportation Solutions and Atlantic Safelink Partners — and their proposals are due this fall. LaFleche said he expects the province to ink a contract by April 2020, in time for next summer’s construction season.

After the meeting, Leblanc told reporters, “I just don’t buy those arguments ... None of that is information that shouldn’t be shared.”

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Progressive Conservative MLA Tim Halman was less critical of P3s than Leblanc, saying his party judges them on a case-by-case basis, but judgment on the 104 twinning would require more detailed information. He called it unfortunate that TIR deferred many of his questions about the project.

“Certainly, we know the people of Pictou and Antigonish counties want this to happen. They want good value for their money,” he told reporters.

Halman said the government should push TIR to release “more specific numbers, more specific timelines.”

LaFleche said the project would be completed by 2023, and whichever company wins the contract would be in charge of highway maintenance for 20 years following completion.

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