PBO says federal infrastructure spending is falling short
by The Canadian Press
The parliamentary budget office says federal transfers made by the Transport and Infrastructure departments over the first half of 2016-17 dropped by $100 million compared with the year before
The Liberals won the 2015 election on a platform that pledged to spend tens of billions on infrastructure
A new analysis by the parliamentary budget office says Ottawa’s planned infrastructure investments did not materialize in the first half of the year and there’s a growing risk the spending will have to be pushed into 2017-18.
But the budget office says this type of delay is nothing new—and it would be consistent with the slower-than-expected government plans to spend on infrastructure in the past.
The report says last year’s federal budget contained plans for Ottawa to transfer $3.5 billion in new money in 2016-17 to other levels of government for infrastructure.
The Liberals won the 2015 election on a platform that pledged to spend tens of billions over the next decade on infrastructure as a way to lift the country’s slow-growth economy.
The budget office says the federal transfers made by the Transport and Infrastructure departments over the first half of 2016-17 dropped by $100 million compared with the year before.
