CANADA INFRASTRUCTURE COUNCIL REPORTS
Earlier this year, the federal government established the Canada Infrastructure Council and tasked them to develop a National Infrastructure Assessment that will support the Government’s housing initiatives. Reporting to the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC), this council is made up of sector experts from across Canada with specialties in many different sectors. Our water sector is best represented by Dr. Graham Gagnon of Dalhousie University who has been a longtime member of CWWA and AWWA. Council member Doug McNeil also has a background in water utilities and will be attending the National Water & Wastewater Conference in Victoria next week.
CWWA has been invited to provide input to this Council and has provided oral and written submissions. As advisors, we were consulted on the major points of their report that is expected to be released in early November. I was very pleased with the key messaging from this Council that clearly stated that we can’t just build homes without adequate infrastructure to support those homes – what they are calling “Housing-enabling Infrastructure”. The Council lists the three most important enabling infrastructure as:
- Water & Wastewater Services
- Solid Waste Management Services
- Community Mobility Services
They don’t say that these are ranked…but I like that we are the top of the list. Their report will be given to the Minister and Cabinet and, hopefully, have a significant impact on the upcoming budget announcements (expected November 4th).
In advance of the Council’s full report, they have released some very interesting materials on what they heard during consultations, and three reports on the state of infrastructure for the three critical sectors. You can download the reports here: