Assessing the Determinants of Heterogeneous Value for Money Savings in Canadian Public-Private Partnerships

Value for Money (VfM) assessments play a critical role in determining whether a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) should be pursued over traditional project delivery methods. Despite its central importance, VfM has traditionally been treated as a binary outcome, either positive or negative, used to justify PPP adoption. This approach overlooks the strategic implications of the magnitude of VfM savings, which can determine the resilience of PPPs against renegotiations and deviations from planned risk allocations. Using a dataset of 67 PPP projects spanning various sectors in Canada, this study examines how key procurement characteristics affect VfM achievement. Specifically, it explores the roles of the number of bidders, the investment year, and the GDP per capita of the province of the project location. Findings reveal that higher VfM savings are systematically associated with competitive bidding, institutional maturity, and favorable macroeconomic conditions, factors that not only improve cost efficiency but also enhance the strategic defensibility of PPPs over traditional alternatives such as design-bid-build (DBB). These findings provide policymakers and practitioners with key guidance for maximizing VfM in Canadian PPPs, treating it as a nuanced, context-dependent measure.