Marianne Smith

Practice Areas

Marianne has over 20 years of experience in the areas of public procurement, public infrastructure, construction and public-private partnerships. She advises clients on the development, preparation and ongoing administration of public tenders and procurement processes, and the development and negotiation of commercial agreements for the design, construction, financing and maintenance of infrastructure.

Marianne is a leading expert on the procurement chapters of the trade agreements to which Canada is a party and is routinely called upon by clients to conduct in-house training on best practices in managing procurement processes in Canada.

Marianne acts for domestic and international clients in a wide range of sectors, including transit and transportation, civil infrastructure, roads and bridges, water and wastewater, health-care services, information technology, gaming, energy and mining. She also regularly acts for both procuring entities and bidders with respect to conducting a successful procurement process, fairness issues, mitigating procurement risk and avoiding compliance issues. In particular, Marianne has expertise in the procurement of mega infrastructure development projects and alternative finance and procurement projects across multiple jurisdictions, including municipal, provincial, federal and international and has been at the forefront of many municipal PPP projects.

Marianne is leading the Blakes team on a number of major projects including Metrolinx’s GO Rail Expansion Project and Hamilton Light Rail Project, the City of Toronto’s F.G. Gardiner Expressway Rehabilitation Project, VIA Rail on its acquisition of new fleet for its Long Distance, Regional and Remote Services, and Infrastructure Ontario on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Project.