Good morning.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that I'm coming to you from Ottawa, the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide you with an update on the steps we have taken in response to the findings of the Auditor General’s report on the investing in Canada plan.
I am joined by a number of colleagues from departments, as well as Infrastructure Canada. The chair has already gone through the list of names, so in the interest of saving time, I will not introduce all of those parties.
We thank the Auditor General and her staff for the examination of the government's 12-year, $188-billion investing in Canada plan. Infrastructure Canada has developed and completed a comprehensive management action plan in response to the Auditor General's recommendations, which I will speak to shortly.
The investing in Canada plan was introduced in budget 2016 and budget 2017. The plan is a cross-government effort to deliver infrastructure projects to communities across Canada. Infrastructure Canada has a dual role in the investing in Canada plan. The first of these is to deliver infrastructure funding. Infrastructure Canada is one of 21 departments and agencies responsible for administering more than 90 programs included in the plan.
In our second role, Infrastructure Canada acts as a central reporting hub for plan-wide data. While each of the 21 departments and agencies that report in the plan are accountable for the management of their programs, Infrastructure Canada provides rolled-up data on progress all in one place.
As of March of this year, over $119 billion of the plan's proposed $188 billion—nearly two-thirds of the plans funding—has been allocated to over 77,000 projects, with $67 billion having been paid out.
The Auditor General’s report published in 2021 provided an opportunity for us to reflect on the investing in Canada plan. The Government of Canada accepted the Auditor General’s recommendation. In response to the report, we have worked with delivery partners to strengthen reporting on the plan’s objectives, investments and results, including the implementation of a management action plan.
We have adjusted our reporting processes by providing interim updates throughout the life cycle of the plan, rather than waiting until the plan’s end to show results.
We have also worked to improve reporting on contributions of legacy programs towards the plan's objectives. All 24 of the plan's legacy programs, those that existed prior to the creation of the plan, are now reported in the horizontal initiatives table that is available online. We have also improved the horizontal initiative table and made it easier to understand, more accessible and user friendly.
Going forward, Infrastructure Canada will continue reporting on the plan's overall results, providing an accounting of the full plan, and partner departments will provide program-specific reporting.
As a result of these improvements, we are providing Canadians with consistent, comprehensive and coherent information about how we're delivering results across the country.
We appreciate the recommendation of the Auditor General. We will continue to look for more opportunities to improve our reporting, in collaboration with our partners.
I'm happy to discuss this with you or answer any of your questions. Thank you.