OTTAWA—Yesterday, a report from the Parliamentary Committee on Transport Infrastructure and Communities recommended that the government abolish the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB). The Bank has widely been criticized for failing to address the needs of the communities it is supposed to help. While the CIB has received hundreds of project proposals, it has approved very few, neglecting projects which could help people in favor of a privatization agenda that helps maximize corporate profits at the expense of the public interests.
“Canadians are frustrated that the government isn’t investing in the infrastructure that communities desperately need in the face of the climate crisis. With the recommendation to abolish Canada’s Infrastructure Bank from the Transport Committee, the Liberals are at a crossroads because their current approach has failed,” said NDP Critic for Tax Fairness, Niki Ashton. “They have two options, let the Bank wither and die, having accomplished nothing but enrich their wealthy friends, or they can listen to reason, support my bill and use the Infrastructure Bank to support communities including Indigenous and Northern communities in the fight against climate change.”
If the two-time former central bank governor had hopes that would be the beginning of a trend, however, the past three months would have made short work of any such unbridled — or even bridled — optimism.
Leaving aside the supply bills required to authorize pre-approved spending, since the House of Commons reopened for business on Sept. 16, the only government-initiated legislation to make it through a third reading vote was its bid to rejig the rules for recognizing the citizenship of the children of Canadians born abroad, which was introduced in response to a 2023 Ontario court ruling that found the current law to be unconstitutional with a court-imposed deadline of Nov. 21 to be in place before the offending sections would be automatically declared null and void.
Even that, it’s worth noting, wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the New Democrats — particularly B.C. MP Jenny Kwan, who, despite her party’s lack of official status, was nevertheless able to work with the government to reverse a series of changes made at committee by the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois, which cleared the way for the bill to proceed to a third reading vote — and, ultimately, through the Senate. It was signed into law on Nov. 20, just one day before the existing law was set to expire, although by that point, the court had extended the deadline to Jan. 20, 2026, to allow for an orderly transition.
