Federal, provincial and municipal budgets and program announcements signaling increased investment in, and focus on, Canada's public infrastructure are welcome news in light of recent reports on Canada's "infrastructure gap".
Through its 2016 budget, the federal government set out its plan to invest over $120 billion in public infrastructure over a ten-year period, including approximately $60 billion in new infrastructure funding, focused on public transit systems, social infrastructure and water, wastewater and green infrastructure. Since that time, it has been progressively releasing further details on how it intends to implement that plan. Phase 1 of the federal plan proposed to provide $11.9 billion over up to five years for immediate investment, with Phase 2 seeing the implementation of longer-term elements of the federal plan, such as the anticipated creation of an infrastructure bank, capitalized with both federal and private sector funds.
A number of Canadian provinces have also outlined ambitious funding programs for new and existing public infrastructure through recent budgets, including Ontario investing more than $137 billion over the next 10 years; Québec providing close to $89 billion over 10 years; Alberta confirming nearly $35 billion over five years; and British Columbia allocating $12 billion over three years.
Investment in public infrastructure provides significant social, economic and financial opportunities and rewards for stakeholders. However, there are a number of challenges currently faced by the infrastructure sector (government and private sector) including:
- Uncertainty from the changing and competing policy priorities as an influence on project selection and uncertainty over shared or allocated jurisdictional responsibilities amongst the participating governmental authorities.
- Uncertainty associated with changing infrastructure priorities, programs, conditions and the timing for accessing public/private funding.
- Uncertain allocation of decision-making control over project selection, prioritization, procurement and project implementation oversight.
- Uncertainty regarding the project pipeline – which projects, why, when and how.
- Evolving views as between jurisdictions regarding the selection of the optimum project delivery models on a project-by-project basis (P3s and other).
Continued strong participation in, and support of, public infrastructure projects will depend, in part, on the governmental authorities successfully addressing these and other related matters.
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