I referenced that article in my original remarks, because I think we have no choice as a country but to look at additional public-private partnerships to rebuild the infrastructure we have.
The percentage of our gross domestic product that has been invested in infrastructure has plummeted since the 1960s. The reality is we have pools of capital that are prepared to invest in these projects and we are not allowing them to do so. At the same time, I don't believe the tolerance of Canadians is such that they believe all of that burden should be borne by the taxpayer.
When we look at the degree of the infrastructure deficit, just for water and sewage systems in this country, that's now estimated at about $31 billion, and that's only to rebuild water and sewage infrastructure to the existing level of performance. What we indeed need, as I mentioned in my remarks, in advance of climate change and the severe weather we're going to get, is we need to rebuild systems at a much better level than they have been. So that's going to cost more than $31 billion.
As I say, I think the trick is to get innovative partnerships between the private sector and the public sectors, the provinces and the municipalities and the federal government, if possible, working together to get the job done.