Abbotsford MP Ed Fast said on Friday that municipalities are not restricted to public-private partnership arrangements to get federal funding for infrastructure work, but added there are no alternatives today due to federal fiscal restraints.

"Not right now. Which is not to say they're won't be in the future. But I don't anticipate anything in the short term," said Fast.

Three years ago the federal government allocated $30 billion, about half of which were gas tax revenues, for economic stimulus in the Building Canada Fund.

Those dollars went to shovelready infrastructure projects to get the country through the 2008 recession and its fall-out. The fund benefited Abbotsford with more than $50 million dollars to upgrade the McCallum and Clearbrook freeway exchanges and the Abbotsford International Airport runway.

"That fund was to get us through the recession. That money's all spent," Fast said.

However at the same time, Ottawa created Public-Private Partnerships Canada, a Crown corporation modeled on similar structures in B.C. and other provinces. It has a fund of $1.2 billion set aside for communities that choose to go the public-private route, said Fast.

The proposed P3 projects are tightly scrutinized to ensure they show added value for municipal-ity taxpayers over the conventional model of municipal-run projects, he said.

As for P3 critics' suggestions that Abbotsford was co-erced or blackmailed into choosing a P3 in order to get federal cash, Fast said "Categorically not."

"It's patently ludicrous that somehow we forced them. It was Abbotsford's choice, and they thought it was the best way to go," he said.

If Abbotsford voters reject the P3 model for the Stave Lake water project and federal funds of $65 million - which they did in a referendum on Saturday - Fast wasn't optimistic about non-P3 dollars being available soon

"The prospects of money for infrastructure projects is not good," said Fast.

Ottawa plans to cut five to 10 per cent (in spending) across all the ministries, he said. The federal government still aims to balance its budget in 2014-15, and with worldwide fiscal uncertainty, "we're feeling the pinch, too."

CToth@abbotsfordtimes.com