Long-term infrastructure plan focused on building Ontario up

Ontario has released a new plan detailing the government’s commitment to build Ontario up through continued investments in public infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, public transit, roads and bridges.

People across the province rely on public infrastructure every day – from the roads, bridges and public transit they use to get to and from work, to the schools children learn and play in, to the hospitals where loved ones receive high-quality health care.

Building Better Lives: Ontario’s Long-Term Infrastructure Plan 2017 confirms the government’s record investment in infrastructure–about $190 billion over 13 years–is on track and includes new measures designed to respond to the changing needs of communities.

The plan highlights how Ontario is:

• Integrating climate change considerations into infrastructure planning to ensure environmental sustainability
• Building resilient and substantive infrastructure in an era of accelerated change and disruptive technologies
• Better linking infrastructure investments to social policy initiatives such as community benefits projects and apprenticeships that support more jobs and training opportunities
• Improving access to critical infrastructure such as broadband connectivity for communities across Ontario, whether in rural, Northern or urban areas
• Ensuring broader community need is taken into consideration in infrastructure planning and public property decision-making through the implementation of a Social Purpose Real Estate strategy
• Informing people about new infrastructure being built in their neighbourhoods through an interactive online map of over 3,500 projects across the province

The plan also includes Ontario’s first-ever asset inventory describing the condition, age and value of provincial infrastructure assets by sector.

Making significant infrastructure investments is part of Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

Bob Chiarelli

“Infrastructure is much more than bricks and mortar. It is the schools our children attend, the water we drink, the hospitals where we welcome new life and the roads that carry us home to our loved ones each day. Infrastructure is about people—and that is why it is fitting that our Long-Term Infrastructure Plan focuses on building better lives, says Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure.