The numbers, some say, don't lie. If that's true, there can be little doubt that municipalities are likely to drive the next wave of public-private partnership projects -- where the private sector takes on the risk of designing, building, financing and, in some cases even operating, public infrastructure on behalf of government.

That's because the evidence is overwhelming that Canada's cities are facing a major infrastructure deficit for things such as roads, sewers and water facilities, which all fall under local government oversight, and they simply don't have the funds to carry out such projects.

Consider, for example, the following statistics, derived from the website of the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships.

The municipal infrastructure gap as a percentage of national GDP grew from 2.7% in 1984 to 5% in 2002. The current estimate to rehabilitate Canada's civil infrastructure system at the municipal level is $57-billion.

Canada's largest western cities -- Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton and Winnipeg -- reported a combined infrastructure deficit of $564-million in 2003.

To find out more, Julius Melnitzer quotes John Haythorne in his article "Big Digs" (The National Post, October 21, 2009).