Lessons Learned

• Author: C. Ian Kyer
• Pages: 163-173



Epilogue

LESSONSLEARNED

balesbetweentheCityofTorontoanditsprivatesec

tor transit provider were fought more than a century ago, there are various

parallels with more recent public/private partnerships. Even today we must

grapplewiththeirrepressibleconictthatDelosFWilcoxthewidelyac

ceptedexpertonmunicipalutilityfranchiseswroteofinAshenoted

acenturyagothereisafundamentalconictofmotivesbetweenthepublic

andtheprivatesectorNoamountofregulationandnopossibledevelop

ment of good will and the spirit of cooperation can change the fact that pri

vatecorp orations operating municipal utilities do so for prot and for as

muchprotastheycangetwhiletheconsumersandthepublicstrivetoget

asmuchserviceastheycanattheleastpossiblecost

As is typical of private partners, the people behind the Toronto Railway

Company TRC saw the  tendering process as an i mportant high

proleopportunitytogrowabusinessandmakeahandsomeprotThey

knew, however, that to be successful and achieve their goals, they had to

impose discipline on the project and upon their public sector partner. That

meant carefully analyzing the City’s conditions, and developing and adher

ingtoabusinessplanthatwouldmeetthoseconditionsandturnaprot

They needed to know how much money would be needed to build the sys

tem, when it would be required, how much revenue could reasonably be

expected, what contingencies needed to be built into the plan, how long the

projectwouldtakebeforeitwasprotablequestionsonwhichanycareful