Joe Oliver says Ontario is delaying $11B in infrastructure funding

TORONTO – Finance Minister Joe Oliver says the Ontario government is causing delays in the federal government’s plan to devote nearly $11 billion to infrastructure investments in the province over the coming years.

Oliver said Monday he’s still waiting for the Liberal government to submit its list of preferred infrastructure projects under the Building Canada Plan, which is designed to give predictable long-term funding to provinces and territories.

In a speech at a public-private partnership conference, Oliver said provincial governments must submit their list of priority projects before the money can roll out as part of an 11-year funding plan.

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“Unfortunately we are experiencing a delay under the provincial-territorial component of the Building Canada Plan,” he told the conference in Toronto.

“The government of Ontario has yet to put forward its submission. We hope to receive it soon.”

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Ontario’s Minister for Economic Development Brad Duguid shot back at Oliver in a statement Monday afternoon accusing the federal government of being “missing in action.”

“This Federal Government is short changing provinces when it comes to infrastructure funding.  Minister Joe Oliver’s complaints about the system, that his government set up in the first place, are just a smokescreen for the fact that they aren’t investing enough in infrastructure,” Duguid said in a statement.

He went on to point out the Ontario government is investing five times more per capita in infrastructure than the federal government – mostly in transit.

The federal government doesn’t have an official deadline for submissions, although Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Manitoba have put forth their list of preferred projects.

Advocates of public-private partnerships, which the industry calls “P3s,” see them as a cost-effective way to deliver infrastructure to the benefit of taxpayers, governments and businesses. Critics have argued that they aren’t necessarily good for the public sector over the long term even if they bring down government costs in the short term.

“Our government’s commitment to P3s has never been stronger,” Oliver said Monday.