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About Catherine

Catherine's practice focuses on debt financing, project finance, construction, infrastructure and public-private partnerships (P3s).

Catherine regularly advises proponents of infrastructure projects throughout Canada, including in the transportation, social infrastructure, alternative energy, power and health-care sectors. She has also represented a wide variety of financial institutions in the financing of infrastructure assets, including bond underwriters, institutional investors, and both Canadian and international banks.

Catherine has extensive experience in operating and term credit facilities, asset-based financings, lease financings and structured financial products, and in structuring, negotiating and documenting domestic and cross-border financing transactions in the bank, private placement and public markets.

Catherine's experience also includes both secondary market acquisitions and project restructurings in the infrastructure sector.

Select Experience

Catherine's recent projects include:

  • Canada Infrastructure Bank Building Retrofits Initiative (BRI) – an energy-as-a-service provider delivering turnkey solutions for building owners to develop and implement decarbonization projects achieving financial close on a C$100-million investment toward decarbonizing buildings across the country

  • Highway 104 Sutherlands River to Antigonish Twinning Project – Advised the successful proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a four-lane divided highway corridor near Antigonish, Nova Scotia

  • Halton Region Consolidated Courthouse Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new courthouse in Oakville, Ontario

  • Macdonald Block Reconstruction Project – Advised the successful proponent (Fengate PCL Progress Partners MBR LP) on a C$1.5-billion P3 project to design, build, finance and maintain the Macdonald Block Complex, which comprises four towers and a podium near Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario; the financing for this project includes a senior credit facility and rated bonds

  • Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor Care Homes Project – Advised the successful proponent (NL Healthcare Partners) on a project to design, build, finance and maintain two long-term care facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador

  • Gordie Howe International Bridge Project – Advised the successful proponent (Bridging North America General Partnership, a partnership indirectly held by ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc., Fluor Canada Ltd. and Aecon Concessions, a division of Aecon Construction Group Inc.) on a C$3.8-billion P3 project to design, construct, finance, operate, maintain and rehabilitate the Gordie Howe International Bridge, a new publicly owned international bridge crossing between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan. The financing for this project includes rated bonds and a short-term credit facility. The Gordie Howe International Bridge Project is the largest and most ambitious binational infrastructure project along the Canada-United States border and one of the largest infrastructure projects in North America. It was named 2018 Road Deal of the Year at the Infrastructure Journal Global Awards, Transport Deal of the Year by Project Finance International and Outstanding Emerging Project by the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships

  • Nouvelle Autoroute 30 – Advised the finance parties in a cross-border bond issuance valued at approximately C$1.218-billion to refinance the project debt for the Autoroute 30 concession project. At time of closing, the bond issuance was considered the largest transportation P3 bond deal in Canadian history.

  • Advising Fengate Real Asset Investments on its C$100-million strategic co-development partnership with Greengate Power Corporation to pursue the acquisition and development of renewable and clean energy projects in Alberta

  • New Toronto Courthouse Project – Advised the successful proponent (EllisDon) on a C$956-million project to design, build, finance and maintain a large new courthouse in downtown Toronto, Ontario. The financing for this project includes short-term and long-term credit facilities

  • Howard County Courthouse Project – Advised a proponent on a landmark P3 in the state of Maryland in the U.S. to design, build, finance and maintain a large new courthouse

  • Royal Inland Hospital Project – Advised the successful proponent (EllisDon) on a C$288-million project to design, build, finance and maintain a new Patient Care Tower at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, British Columbia. The financing for this project includes rated bonds. The project was named 2018 North American Social Infrastructure Deal of the Year at the Infrastructure Journal Global Awards

  • Trillium Line Extension Project – Advised a team member of proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain an extension to the City of Ottawa’s existing light rail transit system

  • Hurontario LRT Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new light rail transit system along Hurontario Street in Mississauga and Brampton, Ontario

  • Confederation Line Extension Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build and finance an extension to the City of Ottawa's existing light rail transit system in Ottawa, Ontario

  • City of Vaughan LED Street Light Replacement Program – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new street lighting program in Vaughan, Ontario

  • H2O Power Limited Partnership – Advised the issuer of a C$400-million private placement of fixed-rate senior secured notes to finance the long-term operation of eight hydroelectric generating facilities in Ontario

  • Finch West LRT Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new light rail transit line in Toronto, Ontario

  • Corner Brook Long-Term Care Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a long-term-care facility in Corner Brook, Newfoundland

  • Abbotsford Courthouse Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new courthouse in Abbotsford, British Columbia

  • Southwest Calgary Ring Road Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new portion of the ring road in Calgary, Alberta

  • Enterprise Data Centre Expansion Project – Advised the successful proponent on a C$322-million project to design, build, finance and maintain a 50,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art, mission-critical operating data centre located at the Canadian Forces Base in Borden, Ontario

  • Edmonton LRT Project – Advised a proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain a new light rail transit line in Edmonton, Alberta

  • Stanton Territorial Hospital Project – Advised the successful proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain the new Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

  • Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford Project – Advised the successful proponent on a project for an integrated mental health hospital and correctional facility that has a development value of C$407-million

  • Saskatchewan Joint-Use Schools Project I – Advised the successful proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain six schools on three joint-use sites in Regina, Saskatchewan; the project will be delivered under a P3 model with the Government of Saskatchewan over a 30-year term and has a contract value of C$186-million

  • Saskatchewan Joint-Use Schools Project II – Advised the successful proponent on a project to design, build, finance and maintain 12 schools on six joint-use sites in the communities of Saskatoon, Warman and Martensville, Saskatchewan; the project will be delivered under a P3 model with the Government of Saskatchewan over a 30-year term and has a contract value of C$401.3-million

  • Haile Gold Mine – Advised the borrower on a US$200-million senior secured project finance facility for the development of Romarco's Haile Gold Mine project in South Carolina

Awards & Recognition

Catherine is recognized for her expertise in infrastructure/P3 and project finance in the following publications:

  • The Best Lawyers in Canada 2025 (Construction Law, Project Finance Law, Structured Finance Law)

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Energy and Mining 2024

  • Lexpert Special Edition: Infrastructure 2024

  • Chambers Canada: Canada's Leading Lawyers for Business 2024 (Band 1 – Projects: PPP & Infrastructure, Band 2 – Project Finance)

  • Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business 2024 (Band 1 – Projects: PPP & Infrastructure, Band 2 – Project Finance)

  • The Legal 500 Canada 2024 (Infrastructure Projects)

  • The 2024 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada (Project Finance)

  • Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers 2024 – Independently Rated Lawyers (As nominated by senior in-house counsel)

  • The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2023 (Most Frequently Recommended – Infrastructure Law and Project Finance)

  • IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial and Corporate Law Firms 2023 (Highly Regarded – Project Finance)

  • Who's Who Legal: Canada 2023 (Project Finance, Government Contracts)

  • IFLR1000 Women Leaders 2022 (Project Finance – Canada)

  • Who's Who Legal: Global 2022 (Government Contracts)

Professional Activities

Catherine is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where she has taught an LLM course in the law and policy of public private partnerships. She is also a faculty member of Osgoode Hall Law School Professional Development's certificate program in public-private partnerships, among other courses.

Education

Admitted to the New York Bar – 2022
LLM, Osgoode Hall Law School – 2008
Admitted to the Ontario Bar – 2006
LLB, University of British Columbia – 2005
MA, University of Toronto – 1995
BSFS, Georgetown University – 1994

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