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PROJECT DELIVERY
Canada ranks high in absolute infrastructure spending. But when
measured as a percentage of GDP, we’re falling behind. Canada currently invests 6.6 per cent of GDP on infrastructure. Our high-performing peers invest 7.4 per cent That gap constrains Canada’s economic
growth and competitiveness. Closing it requires an additional $34
billion annually by 2050. Governments and businesses must act now—
investing in common priorities and working together in new ways.
From silos to systems
Consider what it will take to develop the Ring of Fire, Ontario’s mineral-rich region located more than 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder
Bay. It needs roads. It needs power generation and transmission lines.
It needs 昀椀bre connectivity. It needs housing and critical social infrastructure such as health care for workers and communities. Without
this supporting infrastructure—and without meaningful Indigenous
partnerships—development cannot proceed.
This is Canada’s infrastructure opportunity: multi-use, integrated
systems built together rather than discrete assets constructed in sequence. Boundaries are fading, putting an enormous amount of value
in motion across the economy.
For investors, this recon昀椀guration is equally signi昀椀cant. Infrastructure, real estate, and private equity are converging at the portfolio
level. Capital pools that once specialized in one category are now
investing across all three, with risk and return pro昀椀les blurring.
Delivering converged infrastructure requires coordination across
staggered project phases. Each infrastructure layer must enable the
next, serving multiple purposes, users, and communities. But converged projects require more than converged delivery. They require
capital structures that can fund infrastructure serving multiple purposes and multiple users.
How we fund: Capital structures for a converged era
Convergence creates a distinct 昀椀nancing reality: when a road serves
both a mine site and surrounding communities, when a transmission
line powers both industry and households, no single user should bear
the full 昀椀nancing burden. Community priorities may independently
support or constrain these projects, sometimes overriding pure 昀椀nancial considerations.
The structures that follow can work together to facilitate 昀椀nancing
from multiple partners. They also illustrate why government’s role is
critical in this moment: Canada’s 昀椀scal capacity is constrained, making
private capital essential to renewing and building infrastructure.
Government must design mechanisms that attract private investment,
manage risk, align incentives, and protect taxpayer interests—creating
the investable projects private capital requires.
BLENDED PUBLIC-PRIVATE STRUCTURES: Government catalytic capital absorbs
early-stage risk and signals con昀椀dence, attracting follow-on private
investment.
ASSET RECYCLING: Some of Canada’s mature public infrastructure generates predictable revenues and can attract private capital, freeing public
capital for higher-risk projects, social assets, and renewal. This creates a
self-reinforcing cycle where public capital 昀氀ows back into infrastructure
priorities as new assets mature and can be recycled in turn.
USER-PAY AND RATE-BASED MODELS: Infrastructure like roads and utility systems
can be self-昀椀nanced through user fees and tolls that are common in other
countries. Moving to rate-based models is a politically fraught proposition. But user-pay systems don’t have to mean direct consumer charges.
Shadow tolls publicly owned corporatized assets, and regulated pricing
can separate the 昀椀nancing mechanism from direct consumer charges.
32—RENEW CANADA – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026
Beyond capital structures, successful infrastructure 昀椀nancing also
depends on the partnerships that enable it. Indigenous participation
is a powerful foundation for major infrastructure projects in Canada.
Aligning economic opportunity with Indigenous priorities is critical to
advancing many projects.
Earlier arrangements often focused on consultation, mitigation, and
providing bene昀椀ts such as jobs and limited procurement opportunities.
Achieving our full infrastructure ambitions hinges on going beyond
transactional approaches and creating long-term economic partnerships
grounded in shared value and mutual interest. These models exist. They
include signi昀椀cant revenue sharing, expanded procurement participation, and equity ownership. Indigenous communities can lead infrastructure development on their own terms, participate in construction, and
hold operations and maintenance contracts that generate revenue for
decades. But these approaches are not yet the norm.
Taken together, these structures give Canada a path to build more
infrastructure than current forecasts project. The next question is how
Canada builds what that capital enables.
How we build: The reinvention imperative
Engineering and construction 昀椀rms, operators, and the governments that
contract them are rethinking how they do business with each other. Canada has a long and successful track record with outcome-based contracts
that tie payment to performance as well as infrastructure-as-a-service
arrangements that bundle design, construction, operations, and 昀椀nancing into a single commercial relationship.
These models re昀氀ect a broader shift toward ecosystem-based value
creation. They demand a workforce that can operate across asset classes.
This re昀氀ects a skills-based view of talent that leading organizations in
other sectors are already adopting. But this skills-based shift highlights a
long-standing challenge: Canada doesn’t produce enough tradespeople
to meet today’s infrastructure demand, let alone tomorrow’s. Closing
that gap requires building domestic training pipelines. It will also take
targeted immigration to bring in the skills Canada can’t develop fast
enough on its own.
Workforce is one dimension of reinvention. Technology is another. AI
has the potential to be an internal productivity tool across the project
lifecycle: predictive risk analysis and digital twins in design, AI-enabled
approvals and sequencing in planning, automated project controls and
integrated data environments in delivery.
But reinvention often demands more than internal change. Acquisitions bring in capabilities faster than companies can build them. And divestitures can free up capital and focus by shedding parts of the business
that don’t 昀椀t the new model.
Tax can in昀氀uence the economics of these decisions. Companies that
factor tax in early are better positioned to manage risk, align strategy with
tax policy, and achieve appropriate returns on reinvention investments.
Canada’s choice: Accelerating our competitive edge
The scale of Canada’s infrastructure opportunity is clear. So are the
choices ahead—how we integrate infrastructure, fund it, and deliver it
di昀昀erently. Canadian governments, investors, developers, engineers, and
operators can shape what comes next. Get it right, and trillions of dollars
of investment will deliver more than steel, concrete, and cable. It will
build a more productive, resilient, and sovereign Canada.
Read the full Global Infrastructure Outlook 2025–50—Canadian insights report.
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