As I mentioned in response to the previous question, I was asked by the former minister of finance, Mr. Morneau, to join the council, which I accepted, along with about a dozen other people.
We took on this pretty broad challenge of developing some ideas for the government to consider and for the government to elaborate on. These were ideas that could have the effect of boosting Canada's potential rate of economic growth. As you know, particularly at that time, the outlook for Canada's potential growth rate was not very inspiring. It was running at a rate lower than it had been historically in Canada.
Action on the part of the government—all levels of government, not just the federal government—was required and continues to be required to deal with this very substantial challenge that we have as Canadians.
The work of the council was focused on a whole variety of possible levers that governments could use to address this pretty pressing issue. We worked as a group on all of those. The work of the council was subdivided into various working groups, etc. Given my work in the world of investment, my work at the council was focused significantly on issues around investment and how to improve levels of investment in Canada, which continues to be a significant challenge going forward.
Part of that was work on infrastructure because ultimately that is about finding ways to enhance levels of investment to provide Canada with the kind of infrastructure that we need to make our cities more habitable and more efficient, to make transit systems work better and to help us deal with the pressing issues of climate change, etc. There are a whole variety of things where infrastructure can contribute to helping meet many of the challenges facing the country.
That was pretty much the work we did.
You also mentioned, sir, the activities of the bank. We are encouraged, given the hat that I currently wear as the deputy minister of finance for the Government of Canada, that we've seen, really about three years after the start of the Infrastructure Bank, a substantial pickup in the velocity of activity. Now I think the bank has done more than 40 different investments. It has invested something in the order of more than $9 billion or $9.5 billion, and it continues to ramp up its level of activity.
After what was—let's be honest about it—a fairly slow start for the Infrastructure Bank, now, under the leadership the bank currently has at both the level of the board, the CEO and the senior executives of the bank, I think we're seeing a Canadian institution really beginning to hit its stride.
Dealing with, for instance, some of the real issues that Mayor Brown referred to, what the bank's doing in Brampton, it's also doing in Ottawa and for the electrification of Quebec school buses—just to stay in the area of transportation. It's doing a lot of other things with respect to improving the climate performance of a steel company, etc. There's a whole range of transactions that it has done. We're beginning to see something that's making a very positive and important contribution to the country.