Jan 24, 2013
A new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the "underinvestment in infrasturucture is not a crisis but a chronic problem in Canada." The study calls for another $300 billion over the next 10 years - on top of current spending - to return infrastructure spending to historic levels. The centre says investment declined from the 1950s until stimulus programs were introduced in the mid-2000s.
The study, by research associate Hugh Mackenzie, suggests the federal government has moved responsibility for infrastructure spending to municipalities, and that the underinvestment has cost $145 billion in missing infrastructure.
“When it comes to Canada’s physical infrastructure, the federal government has the money; the provincial governments have the constitutional authority; and local governments have the responsibility for making the actual investments,” Mackenzie says. “But the shift in responsibility for public capital investment from senior governments to local governments has not been matched by corresponding increases in transfer payments.”
Read the news release.
Read the study.
The study, by research associate Hugh Mackenzie, suggests the federal government has moved responsibility for infrastructure spending to municipalities, and that the underinvestment has cost $145 billion in missing infrastructure.
“When it comes to Canada’s physical infrastructure, the federal government has the money; the provincial governments have the constitutional authority; and local governments have the responsibility for making the actual investments,” Mackenzie says. “But the shift in responsibility for public capital investment from senior governments to local governments has not been matched by corresponding increases in transfer payments.”
Read the news release.
Read the study.
