Toronto city council has decided to use a traditional procurement for a multibillion-dollar highway refurbishment because of funding uncertainties and the higher cost of a PPP.

Council backed a PPP for the F.G. Gardiner Expressway, a key route with 18 kms of six to 10 lanes across the south of the city, in 2015. But in November, it endorsed a regular procurement after it became apparent that the federal government was unlikely to provide Cdn $820 million from its PPP and regular infrastructure programs.

That created a major problem but, meanwhile, Infrastructure Ontario, the provincial PPP agency and city’s advisor, estimated the PPP cost at Cdn $3.6 billion, up from Cdn $2.6 billion a year earlier.