Canada may turn to investors to help finance an ambitious $92-billion-plus infrastructure plan aimed at boosting its lagging energy-sector-based economy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed federal budget, unveiled in March, includes a line that opens the door to “asset recycling”—potentially involving the sale to investors of stakes in roads, bridges, office buildings, real estate and other publicly owned property.
The reference to asset recycling has generated buzz in the multibillion-dollar pension-fund sector, which sees added investment potential as the Trudeau government seeks ways to finance and deliver big public-works projects and keep deficits in check (ENR 2/15 p. 20). But some anti-privatization critics argue against the government giving up key public assets.