Thank you and good evening, Mr. Chair.
I am John Gamble, president and CEO of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies - Canada. I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your deliberations this evening.
We are the national voice of over 400 firms that provide engineering and other professional services to both public and private sectors across Canada. Our members are experts in infrastructure and are directly involved in all aspects of its planning and delivery. Canada is globally recognized for its engineering services. Our member firms are among the largest and most successful providers of engineering services in the world.
It is well documented that investments in infrastructure grow our economy, strengthen communities and improve our overall quality of life. While strategic approaches to infrastructure can potentially yield greater returns on investment, the local and varied needs of communities must also be considered. Targeted investments should not become top-down decisions imposed on communities. Therefore, the extent and the means by which investments should be targeted needs to be considered in the context of the size, nature and the required outcomes of infrastructure projects and programs. This means a suite of programs whose criteria should offer agility, flexibility and scalability.
The infrastructure investments that have been made in recent years by successive governments have been historic and laudable. It is both understandable and appropriate for government to leverage infrastructure investments as a tool to fulfill social, economic and environmental outcomes. These kinds of transformative projects are important, but a balanced approach is also needed. This is especially true when you consider the ongoing infrastructure deficit that was identified by the 2019 Canadian infrastructure report card.
The federal government, therefore, must also ensure that communities have reliable, core, nuts and bolts infrastructure that provides the economic capacity to invest in the other, more transformative projects. Whether infrastructure programs are strategically targeted or locally driven—and we need both—they need to be flexible and scalable. That's why we're pleased to see such things as the government's recent proposed investment of an additional $2.2 billion in the gas tax fund.
For more strategic and prescriptive programs, like the investing in Canada plan, every effort should be made to ensure that eligibility criteria focus on outcomes and that screening lenses are appropriate and proportional to the size and nature of projects.
As we all know and recognize, the sophistication, the capacity and the needs of communities across Canada and within first nations are incredibly varied. The government can help communities invest in the right infrastructure by helping build their capacity and increasing their access to best practices.
For example, imagine if communities with robust and well-considered asset management plans could easily demonstrate their strategic goals that address their local needs. We would like to see the government not only continue to provide and expand support for these asset management plans, but also allow municipalities and first nations to use the implementation of their asset management plans as the basis for funding, rather than constantly reapplying for funding on a project-by-project basis. I hope we'll have a chance to discuss this further.
Building a growing community capacity can be achieved, in part—and easily—by reinstating the national guide to sustainable municipal infrastructure, also known as InfraGuide, which ran from 2001 to 2008. It was a partnership between our friends at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the National Research Council and Infrastructure Canada. Its network of public and private sector experts produced a collection of case studies, best practices and e-learning tools for sustainable municipal infrastructure. Today, it would be closely aligned with much of the government's vision for infrastructure. Its reinstatement, or the creation of a comparable program, would provide resources, tools and capacity-building opportunities to communities, public agencies and stakeholders.
On a final note, I believe my aforementioned comments could potentially align with the national infrastructure assessment on which the government is undergoing consultations. This is the kind of undertaking that, if done well, has the potential to facilitate sound decision-making by providing accurate and reliable information on the state of our infrastructure. It would provide a home for state of the art information, for best practices and, just as importantly, for monitoring our progress. Such an initiative, combined with sufficient investments and well-designed funding mechanisms, will ensure that Canadians continue to enjoy social and economic benefits well into the future.
In summary, targeted infrastructure investments based upon asset management planning provide the most value to communities and the best return to the taxpayer. Therefore, targeting investment works best when we help communities develop and grow their capacity and when we make the necessary resources and best practices available to them.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you all this evening. I look forward to your questions.