The Canadian Infrastructure Council was launched this week, with the mandate to conduct the country’s first ever National Infrastructure Assessment by 2027. I’m happy to be one of the 11 members, which includes Chair Jennifer Angel (CEO, Evergreen Canada), Vice-Chair Peter Weltman (Director, Technomics Inc.), and the following members with a decades of experience in water, wastewater, waste management, and transportation infrastructure needed to increase our supply of housing:
- Sara Brown (CEO, Northwest Territories Association of Communities)
- James Dunn (Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, McMaster University)
- Joanna Eyquem (Managing Director, Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation)
- Graham Gagnon (Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Dalhousie University)
- John McKendrick (Former Executive Vice President, Infrastructure Ontario)
- Doug McNeil (Former Chief Administrative Officer, City of Winnipeg & Former Deputy Minister, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation)
- Catherine Morency (Professor of Transportation, Polytechnique Montréal)
- Judy Whiteduck (Former Senior Director, Economic Development & Infrastructure and the Rights & Justice Branch, Assembly of First Nations)
We’ll be moving ahead to collect and provide the evidence communities will need to make improvements to existing and build new infrastructure. We’ve had so many conversations about this in eastern Canada, including the fact that most of our communities are still on septic systems, and therefore can’t handle the densities that Ontario or BC cities can; or the fact that we don’t have rapid transit therefore miss out on major housing initiatives. We need to do a better job of supporting growth in these places, like Moncton, Charlottetown, and Halifax–among the fastest-growing in the country.
