No more new bridges, roads, or arenas for your community

March 21, 2014

Is there a road, a bridge, an arena, or other project just waiting to be built or fixed in your area?

What if I told you that you could kiss it goodbye because it’s not going to happen anymore… same goes for the jobs that could have been created.

Disappointing right?!

That’s because after April 1, the Building Canada Fund will be slashed by almost 90 percent. This drastic cut will do nothing to generate economic growth, help Canadian municipalities, or middle class families. The Conservatives aren’t planning to return to current investment levels for half a decade.

That’s why we want to hear from you – tell us which road, bridge, arena or other infrastructure-related project in your area won’t be fixed or built because of Stephen Harper’s cuts.

Mr. Harper used a trick you could call “bundle and postpone”.  It looks like he’s making a big infrastructure investment. But really the money is drying up on April 1st.

The graph above makes it clear.

— On the left you can see the sums announced for infrastructure since 2007

— In the middle is the “infrastructure cliff” as funding plummets on April 1

— On the right we have “promises”; money that is supposed to be for infrastructure investments but that is not locked in. This is Harper’s infamous “bundle and postpone” trick — and we don’t trust him to deliver.

While this is bad news for all Canadians and all municipalities, the worst part is Harper’s Conservatives want to hide it from you.

Instead of slashing, we should be investing in order to create jobs and generate the growth that will benefit our communities.

It’s crucial that we know what could be built or fixed in your region but is now at risk. Will the new Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, do the right thing and reverse these drastic cuts to infrastructure? I doubt it.

Click here and tell us which road, bridge, arena or other infrastructure-related project in your area deserves federal investments.

I’ve made sure our team is ready to go through your feedback so we can report on it to the Liberal caucus.

We Liberals will continue to fight for you and for all Canadian municipalities. And we look forward to your feedback.

Thank you.

Marc Garneau

MP, Westmount—Ville-Marie