Building Canada - Modern Infrastructure for a Strong Canada - Infrastructure and Communities

Infrastructure and Communities

Canada's national strengths are a function of the strengths of its communities, whether large or small, urban or rural. Livable and prosperous communities of all sizes define Canadians' standard of living, quality of life and overall well-being. And these communities must continually adapt to increasingly rapid change, and provide the infrastructure to maintain and improve residents' quality of life.

In the integrated global economy, Canada's large cities must compete with other global cities for private-sector capital investment and a skilled workforce. Today's skilled knowledge workers have high job mobility, picking and choosing the community where they will apply their skills. Cities and communities that provide a high quality of life are therefore able to attract, retain, and create the required human capital to remain economically competitive. Talented professionals and investors are attracted to healthy, prosperous, vibrant, and safe communities supported by public infrastructure such as public transit, sports facilities, green spaces, and arts and cultural institutions. Although many of Canada's largest cities consistently rank highly on global quality of life surveys¹¹, they face constant pressure to maintain their standing.

Smaller communities also have unique challenges. They must build and maintain the full range of municipal infrastructure regardless of their population size. A lack of reliable and affordable transportation is seen as an obstacle to community development, reducing citizens' mobility and creating barriers and costs for community and rural businesses. In remote communities, the lack of broadband communications service is another significant deterrent to growth and residents' quality of life.

An important determinant of a community's livability is the safety and reliability of its drinking water—an infrastructure issue of growing concern in communities across the country. Drinking water quality can be an issue for any city or community, but is most prevalent in smaller and rural communities. Every year in Canada, more than 700 boil-water orders are issued.¹²

In addition to other issues facing cities and communities, decades of expansion and industrial development have contributed to a prevalence of "brownfield" sites across Canada. These are contaminated, abandoned, or underutilized commercial or industrial sites within cities and communities. There are approximately 30,000 brownfield sites in Canada. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy estimates that redevelopment of these sites has the potential to generate up to $7 billion a year in public benefits through the increased economic productivity of surrounding land, increased tax revenues, lower municipal infrastructure costs, reduced health risks, preservation of agricultural land, less air pollution and improved neighbourhoods.¹³

^[11] 2007 World-wide Quality of Life Survey, Mercer Human Resource Consulting

^[12] The Water Chronicles

^[13] National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, Cleaning Up the Past, Building the Future - A National Brownfield Redevelopment Strategy for Canada, 2003.