That's a bit like asking, how long is a piece of string? There are so many ways that infrastructure can impact people's lives.
I can give you an example, something that is maybe not considered nuts and bolts infrastructure, but something like community housing, community centres, and what is sometimes called soft infrastructure. When somebody has trouble getting work, because they can't access a workplace, we can create a situation where they are in close proximity to where the jobs are, or create transit systems or transportation systems that allow people to access livelihoods. In that way more people are able to contribute to the tax base, which in turn contributes to more people helping to shoulder the burden of financing infrastructure.
Infrastructure creates value. We have to find ways to capture that value, so it's reinvested infrastructure and so we get that cyclic effect. It creates jobs in the short term, not just for engineers and constructors. One thing about infrastructure is that it continues to generate benefits long after my members and Sandra's members have gone, long after people have put away the blueprints, long after the ribbon cutting, and long after everyone involved in this call is done.
These assets are going to continue to provide benefits for decades, and we have to view investment infrastructure accordingly. If we want the best outcomes—societal, environmental, or economic—we can't treat infrastructure as an expense to be minimized, but rather an investment to be leveraged.
That would be my greatest advice in creating important societal change and getting the infrastructure we need. That would go a long way toward ensuring we're getting the right infrastructure.
Sometimes public procurement can constrain the design options. It can constrain the visioning that happens. I have many members who have big visions and big ideas on how to address the very problems you raise. We don't want to be hamstrung by unnecessary red tape, or procurement that encourages us to be as unimaginative as possible.