The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) released a report that makes recommendations on how businesses and governments can work together to build the infrastructure this country needs.
The report, Get It Built: Fostering Economic Growth and Prosperity Through Enhancements to Canada’s Long-term Investment Market, notes that it is vital for governments to commit to working with the private sector to make sure these important projects continue to get built.
It recommends a number of steps that provincial governments and the federal government can take to stimulate financing:
- governments should create a dedicated agency to assist in funding infrastructure;
- federal and provincial governments can help municipalities more easily access private investment dollars to finance their infrastructure requirements;
- governments should issue more 50-year bonds to help finance infrastructure projects; and
- governments need to ensure that the regulatory and accounting regimes support a robust long-term investment market.
“From the hospitals that heal us to the bridges that link us, a robust infrastructure system is critical to economic growth and to maintaining Canadians’ standard of living,” says CLHIA president Frank Swedlove. “Canadian life and health insurers have $540 billion in long-term assets in Canada. We are prepared to work with governments to invest in infrastructure and get these projects built.”
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