Liberal government unveils ranks of new Infrastructure Bank’s board of directors

OTTAWA – The federal government is putting in place the 10 people who will guide a new agency designed to help finance new highways and transit systems across Canada.

The newly unveiled list of directors for the Liberal government’s new infrastructure bank includes lawyers, business leaders, a former mayor of Calgary, Indigenous leaders and the former president of the Montreal airport authority.

The announcement is a key step for the agency, which the Liberals have promised to have up and running by the end of the year.

The board, led by former Royal Bank executive Janice Fukakusa, will help the Trudeau government decide who should be the agency’s first chief executive. Former Calgary mayor David Bronconnier is also a member, as is James Cherry, formerly president and CEO of Aeroports de Montreal.

The bank will take $35 billion in government funding and use the money to potentially leverage three or four times that much in private dollars to help finance infrastructure projects across the country.

Eligible projects will have to generate revenue, meaning roads, bridges, water and transit systems where user fees help to defray costs.

SOURCE: 2017 The Canadian Press