Getting nation-building infrastructure done
CPCS co-CEO Marc-André Roy reflects on Canada’s ambitions to deliver major projects of national significance.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt that the days of new truly nation-building infrastructure projects in Canada were over.
This sentiment was echoed by a former Canadian premier who recounted that international investors saw Canada as having great infrastructure ambitions, but that these ambitions were, to a significant extent, unmatched by our ability to get big projects done.
The reasons are many and well known – lengthy reviews and approvals, involving layers of regulatory hurdles that Michael Sabia described as akin to a “stack of pancakes”.
A new era of possibility
It’s early days, but I feel genuine optimism and excitement that Canada may be back in the business of major nation-building infrastructure projects.
The objectives, outlined in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mandate letter to his cabinet to address “the generational challenge facing the country”, are clear and echoed in the proposed Building Canada Act: enhance Canada’s economy, sovereignty and security.
This requires new economic development and trade corridors that connect different parts of the country, infrastructure that can unlock development of Canadian natural resources and energy, and that strengthen Canada’s ability to trade competitively with the rest of the world.
We’ve seen and heard similar aspirational ambitions in the past, but the present context is different and driving a collective will — across jurisdictions, political parties, and stakeholder groups — to work together to shape a more prosperous and sustainable future.
We’re already seeing provinces and the federal government taking steps to lay the groundwork to do this. Initiatives to remove inter-provincial trade barriers, plans to designate projects of national significance, to set up a federal Major Projects Office, and reduce project approval times are examples.
From vision to action
It won’t be easy.
Identifying, approving, and delivering major nation-building infrastructure projects – particularly across cross jurisdictional lines – is hard in the best of times. It will require compromises, trade-offs, and sacrifices.
But it can be done, and done well when appropriately guided, informed and governed, and with the right partnerships, as we’ve seen in the delivery of nation-building infrastructure projects elsewhere around the globe.
Among the potential nation-building projects — all in different stages of planning — that are being talked about:
- Ontario’s Ring of Fire mining development
- Alto high-speed rail project between Toronto and Quebec City
- Nova Scotia’s Wind West renewable energy project
- New oil pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast
- New nuclear facilities
- East-West power transmission lines
- Additional rail and coastal port capacity
- Northern and arctic infrastructure
Hard questions, real choices
These are among the handful of key questions that leaders will need to get a handle on to succeed in getting nation-building infrastructure done well and quickly to enable our country’s long-term collective ambitions.
- What are the priorities that will do the most to unlock our ambitions in the short-to-medium term?
- What trade-offs are needed?
- Do some of these projects have fatal flaws that will mean that they either won’t get done, or worse, will get done and won’t deliver their intended benefits?
- Which truly deliver on market needs and legitimate resilience-enabling options for the likes of shippers that will sustain beyond what may be a relatively short trade war?
- How can we use this opportunity to truly deliver a new way of engaging and cooperating to get to broad buy-in across the country, including with Indigenous communities?
- How do we make sure we get project procurement, contracting, and execution right — to deliver projects as quickly and affordably as reasonably possible — and realize the intended project benefits?
A team Canada moment
The will is there to build big things that will move the needle on Canada’s economy, sovereignty, security, and on Canada’s long-term prosperity more broadly.
A “Team Canada” vision is starting to take shape for that infrastructure agenda. The coming months will set the course for this vision and ultimately set the path to delivering game changing infrastructure.
It’s an exciting time to be in infrastructure in Canada. We love this stuff and my CPCS colleagues and I are ready to help.
