The Building Canada Fund – Major Infrastructure Component (BCF-MIC) was in operations from 2008-2009 to 2019-2020, and funded large-scale infrastructure projects of national or regional significance in the areas of water, wastewater, public transit, green energy, highway and roads, disaster mitigation, solid waste management, brownfield redevelopment, broadband, culture, tourism, local roads, short-line rail, short-sea shipping, regional and local airports, and sport and recreational infrastructure.

Between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2019, the number of approved projects under BCF-MIC, INFC’s contribution and claims paid were as follows:

BCF-MIC program overview (April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2019)
199 projects	$6.5 billion in federal contributions	$5.2 billion in claims paid

Source: Infrastructure Canada Financial Report, April 3, 2019.

Claims for BCF-MIC projects continued to be paid and outcome reports received after this period, though these were outside of the scope of this evaluation.

Infrastructure Canada’s evaluation of BCF-MIC assessed the extent to which the program addressed infrastructure needs, progress towards expected outcomes, and the extent to which projects were inclusive.

Key findings

BCF-MIC has addressed infrastructure needs through funding for larger projects.

Table 1: Identified Needs/Priorities by BCF-MIC Funding Category and Federal Contribution

Priorities/ Needs identified by Lines of Evidence	Number of Project by Funded Category	Federal Contribution
Broadband and Connectivity	1	$54,638,696
Brownfield Remediation	1	$30,000,000
Capacity Building	5	$4,058,418
Culture	23	$483,179,498
Disaster Mitigation	2	$18,556,986
Drinking Water	8	$193,484,592
Green Energy	1	$4,500,000
Highways and Roads	83	$1,926,206,264
Public Transit	22	$2,951,422,729
Recreation	23	$178,527,121
Short line Rail	1	$14,889,614
Sport	10	$158,925,250
Tourism	7	$181,785,599
Wastewater	12	$366,439,995

Source: INFC Financial Report, April 3, 2019.

BCF-MIC has funded infrastructure projects that promote economic growth, a cleaner environment and strong and prosperous communities.

Source: Infrastructure Canada Financial Report April 3, 2019.

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Figure 1: Number of approved projects and claims paid per BCF-MIC Themes

This figure represents the distribution of approved projects and claims paid by the MIC themes. The distribution is as follows:

• Economic Growth $1.97 billion in claims paid and 92 approved projects.
• Cleaner Environment $2 billion and 14 approved projects.
• Strong and Prosperous Communities $3.15 billion and 78 approved projects

BCF-MIC benefitted communities of diverse sizes.

The evaluation went beyond assessing the extent to which BCF-MIC met the requirements for gender-based analysis in program development and implementation, to examine program results and external data through an inclusiveness lens more broadly. The intention of this analysis was not to draw conclusions on the relevance or effectiveness of BCF-MIC, but rather to use available data to identify potential areas to consider in the development of future infrastructure programming. This analysis, looked at locations where projects took place to determine the distribution across different population center sizes and across provinces and territories.

Source: Infrastructure Canada Financial Report April 3, 2019 and Statistics Canada Census Data 2016.

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Figure 2: Distribution of projects funded under BCF-MIC as per size of municipality

This figure represents the distribution of projects funded by size of municipality. The distribution is as follows:

• 40% of projects took place in large population centres more than 100,000 people.
• 14% of projects took place in medium population centres more than 30,000 people
• 27% of projects took place in small population of more than 1,000 people.
• 1% of projects took place in rural centres and
• 18% of projects involved more than one municipality.

The evaluation found that despite being designed mostly for larger population centres, BCF-MIC benefitted communities of diverse sizes.

The evaluation has no recommendations as BCF-MIC is sunsetting and all funds are committed.