Over the past decade, the current Liberal government has launched a number of programs in the infrastructure domain, and notably to assist municipalities to upgrade their capital stocks. The first program - the $2.0-billion Canada Infrastructure Works Program - was announced in the 1994 budget. However, it was not until 2000, that calls for increased federal assistance for the purposes of municipal infrastructure began to pay dividends in the form of the creation of a number of new programs, some of which included:
• In the 2000 budget, the creation of the $2.05 billion Infrastructure Canada Program, a $600 million Strategic Highway Infrastructure Program, and a $200 million Green Municipal Investment Fund.
• In the 2001 budget, a $2.0 billion Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund and a $600 million Border Infrastructure Fund. At the same time, the government also announced that it would venture back into the housing arena for the first time in more than two decades by establishing a $680-million Affordable Housing Program.
• In the 2003 budget, additional infrastructure funding of $3 billion was announced over 10 years - a long-term commitment that would provide increased reliability and predictability. Of that amount, $2.0 billion would be used to top up the Strategic Infrastructure Fund, and an additional $ 1 billion would be directed to a new Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund. Furthermore, an additional $320 million over five years was also earmarked toward the Affordable Housing Program.
Nonetheless, this increased involvement since 2000 has not stopped at funding only - there have also been meaningful changes implemented to governance and basic policy. For example, in 2002, the government established Infrastructure Canada (INFC) to administer and co-ordinate infrastructure programs and to provide research and strategic policy development, and in December 2003, appointed a Minister of State (Infrastructure).
In spite of the actions taken since 2000, the federal government has still fallen short of the lofty expectations that have been placed on it by many Canadians. First, international comparisons often bandied about have continued to cast federal assistance in Canada in an unfavourable light - notably, the fact that the roughly $12 billion or so allocated to the federal infrastructure programs over the past decade still represents roughly one-twentieth of the amount put aside by the U.S. federal government in its transportation infrastructure program alone (i.e., the US$217 billion TEA-21 initiative), not to mention the equally impressive centrally-funded programs in the European Union. But, while cross-border comparisons can be dicey, particularly when the differing taxation and spending responsibilities across countries are taken into account, what is clear is that Canadian federal support for infrastructure has been slipping over the past few years. In particular, the total amount set aside in the 2003 budget for infrastructure worked out to be $300 million per year - considerably less than the average tally of $1 billion per year that the federal government had been effectively spending on infrastructure in the 1993-2002 period. Meanwhile, several other spending areas - notably, health care - have received increased attention over the past few years.
Worse still, a good part of the funds booked in the infrastructure programs to date have already largely been committed, leaving little money left for additional projects. Even one half of the $2 billion set aside in the 2003 budget for large, strategic projects has been dedicated. The same thing can be said of the border infrastructure fund, where $500 million of the $600-million total has already been spoken for.