Canada’s Infrastructure Crisis Can No Longer Be Ignored

Canada’s Infrastructure Crisis Can No Longer Be Ignored by Maj (ret’d) CORNELIU, CHISU, CD, PMSC FEC, CET, P.Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East Canada’s infrastructure is quietly approaching a breaking point. The country that once prided itself on modern public works, dependable utilities, and efficient transportation systems is now grappling with decades of deferred maintenance, political hesitation, and fragmented planning. Every year the cracks become harder to hide. Congestion on key highways intensifies. Transit delays multiply. Ageing bridges demand increasingly frequent emergency repairs. Storms knock out energy grids never built to withstand twenty-first-century climate extremes. Despite these unmistakable warning signs, Canada still lacks a coherent national strategy capable of reversing its infrastructure decline. The issue is not abstract. It affects the daily lives of millions of Canadians. An infrastructure system largely constructed between the 1950s and 1980s is now expected to carry a population nearly twice as large, with economic and environmental pressures unimaginable to previous generations. The result is a widening gap between what the country needs and what its current systems can deliver. For years, analysts have estimated Canada’s infrastructure deficit at more than $250 billion—a figure representing everything from deteriorating highways and outdated waterworks to digital networks that lag behind global competitors. However, even this number understates the true scale of the challenge, because it does not account for the new infrastructure required to support rapid population growth, and energy transition. Canada is not just replacing old assets—it must build entirely new systems to survive and compete. Municipalities shoulder the heaviest burden. They own over 60 percent of Canada’s public infrastructure but rely overwhelmingly on property taxes, a deeply limited revenue tool never intended to support multi-billion-dollar projects. Federal and provincial programs exist, but they tend to be episodic, politically timed, and short-term. In this funding environment cities struggle to plan decades ahead, even as their infrastructure increasingly demands precisely such long-term vision. The consequences are visible across the country. In the Greater Toronto Area, drivers lose countless hours each year on highways that function as slow-moving parking lots. Toronto’s and Montreal’s transit systems require major overhauls to keep pace with demand, while Vancouver’s SkyTrain network needs significant expansion to serve rapidly growing suburbs. Rural communities face aging water systems, limited public transit, and unreliable broadband—problems that undermine both safety and economic opportunity. Climate change has escalated the crisis, as Canada’s infrastructure was engineered for a climate that no longer exists. Extreme rainfall overwhelms storm water networks, flooding neighborhoods that were once considered safe. Severe heat strains energy grids. Melting permafrost destabilizes northern runways and roads. Wildfires damage transportation corridors and cause air quality hazards disrupting everything from schools to airports. The financial burden of climate-related disasters has ballooned from roughly $300 million annually two decades ago to more than $3 billion per year today. Without a modernization strategy focused on resilience, these costs will continue to rise. The digital sphere is no better. In an economy that depends on connectivity, Canada’s telecommunications infrastructure has proven increasingly vulnerable. Rural and remote regions remain underserved, and nationwide outages in recent years have demonstrated that the country’s networks lack redundancy and resilience. As artificial intelligence, cybersecurity threats, and high-bandwidth services reshape the global marketplace, Canada risks falling behind. Budget 2025 attempted to address part of the problem by introducing a new capital-budgeting framework, which separates long-term infrastructure investments from annual operating expenses. This structural reform is promising: it allows the federal government to finance large projects without distorting its operating balance. The budget also announced major investments in housing-related infrastructure, clean energy corridors, and Indigenous communities. While positive, these measures are only initial steps. They do not yet constitute the unified, multi-decade national plan Canada urgently requires. A genuine infrastructure overhaul must begin with a long-term national accord involving federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments. Many countries—including Australia and the United Kingdom—have independent infrastructure commissions that operate beyond political cycles. Canada needs to do the same. A national body with the authority to prioritize projects, evaluate costs, and coordinate funding would break the cycle of fragmented, election-driven decision-making. Next, resilience must become the foundation of all new infrastructure. Projects should be designed not merely for present conditions but for the complex realities projected 30 to 50 years ahead. This includes stronger flood defences, heat-resilient transit and energy systems, fire-adapted transportation corridors, and modernized water infrastructure built to withstand extreme weather. Retrofitting vulnerable assets should be as central to the strategy as building new ones. Municipalities also need expanded, predictable funding tools. Whether through revenue sharing, a national infrastructure bank with stable contributions, or more flexible taxing authority, cities cannot continue relying on sporadic grants. Thriving, resilient cities are economic engines; underfunded ones become bottlenecks that drag down national productivity. Speed and efficiency must also be prioritized. Major projects in Canada routinely take far longer to approve and build than in peer nations, inflating costs and delaying benefits. Streamlined approvals, harmonized regulations, and improved intergovernmental coordination would accelerate progress without compromising environmental or community standards. Canadians should not wait 15 years for transit lines or 20 years for energy corridors that other countries build in less than half the time. Equally important is modernizing Canada’s digital backbone. High-speed internet, cybersecure networks, and redundancy systems must be treated as essential infrastructure—not optional conveniences. The economy of the future will depend on fast, resilient connectivity as much as it depends on stable highways and bridges. Remote work, telemedicine, AI-driven industries, and online education all falter without a reliable digital foundation. Finally, infrastructure planning must be integrated with Canada’s housing strategy. Rapid population growth and historic immigration levels are placing unprecedented pressure on water systems, roads, transit, and electricity grids. Housing cannot be built in isolation from the services that make communities functional. Planning these systems together is essential to avoid repeating past mistakes where residential growth raced ahead of infrastructure capacity. Canada is at a pivotal moment. The challenges are serious, but the opportunities are just as great. A bold, coordinated, and well-financed infrastructure agenda would stimulate economic growth, attract investment, improve productivity, and strengthen national cohesion. It would create jobs, enhance resilience to climate change, and raise the quality of life in every region of the country. Failing to act will cost far more than the investments required to rebuild. Patchwork repairs and perpetual delays are already expensive; inaction in the face of climate stress, population growth, and global technological shifts will be even more costly. The true price of neglect is measured not only in dollars but in the erosion of Canada’s competitiveness and the everyday frustrations experienced by Canadians. The time to overhaul Canada’s infrastructure is now. The country can either continue down the path of deterioration or choose renewal, resilience, and long-term prosperity. The choice, and its consequences, will define Canada’s future for generations