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Premier Jason Kenney has promised his government will “aggressively” pursue public-private partnerships — or P3s — for infrastructure projects.

The P3 system is used all over the world, to varying degrees of success.

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The federal Canadian government under Stephen Harper was so fond of P3s it established PPP Canada in 2009 — a federal agency to promote P3s and ensure their long-term viability.

The current federal government announced plans to wind down the agency in 2017, saying it had achieved its mandate.

Then there’s Britain, where a lack of transparency and oversight fuelled an overhaul of the nation’s P3 model. For the most part, such problems lead governments to examine their P3 processes and implement stricter quality controls.

With Alberta set embrace P3s, we look at what they are and why they’re used.

What’s a P3?

The idea of a P3 is to build infrastructure without incurring upfront public sector debt.