Building Infrastructure, Creating Jobs

The Harper Government is fulfilling its promise to balance the budget in 2015. Canada's Economic Action Plan has been underpinned by prudent fiscal management and the Government's low-tax plan for jobs, growth and security. Since the depths of the recession, over 1.2 million net new jobs have been created—overwhelmingly full-time, well-paying and in the private sector.

At the same time, the Government has lowered taxes every year since coming into office, and has delivered the lowest overall federal tax burden in over 50 years.

The Government's balanced-budget, low-tax plan for jobs, growth and security is working. But the job is not done. There are new challenges on the horizon, and the Government must stay the course to protect the economic interests of Canadians and the security of Canada.

Economic Action Plan 2015 (EAP 2015) builds a stronger Canada by:

Investing in Infrastructure

Infrastructure is vital to our economy—it gets our goods to market, Canadians to work in the morning, and back home to their families at night. The Harper Government's investments in infrastructure have been historic, supporting tens of thousands of projects—like roads, bridges, subways, rail, and much more—from coast to coast to coast. Canada has led the Group of Seven (G-7) in public investment since the Harper Government came to power.

With EAP 2015, the Government is continuing to provide $5.35 billion per year on average for provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure under the New Building Canada Plan.

In Canada's largest cities, major public transit improvements are needed to reduce congestion and the cost of gridlock for our businesses. EAP 2015 will provide new funding of $750 million over two years, starting in 2017–18, and $1 billion per year ongoing thereafter to a new Public Transit Fund. This Fund—the Government's largest targeted infrastructure program—will promote public transit infrastructure investment in a manner that is affordable for taxpayers and efficient for commuters. The Public Transit Fund will complement the Government's existing infrastructure support by providing significant long-term support for public transit projects. These are projects that can improve the mobility of goods and people and provide broad benefits to Canadian cities.

EAP 2015 also announces the creation of a new dedicated infrastructure fund to support the renovation, expansion and improvement of existing community infrastructure in all regions of the country as part of the Canada 150 celebrations.

Building Infrastructure Since 2006

Recognizing the vital role played by infrastructure in creating jobs, growth and long-term prosperity, the Harper Government's infrastructure investments since 2006 have been historic:

• $33 billion through the 2007 Building Canada Plan, the first long-term, stable and predictable federal plan to provide funding to provinces, territories and municipalities to support their respective public infrastructure priorities.
• Its successor, the 10-year, over $53 billion New Building Canada Plan launched in 2014 (which includes $6 billion in ongoing funding from the 2007 Building Canada Plan).
• Infrastructure stimulus measures, which have supported 30,000 projects across the country, as part of the 2009 Economic Action Plan.

The result is a dramatic increase in federal funding. Annual federal support has increased from $571 million in 2003–04 to an estimated $5 billion in 2015–16.

These unprecedented investments attest to the Government's unwavering commitment to building new infrastructure that fuels Canada's economy.