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Feds take steps in building public infrastructure knowledge base

Well planned public infrastructure investments help build strong communities, create jobs and opportunities for the middle class, and support a high standard of living for Canadians and their families, while building a country ready to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of the next century.

Minister of Infrastructure and Communities François-Philippe Champagne welcomed the release of the first dataset under Canada’s Core Public Infrastructure (CCPI) survey. The survey was a commitment made in Budget 2016 to support a more evidence and results based approach to public infrastructure policies, programs and investment decisions. The survey will present, for the first time, a statistically accurate and comprehensive national snapshot of the stock, condition and performance of public infrastructure in Canada.  

“Evidence based infrastructure investments will deliver better results for our communities, help grow the middle class, and provide our small and medium businesses with new opportunities for growth and prosperity today and into the future. This survey supports our government wide commitment to support an evidence and results based approach to policy making. The results of Canada’s Core Public Infrastructure survey will establish an important baseline for measuring the impact and progress from infrastructure investments over time and will provide valuable benchmarks to help communities assess and prioritize local infrastructure projects,” stated Champagne.

The CCPI survey is part of the Investing in Canada plan, which also includes funding for other data and research initiatives that will better inform how federal infrastructure funding programs are designed, implemented, tracked and reported. It aims to help all orders of government make public infrastructure investments that will deliver better roads and bridges, water systems, public transit options and community hubs that Canadians want and need.

To develop a baseline, Infrastructure Canada contracted with Statistics Canada, Canada’s leading authority in statistical research, and worked in collaboration with key partners and stakeholders to design the CCPI survey.

The CCPI survey gathered information on nine core public infrastructure groupings: roads; tunnels and bridges; potable water; wastewater; storm water; public transit; solid waste; culture, recreation and sports facilities; and social and affordable housing. The survey also included a separate questionnaire on the related asset management practices for each asset group.

Today, Statistics Canada released the topline findings of its first dataset from the survey about two of the nine asset groups. The roads, bridges and tunnels data is now available through the Statistics Canada website.