All right.
When the Canada Infrastructure Bank was created in 2017, we looked forward with anticipation to the new private-public partnerships to bolster infrastructure spending on projects across Canada. These investments are instrumental to job creation and growth for our sector, and for the economy. However, we're disappointed with the delay in committed infrastructure dollars making their way to projects, including the $35 billion that was initially allocated to the CIB. Detailed data is either not readily available or I couldn't find it, but it appears there are 12 or 13 projects that the CIB was involved with. Only five have financial commitments of about $4 billion, and only a small portion of that—I think $1.2 billion, as I heard mentioned earlier—has been forwarded to an active project.
It would seem that the benefits flowing from these investments are really long-term considerations. Long-term, large-scale projects are important for updating and transforming Canada's infrastructure for the future. However, they do not address the more immediate issues faced by communities and that the construction industry is currently experiencing.
The construction industry performed well in 2020, but there are signs that 2021 could be a far more difficult year for the sector, based on a number of issues related to supply chain, workforce development and limited access to the public and private funding that begets projects. The CIB has very specific target sectors for investment, and while all of them are critical to Canada, work in those sectors only applies to a portion of the construction industry. Other sectors of construction are equally important to sustaining and creating growth in communities of all sizes and should be part of an infrastructure plan.
CIB's growth plan may address some of the gaps being faced by trade contractors, which are obviously involved in building new transport facilities, in broadband, in retrofitting and in green infrastructure. However, again, it's only a benefit if those projects are at the shovel-in-the-ground stage, which is not quite the same as shovel-ready. Getting investments to the construction industry now is imperative for ensuring economic growth and prosperity as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, given the systemic lags between the planning stages and the project start dates, it is unlikely that the infrastructure spending, even if accelerated, will reach the stage where it will aid the industry in navigating the impacts of the pandemic by the end of 2021.
There is a perceived shortfall of work that's looming on the near-term horizon for the industry. When the industry's view of the market is uncertain, it tends to curtail investment and workforce development, even in light of long-term forecasts of labour shortages. Without investments in new construction projects, trade contractors will be reluctant to hire in the short term, as they will be cautious about expanding and maintaining their workforces. This hesitancy created by the uncertainty around future work has significant impacts on training regimes and creates difficulty in supporting initiatives that bring more people into the trades. Without the ability to create jobs and facilitate workforce development, the industry faces significant challenges in meeting Canada's future infrastructure demands.
There needs to be some short-term adjustment to the deployment of infrastructure funding to bridge the uncertain waters that the industry is treading. There also needs to be a clear and long-term vision of future work—and I believe a 25-year plan was mentioned in one of the presentations—that will instill confidence and allow the industry to optimize its role in Canada's recovery. We look forward to seeing how the CIB evolves into supporting that role. The construction industry has historically led Canada's economic growth, and we are ready to help rebuild that economy again.
Thank you. I am happy to take questions.