QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities
Canada Infrastructure Bank
April 25, 2023
Minister, welcome to the Senate of Canada.
In the lead-up to the creation of the Canada Infrastructure Bank in 2017, we were told by your government that the bank would attract $4 to $5 of private investment for every dollar of government funding. As you know, this has not been the case — far from it, in fact. When the CEO of the Infrastructure Bank appeared before our Senate’s National Finance Committee in February, he told us that he believed that it would take decades to move to the 4-to-1 ratio.
When you appeared in a House committee in February of last year, you acknowledged you weren’t satisfied with the bank’s ability to raise funds from private investors. Therefore, minister, since you weren’t satisfied with the bank’s ability to raise funds from the private sector, have you asked the Infrastructure Bank when they expect to reach the 4-to-1 ratio? If so, what did they tell you? If you didn’t ask them, why didn’t you?
Thank you, senator. Of course, I asked them. I had a lengthy meeting last Tuesday with both the Infrastructure Bank CEO and the board chair, Ms. Tamara Vrooman. We went over exactly that kind of question and others.
I still share the disappointment that a number of people have expressed regarding the ability of the Infrastructure Bank to leverage in the proportions that — you’re absolutely right, senator — were announced in the budget decision that created the bank. The ratios have not been reached yet.
I think the bank — and I’ve said so publicly — has had some growing pains. It was slow to get moving; it has been slow to stand up. I see and I hear from premiers, mayors and people in the energy sector of examples where it is becoming more accessible, more obvious and more available as a potential source of funding, but I still think they have work to do. I’ve shared that with the bank.
I am encouraged by the fact that they have now attracted almost $9.7 billion in private and institutional investments, and they have advanced work on 46 projects.
It’s never fast enough. Many of those are multi-year projects that require a considerable ramp-up. Regardless, I certainly share the concerns of Canadians that this is an interesting investment vehicle, but one that needs to be deployed more rapidly and more visibly.
I’ll continue to work with the bank. We’re going to name new directors, I hope, in the coming weeks as well, and that will certainly be my message to them.
