Bradley Fauteux on Building Public-Private Partnerships for Long-Term Success

Public-private partnerships have become an increasingly common model for delivering hospitals, transit systems, educational facilities, and other public assets. While procurement establishes the framework for a partnership, the operational phase is where that partnership is tested over multiple decades. During that time, public agencies and private partners are expected to maintain strict performance standards, plan capital renewals, manage risk, and respond to changing public needs.

Bradley Fauteux has worked on both sides of that equation. He currently serves as Vice President at Colliers Project Leaders in Toronto and previously led P3 asset management across Canada and the United States for ENGIE, now EQUANS, where he was responsible for strategic delivery and operations of healthcare, transportation, education, and cultural infrastructure. Before entering the infrastructure sector, Fauteux served as Managing Director of Ontario Parks.

“People often think infrastructure projects end when construction is complete, and it’s important you have a great partner like Colliers Project Leaders helping you to deliver both cost and schedule certainty, but delivering an asset or facility is only the beginning,” says Fauteux. “The bigger challenge is building partnerships that can continue working together effectively long after the project enters service.”

Looking Beyond Construction

Asset management places executives in a different position from those responsible for designing or building a project.

Throughout Fauteux’s career, his work has involved monitoring operational performance across multiple jurisdictions, reviewing contractual obligations, lifecycle planning, maintenance programs, and service delivery, in collaboration with both public owners and private operating teams.

“A transit facility, a hospital, and a university campus each operate differently,” he says. “I’ve found that maintaining consistency comes from being clear about the outcome you’re trying to achieve and making sure the partners give each other enough flexibility to respond to the realities of operating the asset.”

He says discussions frequently extend beyond technical issues.

“Some of the most productive discussions happened before anyone considered there to be a problem. By the time an issue shows up in a performance report, your options may already be narrower. The earlier people are willing to raise concerns, the more likely they are to find practical solutions together.

This is best accomplished through building a strong relationship between the delivery partners and client. This relationship needs to go beyond the contract and instead focus on the best outcomes and the most reasonable and effective process to get there. Contracts drafted years before operations actually started can’t be the only basis for working together.  The relationship matters most.”

Experience Built in Ontario Parks

Years before working in infrastructure, Fauteux managed one of Canada’s largest park systems.

As Managing Director of Ontario Parks, he oversaw operations across more than 110 provincial parks, an annual operating budget exceeding $80 million, an annual capital budget of approximately $20 million, and an asset base valued at roughly $1 billion. The organization also worked with more than 300 Indigenous, municipal, community, intergovernmental, and private-sector partners while serving millions of visitors each year.

Managing such a diverse operation required balancing environmental protection, visitor services, infrastructure maintenance, public safety, and financial accountability.

“No two parks operated under identical circumstances,” says Fauteux. “Northern parks, southern parks, high-volume destinations, and remote locations each required different operational decisions. Central standards are important, but the people closest to the operation are often in the best position to recognize changes before they become larger issues.”

Coordinating the Mid-Canada Line Project

One project from Bradley Fauteux’s time with Ontario Parks continues to guide his thinking on partnerships.

The approximately $85 million Mid-Canada Line environmental remediation project required coordination across Ontario Parks, First Nations communities, regional operations, and the Department of National Defence. Work took place across northern Ontario in areas with significant environmental and logistical considerations.

“The project brought together organizations with different mandates and different ways of making decisions,” says Fauteux. “What kept the work moving was that everyone understood and agreed on how decisions would be made, even when priorities weren’t identical.”

He says the experience reinforced the importance of establishing governance early in a project’s life.

“I’ve come to see governance as a way of making good decisions more repeatable,” he says. “When roles and decision-making processes are understood early, people spend less time figuring out how to move an issue forward and more time addressing the issue itself.”

Organizational Change Carries Similar Lessons

Fauteux has led organizational transformation in several executive roles, including the redesign of Ontario’s Private Career Colleges Branch and the restructuring of Ontario Parks.

He recalls that organizational change demanded the same disciplined communication found in successful partnerships.

“When an organization changes its structure, people immediately want to understand how responsibilities are changing, what success will look like, and how decisions will be made. Leadership has to answer those questions clearly and consistently throughout implementation to ensure everyone is on board and understands their roles.”

Aligning Diverse Interests

Fauteux sees clear connections between environmental management and infrastructure, despite the sectors’ fundamental differences. In both fields, successful partnerships depend on organizations with different priorities finding common ground around shared objectives.

“Every major initiative brings together multiple organizations with legitimate interests in the outcome,” he says. “Progress usually begins when people spend as much time understanding the other parties’ perspectives as they do explaining their own.”

Long-Term Performance Defines Success

Ultimately, Bradley Fauteux believes public-private partnerships should be evaluated through the quality of service delivered over their operating life.

“A facility may remain in service for decades,” he says. “Over that time, almost everything around it will change. The organizations that perform best over the long term are the ones that can adapt without continually redefining what success is supposed to look like.”

Drawing on leadership experience across government, conservation, consulting, and infrastructure, Fauteux has found that delivering infrastructure is only the beginning. Long-term success depends on strong partnerships, disciplined governance, and the ability to adapt over decades of operations.

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash