Carney has a new $51B infrastructure fund. Here’s how he plans to spend it

The federal government will address infrastructure gaps across Canada with billions of dollars in funding over the coming decade, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday at a news conference in Brampton, Ont.

Carney used the event to break down how his government plans to dole out $51 billion in the Liberals’ Build Communities Strong Fund. The new pot of money was first announced in the 2025 budget, which became law last month.

Ottawa plans to nearly double the rate of infrastructure investment in Canada over the next eight years compared with the previous eight years, Carney said.

He teased that future announcements are coming on initiatives for skills training and apprenticeships, and urged youth to consider a career to support the infrastructure agenda.

“The next 25, 30 years is going to be a great time to be in the trades, to be an electrician, to be pipe fitter, to be welder, to a plumber, a carpenter and beyond, because we are literally going to build this country,” Carney said.

The Build Communities Strong Fund includes $27.8 billion over the next 10 years for infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water and sewer systems and $6 billion for other major local projects like building retrofits and community centres.

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Carney’s first announcement under this local stream was $64 million for a new recreation centre and park in Brampton. The federal government announced $300 million in funding for 13 total projects later in the day, more than a third of which will go toward water and wastewater systems underpinning new housing developments in Iqaluit.

The federal government launched a web page Tuesday allowing municipalities and other organizations to apply for new project funding under this stream.

The remaining $17.2 billion in the fund is to be matched by provinces and territories and used to reduce the cost of building new infrastructure and housing. That includes $5 billion over three years to build out health-care facilities such as new emergency departments.

With $6 billion set aside for the province, Ontario will receive the biggest share from the provincial and territorial stream. Quebec will receive $3.6 billion, British Columbia will get $2.2 billion and Alberta will receive $1.9 billion, with hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for the remaining provinces and territories.

Provinces and territories are required to allocate 20 per cent of their funding to rural, Northern and Indigenous communities. Ten per cent of funding through the $6-billion “direct delivery” stream must go to Indigenous-led projects.

The federal government announced an agreement with Ontario last week for a total of $8.8 billion in matching funds to encourage cities to cut development charges. Ontario and Ottawa will also waive the sales taxes on eligible new homes for the next year as part of a total $1.7 billion in funding to provinces and territories to lower homebuilding costs as they see fit.

British Columbia MP Dan Albas, the Conservative critic for transport, criticized the infrastructure fund rollout as “another reannouncement” in a statement Tuesday.

“Conservatives want our infrastructure, homes and health to grow and improve, but the Carney Liberals need to get out of the way and scrap their anti-development laws and unaffordable taxes,” Albas said.