Ontario investing $190B in public infrastructure over 13 years

The province of Ontario has released a new plan detailing the its commitment to public infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, public transit, roads and bridges.

The Building Better Lives: Ontario’s Long-Term Infrastructure Plan 2017 lays out the government’s investment in infrastructure—about $190 billion over 13 years.

The plan includes:

• Integrating climate change considerations into infrastructure planning to ensure environmental sustainability
• Building resilient and substantive infrastructure in an era of accelerated change and disruptive technologies
• Better linking infrastructure investments to social policy initiatives such as community benefits projects and apprenticeships that support more jobs and training opportunities
• Improving access to critical infrastructure such as broadband connectivity for communities across Ontario, whether in rural, Northern or urban areas
• Ensuring broader community need is taken into consideration in infrastructure planning and public property decision-making through the implementation of a Social Purpose Real Estate strategy
• Informing people about new infrastructure being built in their neighbourhoods through an interactive online map of over 3,500 projects across the province

The plan also includes Ontario’s first-ever asset inventory describing the condition, age and value of provincial infrastructure assets by sector.

A study by the Centre for Spatial Economics found that, over the long term, real GDP in Ontario rises up to $6 on average per dollar of public infrastructure spending.

The government will allocate up to $400 million this year from the Trillium Trust to support investments in public transit, transportation and other priority infrastructure projects.