August 29, 2006

Finance Canada hears from CCA

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

TORONTO

The three levels of government need to work more closely together to map out longer-term funding strategies for infrastructure renewal, the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) has told Finance Canada.

In a brief submitted Friday, the association said financial transfers need to be “long-term, stable and predictable” and that all orders of government must produce longer-term investment plans.

“One of the keys of success for the infrastructure community — including governments and the private sector — is to ensure that all stakeholders have the proper long-term information to best plan infrastructure investment decisions and funding needs,” CCA said.

“However, longer-term planning often appears to be the exception rather than the rule.”

The CCA presented its brief in response to the federal government’s consultations on addressing the so-called fiscal imbalance. A copy also was sent to Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon.

In its 2006 budget, the government announced that consultations would be held in four key areas, including infrastructure.

CCA spokesman Jeff Morrison told Daily Commercial News that governments, be they municipal or provincial, often cannot announce their infrastructure spending plans until well into a given year “since they don’t know whether they will be receiving funding from the federal and/or provincial governments — and if they are receiving funding, they often won’t know how much.

“This situation is extremely difficult for construction firms, since they cannot plan their labour, equipment or other requirements for a given year without knowing the size and volume of tenders being issued that year.

“Longer-term planning would provide greater predictability and certainty for businesses and better enable them to plan their operations over a longer period of time.”

In its brief, CCA underlined that each level of government must be willing to commit to two planning principles if longer-term infrastructure funding plans are to be developed. These are:

• When funds are being transferred from one order of government to another, ensure that the amount of those funds is stable, predictable and long-term in nature. Also, provincial governments cannot “clawback” their funds to municipalities if they are administering federal funds bound to those municipalities.

• Each order of government must put in place a long-term infrastructure plan detailing the improvements, upgrades and new infrastructure required. These plans should be updated on a regular basis.

“Although clearly the bulk of these plans will be generated by municipalities, federal and provincial governments must also develop plans for infrastructure that falls under its ownership or jurisdiction,” CCA said.

The association also said the federal government needs to let project selection occur at the local levels and that procurement at all levels of government must be free of political interference and devoid of preferential procurement policies.

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