QUESTION PERIOD — Infrastructure and Communities
Canada Infrastructure Bank
November 21, 2024
Government leader, your government’s Canada Infrastructure Bank has been operational since the 2017-18 fiscal year. Since then, it has been a complete failure and a total waste of taxpayers’ dollars. On Tuesday, a written response was tabled in the Senate to one of my questions on the Order Paper. It shows that, in 2022, almost $6.8 million in bonuses was handed out to the staff at the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
Outrageous.
Last year, that amount hit $8.1 million — just in bonuses.
Leader, you don’t like it when we say, “It’s not worth the cost.” How can you possibly justify these bonuses at the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which has produced zero infrastructure?
Thank you for your question.
Bonuses paid to senior employees, whether in the public or private sector, are negotiated as part of their overall compensation packages. I have no information about the targets or metrics that were applied to them and for which those amounts were paid out.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank was set up and is designed to provide an opportunity to accelerate much-needed construction for Canada’s infrastructure, which had been neglected for far too long. It works in partnership with the private sector and the public sector.
Projects of important scale take time to develop, and market forces also play a role in that pace, but the government remains convinced that it is a necessary tool to help advance Canada’s goals.
Leader, the metrics that you used to negotiate were, “Do nothing, produce nothing and we’ll give you a bonus.” The Canada Infrastructure Bank hasn’t completed one project. It burns through money, lacks transparency and has been plagued by scandals. It hasn’t attracted the private sector investment we were promised, either — far from it.
Does that sound like success to you, leader? Two and a half years ago, a House committee said it should be abolished. Why hasn’t it been?
The Liberal Party set it up.
Again, the Canada Infrastructure Bank was designed to provide an additional platform through which important investments could be made. The government remains hopeful that it will fulfill that premise.
