Building Canada - Modern Infrastructure for a Strong Canada - Introduction
Introduction
Total Investments by All Orders of Government
Investment in Public Infrastructure Has Been Declining as a Percentage of GDP
Note: Infrastructure is defined as fixed non-residential building and engineering of federal, provincial, territorial and local public administrations.
Source: Department of Finance Canada.
Building Canada is the blueprint for building a modern and prosperous Canada - a Canada equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Building Canada plan is a vision for a stronger, safer and better Canada built upon a foundation of modern, world-class public infrastructure, focused on national goals for a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and better communities.
Building Canada provides for a federal investment of $33 billion over seven years through to 2014 - the largest single federal commitment to public infrastructure of this type. This historic initiative will support the quality and level of public infrastructure that Canada requires to keep pace with the demands of a changing world - a world of competitive global trade, increasing urbanization and pronounced environmental realities. Strong and modern infrastructure is an essential building block for Canada's competitiveness and long–term prosperity for Canadians, whether they live in large cities or small communities.
Failure to make significant progress towards bridging the infrastructure gap could prove costly in terms of congestion, unreliable supply lines, blunted competitiveness, and growing environmental problems, with all the implications for living standards and quality of life.
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Infrastructure to 2030: Main Findings and Policy Recommendations, Multi-Disciplinary Issues, April 2007)
But population and economic growth are combining to increasingly overburden Canada's public infrastructure. The requirement to upgrade and replace public infrastructure stock is growing urgent.
Canadians look to their governments to provide safe and efficient infrastructure. They rightly expect all orders of government to collaborate to fulfill this fundamental responsibility. This is precisely what Building Canada is meant to do. The plan will guide the country through strategic, smartly-funded and executed infrastructure investments that will drive economic growth, enhance the quality of the environment and strengthen communities across the country.
Age of Infrastructure (Years)
Source: Civil Infrastructure Systems, Technology Road Map 2003–2013, June 2003
There is broad agreement that a large (infrastructure) debt exists, that it is growing, and that traditional approaches to infrastructure financing, funding and delivery are incapable of addressing it. It has also been argued that the infrastructure debt threatens Canada's future economic prosperity and quality of life.
(Canada West Foundation, Foundations for Prosperity: Creating a Sustainable Municipal-Provincial Partnership to Meet the Infrastructure Challenge of Alberta's 2nd Century, 2004)
Average Age of Asset Types (Age in Years)
Source: Statistics Canada, Special tabulation, Investment and Capital Stock Division
By 2003, the roads and highways network already had over 50 percent of its useful life behind it, and federal and provincial bridges had passed the halfway mark of their useful life. In contrast, municipal bridges were younger, and had only 41 percent of their useful lives behind them.
(Statistics Canada, The Daily, January 30, 2006)
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