ADVISER NAMED FOR NEW BANK

The former head of one of the country’s largest pension funds is being tapped to help build a new federal infrastructure bank. The Liberals are naming Jim Leech as a special adviser to help design the proposed arm’s-length lending machine that could leverage billions in public money and turn it into new highways, bridges and transit projects. The Liberals plan to infuse the bank with $35 billion in funding to backstop projects, with the details of how it will work to be outlined in this year’s federal budget. Leech, a former head of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, has experience investing pension money in profit-generating infrastructure projects. The Liberals hope that large pension funds like the teachers’ plan will invest in the bank, which will use federal funds to attract private-sector dollars for major projects, possibly generating $4 to $5 in private funding for every $1 of federal money.