Liberals looking for shovel-ready infrastructure projects

OTTAWA — Canada’s new infrastructure minister says projects that are shovel-ready and meet the Liberal government’s national objectives will get some of the billions in new federal cash being made available.

Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi says those big objectives are threefold: grow the economy, create jobs and make the country more sustainable.

Sohi says shovel ready projects mean a municipality has done all the relevant studies, public consultation and planning – to qualify for financial help from the federal government.

He accused the Harper Conservatives of announcing money for projects that weren’t ready to begin so they could reap some political capital.

“We want to create a process where I don’t go out and make announcements without even consulting with my departmental staff or getting their input or not even having an application in for that project,” Sohi said. “We will develop some processes that bring in more accountability and also more transparency.”

That will include better explanations to cities about why a project proposal was rejected, and set new service standards like speeding up application processing times.

The Liberals have promised to increase infrastructure spending by an average of $6 billion a year over the next 10 years, raising the federal investment to $125 billion during that time.