A quarter century of under-investment has left Canada's public infrastructure - which includes transit systems, roads, highways, bridges, water and water works, educational facilities, and hospitals - in a weakened state. Yet, after four to five years of renewed government capital spending, momentum to address this problem is already losing steam. Finance ministers are currently facing a tightening fiscal noose, as revealed in the 2004 round of budgets. And, with no end in sight to the continual upward pressure on health care costs, competition for scarce public resources is unlikely to let up in the years ahead. In such an environment, infrastructure tends to lose out to other areas of government funding. Meanwhile, Canada's infrastructure pothole continues to deepen.
Although the negative impacts of inadequate public infrastructure are only starting to mount - and become visible to Canadians on a day-to-day basis - we believe that ongoing neglect of the nation's capital stock presents one of the greatest risks to the country's overall quality of life. With the state of a region's infrastructure weighing more heavily on location decisions of highly-mobile businesses and individuals, a deteriorating capital stock will increasingly cut into gains in productivity and living standards. The economy is only part of the picture, however. Without an excellent system of public assets, it will be become difficult to ensure that the health, safety and security of the region's residents will be protected.