A coalition of construction companies says Quebec could save $14 billion over the next 10 years by cleaning up its public contracting procedures and, above all, by instituting professional and competent project management.

Two major construction associations and two independent institutions, the Montreal chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI-Montreal) and the Centre for Expertise and Research on Urban Infrastructure (CERIU) are joining forces to bring attention to the issues.

“If the best practices in project management – we’re talking about project management in terms of work planning, cost control, human resources management, but also involving stakeholders, such as certain partners, whether contractors, consulting engineers or project managers, and better-managed procurement – by doing so, the risks or delays, all of that will be better mitigated,” said Kateri Normandeau, president of PMI-Montreal, in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The $14 billion figure is based on an international study by PMI Global, which shows that the implementation of good project management practices can optimize financial resources by 10 per cent. However, the Plan québécois des infrastructures 2022-2032 provides for investments of $142.5 billion, hence the figure of $14 billion.

The figure is, therefore, probably underestimated since the same logic applies to public contracts at other levels of government.

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