Media Releases

New IMFG publication provides roadmap for better infrastructure planning

January 14, 2016

Toron­to, ON — On Jan­u­ary 21, join the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance (IMFG) and today’s lead­ing infra­struc­ture thinkers and prac­ti­tion­ers for a dis­cus­sion around the release of a new paper, Infra­struc­ture Cost Over­runs: Pat­terns, Caus­es and Cures.

Cost over­runs and sched­ule delays have plagued major infra­struc­ture projects for decades. Every year, unex­pect­ed over­runs cost gov­ern­ments tens, if not hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars, and indi­vid­ual project man­agers are first to be blamed. How­ev­er, this pat­tern shouldn’t come as much of a sur­prise. As the inter­na­tion­al evi­dence sug­gests, the big­ger the project, the more like­ly it will miss dead­lines and run over bud­get.

In the new IMFG Per­spec­tives Paper, Cost Over­runs on Infra­struc­ture Projects: Pat­terns, Caus­es and Cures, Mat­ti Siemi­aty­c­ki rec­om­mends five reme­dies, based on inter­na­tion­al best prac­tices.

  1. Use big data to mon­i­tor projects and report on cost over­runs.
  2. Draw on past expe­ri­ence to award con­tracts to the best-per­form­ing firms.
  3. Invest in train­ing pro­grams for gov­ern­ment staff.
  4. Use data from pre­vi­ous projects to cre­ate more pre­cise cost esti­mates.
  5. Take advan­tage of pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships for the largest projects.

Event Details

Jan­u­ary 21, 2016

4:30–6:00

Camp­bell Con­fer­ence Facil­i­ty, Munk School of Glob­al Affairs

1 Devon­shire Place

Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

Who

  • Mat­ti Siemi­aty­c­ki, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor
  • Ehren Cory, Infra­struc­ture Ontario, Divi­sion­al Pres­i­dent of Project Deliv­ery
  • James Purkis, Metrolinx, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent of Region­al Express Rail
  • Andy Man­a­han, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Res­i­den­tial and Civ­il Con­struc­tion Alliance of Ontario.

About the Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance (IMFG)

The Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance is a research hub and think tank that focus­es on the fis­cal and gov­er­nance chal­lenges fac­ing large cities and city-regions. It is locat­ed with­in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Sele­na Zhang
Man­ag­er, Pro­grams and Research
Insti­tute on Munic­i­pal Finance and Gov­er­nance
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
selena.zhang@utoronto.ca
416–978-2168
www.munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg