Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget didn’t contain many surprises in the realm of infrastructure spending and the five nation-building projects he unveiled previously, but the document does contain some more details on what could follow these ambitious projects.
It also outlines some criteria for the Major Projects Office and what kinds of projects may make the cut in the future.
Here are some infrastructure highlights from Canada Strong: Budget 2025.
Major Projects Office (MPO)
To be in Canada’s national interest, several criteria will be considered:
- Whether a project will strengthen Canada’s autonomy, resilience and security.
- Whether a project will provide economic or other benefits to Canada.
- The likelihood of successful project execution.
- Whether a project will advance the interests of Indigenous people.
- Whether a project will contribute to clean growth and address climate change.
Budget 2025 proposes to provide $213.8 million over five years, starting in 2025-26, for the MPO. Funding will also support the Indigenous Advisory Council. Of this amount, $19.8 million will be sourced from existing departmental resources.
What’s next?
In order to be “truly transformative” the document mentions several strategies focused on bolstering the Canadian economy through building.
- Critical Minerals Strategy: A priority for the MPO will be to help more critical minerals projects get to final investment decisions within a two-year window. These opportunities exist in many of Canada’s regions, including Ontario’s Ring of Fire, British Columbia’s Golden Triangle and the Slave Geological Province in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
- Wind West Atlantic Energy: The MPO will develop the “regulatory certainty that attracts private investment and sets the course for long-term wind resources development in the Atlantic provinces.” This Eastern Energy Partnership could include projects like interties between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, transmission cables between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, as well as Québec’s and Newfoundland and Labrador’s further development of Churchill Falls and Gull Island.
- Pathways Plus: An Alberta-based carbon capture and storage network and pipeline project that will reduce emissions with additional energy infrastructure that will support a strong conventional energy sector while driving down emissions from the oilsands. Pathways will facilitate low-carbon oil exports from the Alberta oilsands to a range of markets that demand Canadian energy.
- Arctic Economic and Security Corridor: A set of all-weather, dual-use, land and port-to-port-to-port infrastructure projects that will contribute to Canada’s defence and northern development.
- Port of Churchill Plus: This set of projects will upgrade the Port of Churchill and expand trade corridors with an all-weather road, an upgraded rail line, a new energy corridor, and marine ice-breaking capacity. The approach will prioritize Indigenous equity ownership in developing the projects needed to turn the Port of Churchill into a major four season and dual-use gateway for the region.
- Alto High-Speed Rail: Canada’s first high-speed railway, spanning approximately 1,000 kilometres from Toronto to Québec City and reaching speeds of up to 300 km/hour to cut travel times in half. This is a project that could create 51,000 jobs during construction and inject up to $35 billion into the GDP. The MPO will work to accelerate engineering, regulatory and permitting work to enable construction of the project to start in four years, cutting the original eight-year timeline in half.
Trade Diversification Corridors Fund
This is a fund of $5 billion over seven years, starting in 2025-26, to strengthen supply chains, unlock new export opportunities by investing in new port, airport and railway infrastructure. For example, the government will consider investments in key projects in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region, at ports in northeastern Québec like enhancing the Port of Saguenay’s capacity to build a second wharf, rail lines in Alberta, port and rail infrastructure on the West Coast and more.
Arctic Infrastructure Fund
Budget 2025 proposes to provide $1 billion over four years, starting in 2025-26, to Transport Canada to create the Arctic Infrastructure Fund, which will invest in major transportation projects in the North with dual-use applications for civilian and military use, including airports, seaports, all-season roads and highways.
Canada Infrastructure Bank changes
The government announced its intention to amend the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) Act and “increase the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s statutory capital envelope from $35 billion to $45 billion and to enable the Canada Infrastructure Bank to make investments in any nation-building projects that have been referred to the Major Projects Office.”
Budget 2025 also announces the government’s intention for the Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation to work with Indigenous investors on greenfield (new build) projects.
General infrastructure projects
Carney also announced Budget 2025 invests more than $50 billion in new roads, transit, hospitals, colleges and universities.
