Evidence of meeting #26 for Finance in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was project.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
No, not at all.
It's not a question of whether the project will; it's when the project is mature enough that it's ready for project financing. Typically, in project financing, you would finalize the design and costing for all segments of the line, and then you'd go out to raise the billions of dollars you're going to raise to invest in the project.
Bloc
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Karina Gould
Thank you, Mr. Garon. Time's up.
Thank you, Mr. Cory.
We will continue with Mr. Kelly for five minutes.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
Thank you.
When the Canada Infrastructure Bank was established, Canadians were told it would disburse $35 billion by fiscal year 2027-28. Is the bank on track to reach that target?
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Per the most recent analysis of the PBO, we're on track to achieve $37 billion by 2029-30.
Conservative
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
It's a very fair question. I talked a bit about our funnel earlier. I will do this for just a moment more. If you think of our investments, we talk to projects across the country. Eventually, after identifying a project and understanding it's in mandate.... I promise—
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
You didn't answer the question, and now you're giving a lot of preamble to.... What was it?
Answer yes or no. Are you going to meet that target? Are you going to have $35 billion disbursed by 2028?
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Quite simply, we sign contracts and we disburse money as construction happens, as I think Canadians would want us to do—
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
Wait a minute. Canadians were told by the government that you would have that money disbursed by 2027-28. I'm just asking if that's going to happen. If it's not.... In fact, we'll take it that it will not.
What are you on track to disburse by 2027-28?
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Madam Chair, as of today, to be clear, on the question of disbursements, we have $18 billion in contracts signed, and today we have disbursed about $7 billion cash.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
To the question that's been asked, cash gets disbursed as construction progresses. Every quarter someone sends us an invoice and we disburse. We're at about $7 billion now. I don't know the forecast to two years out, but I can say that over the last—
Conservative
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
I do not off the top of my head.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
It was $14.9 billion. That's what the PBO said on page 1 of their report.
Is that projection higher or lower than it was in 2021? Are you getting better or worse at hitting the targets that the government states publicly?
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Just to be clear, the original baseline you're comparing with is from 2017, when the CIB was launched, and the idea was the disbursements would happen by 2027-28. We are rapidly accelerating. Right now we have, drawing somewhere between—
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
Right, but you are nowhere near what was promised.
Let's look at this another way now. What proportion of private sector investment to public sector investment were Canadians promised when this bank was established?
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
I think, Madam Chair, the best thing is to talk about where we are.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
No, the best thing to do is answer questions. Officials have to answer questions when they come to committee, so I'd like you to answer my question.
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Sure. Madam Chair, thank you for the question.
The original concept of the bank was that for every dollar we invested, there would be three to four times the amount of private capital. The important thing to note—
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Crowfoot, AB
The fall economic statement wherein the bank was established actually said 4:1, and Bill Morneau in his speech on it said 5:1, not 3:1.
The next question is, what is the current proportion of private sector investment to public?
Chief Executive Officer, Canada Infrastructure Bank
Madam Chair, it's an interesting question. I will answer the question of the member very directly, but you have to take two parts of my answer, if that's okay.
Part one is that today there's $25 billion aligned against our $18 billion, so you might say that's 1.4:1. The way you have to think about these investments, though, is over time. We make an investment, and at the outset of the investment, when we make the loan, that's the ratio. Over time, as we're paid back and private capital replaces us, on every one of our projects, that ratio changes. Our forecast is that we are well on track to be at 4:1 over the lifetime of the loans.
