SPECIAL MESSAGE
Ottawa
Report
IBy Michael Kram, MP for Regina-Wascana
’m pleased to have this opportunity to report “behind the headlines”
O!awa updates to the members of the Saskatchewan Heavy
Construction Association.
Although all Saskatchewan MPs have a role to play in promoting construction
in Saskatchewan, I have the duty and privilege to play a particular
role. I sit on the House of Commons Standing Commi!ee on
Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities, which studies many of
the federally funded or regulated infrastructure projects in Saskatchewan
and elsewhere.
In this report, I’ll try to bring you the latest news on construction-related
discussions going on in our nation’s capital.
Coming up in the transportation
and infrastructure committee
Since the new year, much of the time of the transportation and infrastructure
commi!ee has been taken up with transportation issues, as we
have grilled the transportation minister over pandemic threats to many of
Canada’s airports, including Regina’s.
In March, the commi!ee moved on to examine the Canada Infrastructure
Bank (CIB), a Crown corporation mandated to manage federal infrastructure
investments. "is is actually the second time the Trudeau Liberals
have a!empted to start the CIB. "ey previously announced it in 2017 and
gave it a budget of $35 billion. But, like many Liberal initiatives, it was long
on press releases but short on actual accomplishments. A#er three years in
operation, it had spent only $1.7 billion. With CIB 2.0, the Liberals have
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promised a more streamlined, less bureaucratic decision-making process.
We’ll see how that turns out – the Liberals, a#er all, don’t have much of a
track record for reducing bureaucracy.
A negative sign for the prospects of the new CIB is that the Liberals
have given it a mandate to pursue a number of their favourite boutique issues,
such as renewable energy. One mandated area of potential interest to
Saskatchewan heavy construction is a priority to invest in large-scale agricultural
irrigation projects. But again, we will have to wait to see if that
goal gets beyond an announcement and into actual shovels in the ground.
In April, the commi!ee will be studying the potential for targeted infrastructure
investments in underserved or disadvantaged communities. At
the moment, this is quite broadly de$ned although there is some talk that
Liberal members will focus mainly on Eastern priorities, such as extending
subway lines in Toronto. For my part, I’ll be advocating for projects that
produce bene$ts for Saskatchewan, such as improving transportation connections
to tidewater.
Pipelines
When I ran for o%ce in 2019, I campaigned on three principles
– pipelines, balanced budgets and an end to the carbon tax. It’s
looking like I’ll be able to recycle those slogans in the next campaign,
considering that the federal de$cit is out of control, the
carbon tax has gone up and the federal Liberals have failed to
get pipelines built. In fact, pipelines are being shut down under
their watch.
MICHAELKRAM.CA
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