Infrastructure Bank CEO says it's ready to play a role in national-interest projects
The chief executive of the Canada Infrastructure Bank says the Crown corporation is looking forward to playing a role in Ottawa's ambitions to push ahead major projects deemed in the national interest.
"I think we're on the precipice of a really important time for our country," said Ehren Cory.
"We're just one tool in the tool kit of that. We are far from the only part of the solution, but we're looking forward to playing our part in meeting the challenge that we face as a country."
U.S. President Donald Trump's on-again-off-again tariffs have forced Canada to rethink its relationship with its biggest trading partner and seek out ways to get resources and other goods to global markets.
'Trade corridors'
Key themes in this spring's federal election campaign were the creation of "trade corridors" and other ways to remove the regulatory, legal and political logjams that have for several years prevented big projects from being built.
The Liberal government has promised to put a two-year cap on the approval process for key projects. Prime Minister Mark Carney met with premiers in Saskatoon this week to talk over some of the nation-building projects on their wish lists.
The infrastructure bank has already been involved in the planning around two contenders Carney rattled off to reporters after the meeting — the Pathways Alliance oilsands carbon capture and storage project in Alberta, and the Grays Bay Port and Road in the central Arctic.
'We go find deals'
Cory said the bank has not yet received any updated direction from its owner, the federal government, since the April 28 election delivered the Liberals back to power with a minority government.
"They set out priorities," he said. "We go find deals."
The infrastructure bank, created in 2017 with $35 billion in capital, invests in revenue-generating projects that are deemed to be in the public good, but would have trouble getting off the ground with private-sector money alone. To date, it has made $5 billion in clean power investments and put $1 billion toward Indigenous-led projects. In the coming week, it is set to close its 100th deal.
The bank operates at arm's-length from the federal government, which sets out broad priorities.
As its stands, its priority sectors include public transit, clean power, green infrastructure, broadband and trade and transportation.
Pipelines?
Cory said it's not up to the bank to decide whether new oil pipelines, for example, would be investments worth pursuing.
But if they are, he said, the bank is "a potential tool to doing more of them because they have the classic hallmarks of infrastructure projects."
Like many big infrastructure projects, pipelines require huge upfront investment, have long payback periods and tend to have a lot of uncertainty getting off the ground.
"And that's very hard for the private sector alone to manage and absorb," Cory said. "That's the kind of shock absorber that the (infrastructure bank) can be."
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