Who will own the roads?
By: Dan Keegan
Date: 2015-06-17
Highway megaprojects and foreign ownership are a hot topic that's only going to get hotter, because it affects the quality of our roads and how much it will cost us to drive on them.
A unique book about Ontario's Hwy 407 toll road offers invaluable insights into how these projects develop and the rationale behind international participation in enterprises that were once the pregrogative of local and national governments.
The book unveils the political intrigue and financial imperatives behind "the world's first all-electronic, open-access toll highway"
The authors titled their book " If you build it ... ," and the connection to the famous quote from the 1989 Field of Dreams movie is tenuous but instructive. Sometimes building a highway megaproject is an act of faith.
The connection between movie character Ray Kinsella's vision for a top-class baseball field in the middle of nowhere and the vision of a hi-tech motorway in suburban Ontario may be tenuous but not far-fetched. Ray (played by Kevin Costner) didn't know if the legendary baseball players would actually come, but they did. Highway megaproject planners are in the same boat, although they have considerably more science, and futuristic common sense, on their side.
The highway which is the subject of "If you build it ... " has been controversial in more ways than one: It involved state-of-the-art electronic tolling technology which was developed specially for the highway, it is financed by tolls in a region in which tolling is unusual, it is privatised, and the private operator is an international consortium.
It also involved a political controversy, and one which will dog the efforts of the many other such megaprojects which are likely to follow - the accusation that politicians sold out the public interest for short-term gain.
The ironical twist
The books authors are Chandran Mylvaganam and Sandford Borins. They were both heavily involved in the 407 planning process.
Mylvaganam was a chief of staff to three Ontario transport ministers and is now a Professor of Management at Northwood University in Michigan. Borins was on the board of the Ontario Transportation Capital Corporation (a crown corporation responsible for building Highway 407) for three years and is a Professor of Public Management at the University of Toronto.
One of the great ironies of megaprojects and privatisation, the authors point out, is that the public sector, which is charged with the public interest, is normally assumed to have the long-term public good at the core of its thinking. However, they note, a more cynical view is that the time horizons of politicians does not extend beyond the end of their mandates. Major corporate entities, on the other hand, can effectively look to the long-term benefits that can accrue.
Political intrigue and bureaucratic reality
While the original plans for the 407 highway were hatched way back in the 1950s (when land acquisitions began), the highway did not open until 1999. The Ontario government which pushed the project to fruition in the early 1990s was left wing and not at all set on privatization. The government which rushed through the privatisation process was conservative, and it has been accused of selling out in the interests of balancing a budget prior to an election.
Mylvaganam and Borins offer a unique insight into the difficulties of any government planning a megaproject. Their analysis of the political intrigue and bureaucratic realities of bringing a megaproject to fruition is a must-read for anyone with a stake in road transportation.
It's also a very interesting read for anyone who uses roads a lot and wants to develop an educated opinion about an issue that is destined to become increasingly intense over the coming decade - the pricing and privatisation of the roads we drive on.
Footnote:
Mylvaganam and Borins consider the 407 megaproject to have been a successful one. The highway now stretches 108 kilometres (about 68 miles), skirting metropolitan Toronto and running vaguely parallel to Highway 401, the provinces main traffic artery.
Tolling is fully electronic and there are no toll booths. Drivers who don't purchase transponders to automatically record their usage have their licence plates scanned by sophisticated cameras. They receive a bill in the mail, and it includes extra administrative charges. Drivers who don't pay will not be able to renew their license plate registration until they pay up!
Tolling began in October 1997. More than 210,000 transponders have been distributed as of February 2006.
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