The Liberal Party is hosting a roundtable forum on Parliament Hill today to examine what federal infrastructure programs mean for the jobs of today and for a more liveable, competitive Canada of tomorrow.
“The federal government has to make sure that its infrastructure spending is actually helping the economy and getting good value for Canadians,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. “From what we’ve seen so far, this is simply not happening, particularly when it comes to the creation of green infrastructure and the jobs of tomorrow.
“Today’s session will tell us the lessons learned from the past year and will do what the Conservative government should have done – listen to the experts, the industry and municipalities about how to build a sustainable vision and solve Canada’s infrastructure deficit far into the future.”
At today’s forum, leading experts will provide advice on how the federal government can supply transparent and sustainable leadership in cooperation with provinces and municipalities, and how to use our significant infrastructure needs to create advantages for Canadian industry and workers.
At $11 billion, federal infrastructure spending is one-third of the Conservatives’ economic stimulus plan. The session will consider the impact of late federal funding approvals, delayed job creation and the new risks of significant cost overruns resulting from failures to target funds to the most economically needy areas and setting artificial program deadlines.
“I think Canadians already have a sense that the Harper government’s announce-a-rama of projects and expensive advertisements essentially covers up poor performance in terms of job creation,” said Liberal Infrastructure and Communities Critic Gerard Kennedy, who is hosting today’s roundtable. “What they may not yet know is that they are likely to also end up paying more and getting less.”
The government’s March 31, 2011, deadline for completion of funded projects puts the pressure on municipalities to have their projects completed by that time or face the money being pulled back by the Conservatives. If that happens, municipal taxpayers will have to foot the bill.
This is grossly unfair, since partisan delays and erratic targeting at the federal level mean projects in some markets will actually take longer and/or cost the municipalities much more than predicted.
“The need for economic stimulus was an opportunity to take a jump forward in dealing with our long-term infrastructure deficit, but the Conservatives seem to have stumbled so far,“ Mr. Kennedy said. “We have neither short-terms jobs promised in last year’s budget nor long-term benefits through strategic investments in areas such as clean energy or environmental sustainability.”
While the United States committed $55 billion to green stimulus spending, in comparison Canada only allocated less than five per cent its budget to green stimulus.
