UPDATE ON INFRASTRUCTURE Report of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities The Honourable Judy A. Sgro, Chair JUNE 2018 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION The proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees are hereby made available to provide greater public access. The parliamentary privilege of the House of Commons to control the publication and broadcast of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees is nonetheless reserved. All copyrights therein are also reserved. Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and in any medium, is hereby permitted provided that the reproduction is accurate and is not presented as official. This permission does not extend to reproduction, distribution or use for commercial purpose of financial gain. 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STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITIES CHAIR Hon. Judy A. Sgro VICE-CHAIRS Kelly Block Robert Aubin MEMBERS Vance Badawey Ron Liepert Hon. Michael D. Chong Karen McCrimmon* Sean Fraser Marc Miller* Ken Hardie Gagan Sikand Angelo Iacono OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO PARTICIPATED Colin Carrie Churence Rogers Peter Fragiskatos Kim Rudd Colin Fraser Brigitte Sansoucy Emmanuella Lambropoulos Bev Shipley Kelly McCauley Sven Spengemann Hon. Robert D. Nault * Non-voting member, pursuant to Standing Order 104(5). iii CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE Marie-France Lafleur LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Information and Research Service Geneviève Gosselin, Analyst Nicole Sweeney, Analyst iv THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITIES has the honour to present its TWENTY-FIFTH REPORT Pursuant to its mandate under Standing Order 108(2), the Committee has studied an update on infrastructure projects and the Investing in Canada Plan and has agreed to report the following: v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................. 1 UPDATE ON INFRASTRUCTURE ....................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 3 BACKGROUND................................................................................................................................... 3 Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Impact of Infrastructure Spending Delays ...................................................................... 4 INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS IN CANADA .................................................................................. 5 WHAT CAUSES DELAYS IN INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING? .......................................... 7 Challenges Faced by Federal Government...................................................................... 7 The Role of the Provinces ............................................................................................... 7 Timing of Invoicing ........................................................................................................... 8 Due Diligence ...................................................................................................................... 8 Challenges Faced by Municipalities ................................................................................... 8 Capacity ................................................................................................................................. 9 Process Requirements .................................................................................................. 10 Differing Provincial and Municipal Priorities...................................................... 11 Project-Based Funding ................................................................................................. 12 Other Factors ................................................................................................................... 13 UPDATE ON CURRENT SPENDING ........................................................................................ 13 Current projects ..................................................................................................................... 13 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 13 Specific Projects .............................................................................................................. 14 Future Spending ..................................................................................................................... 15 Data Quality ...................................................................................................................... 15 National Development .................................................................................................. 16 Urban Strategy ................................................................................................................. 17 vii Timing of Funding .......................................................................................................... 17 Greenhouse Gas Emissions ......................................................................................... 18 Improving Program Transition ................................................................................. 18 Fewer Small Projects .................................................................................................... 19 Process Requirements .................................................................................................. 19 New Metrics ...................................................................................................................... 19 Is Infrastructure Spending an Effective Tool for Economic Stimulus? ............. 19 THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN FOR FUTURE INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING .......... 20 Public-Private Partnerships .............................................................................................. 20 Role of the Canada Infrastructure Bank ....................................................................... 21 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................. 22 Funding .............................................................................................................................. 22 Data ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Pan-Canadian Development ....................................................................................... 23 Resilient and Agile Infrastructure Investment ................................................... 24 Appendix A: List of Witnesses ................................................................................................................ 25 Appendix B: List of Briefs ......................................................................................................................... 29 Request for Government Response ..................................................................................................... 31 Supplementary Opinion the Conservative Party of Canada ...................................................... 33 Supplementary Opinion of the New Democratic Party of Canada ......................................... 35 viii LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS As a result of their deliberations, committees