Canada’s federal budget for 2022-23, released last month, has no major new transportation infrastructure initiatives, but it does include first-time funding and incentives for projects to stem climate change impacts.
The budget offers $603.2 million in spending over five years for highways, railways and ports and boosts provincial spending for transportation and water projects. The government also will extend the $26-billion Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s construction start deadline to 2033, from 2027. The extension is linked to pandemic-related schedule disruptions since 2020, said Nadia Todorova, executive director of the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, a labor-management group. “It is more time to propose projects, and that is welcome,” she said.