QUESTION PERIOD — Infrastructure and Communities
Infrastructure Bank
June 11, 2019
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Leader, two years ago, the Senate passed the 2017 budget implementation bill, which proposed the creation of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. I will remind you, colleagues, that the government told us at the time that there was an urgent need to create this bank and that this was the only thing stopping private investors from sinking tons of money into infrastructure in Canada.
However, I was interested to see the bank’s financial report from December 31, 2018, which is the latest report available. It says that the bank has no projects under way apart from the loan to the Réseau express métropolitain in Montreal, yet it somehow managed to spend nearly $6 million on compensation and professional fees in just nine months. That’s an astronomical amount for administering a single loan.
Senator Harder, why did you tell us the Infrastructure Bank was so urgently needed two years ago, when the only transaction it has carried out is a loan that the government could easily have guaranteed in some other way?
I thank the honourable senator for his question. He’ll know, because he’s attentive, that was the same question asked several months ago by Senator Black. I’ll give the same answer: That the bank operates, as the honourable senator will know from the legislation, at arm’s length from the government and engages in its work according to the legal definitions and strictures that were adopted by this chamber.
The bank is an important complement to the infrastructure program of the Government of Canada and is one that the Government of Canada is proud of.
In 2016, ministers Sohi and Morneau told us that they had met with many Canadian and foreign institutional investors to discuss their participation in infrastructure projects in Canada. The creation of the Infrastructure Bank was supposed to help direct those investments.
In the two years since it was formed, the bank hasn’t developed any such partnerships. Leader, where did those private investors go? Did your government scare them away, or is it that they never existed in the first place?
I thank the honourable senator for his question. I will take note of the question and, as I said, this is a bank that operates at arm’s length, but I will bring it to the attention of the appropriate minister.
