OTTAWA – The Conservative government is set to announce on Thursday the guidelines for municipalities to apply for the $14 billion Building Canada Fund.
The 10-year infrastructure fund was announced in last year’s budget. The money will be used for national and local projects.
Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel is set to make the announcement, sources say.
The move comes after some expressed disappointment the details of the fund were not included in this year’s budget.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty assured Wednesday the fund will be sufficient.
“Spending is not linear. It’s like a hockey stick,” he said.
“It’s not like…a billion a year, it’s really hundreds of thousands of dollars then billions going forward.”
He added the P3 Canada fund, a public-private partnership fund, has been helpful to a number of cities in building various types of infrastructure.
When asked why municipalities hadn’t yet received the funding, Flaherty replied: “The current program is just expiring, a new program is just commencing, so I don’t know why anyone would have expected to get money under the new program before it even starts.
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