Records show the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) lost almost $900,000 in consultants’ fees on a failed climate project, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “This is the bank’s first investment commitment in a transmission project,” said CIB in a statement. The CIB said in an inquiry of ministry tabled in the House of Commons it lost $899,318 on the Lake Erie Connector — a proposal to run a 117-km underwater electricity transmission line from Haldimand County, ON, to Erie County, PA. Losses were spent on legal and financial advice and expertise related to electricity transmission. It pledged up to $655 million or 40% of the total cost of the Lake Erie Connector by ITC Investment Holdings. Its management said the Lake Erie Connector was a climate-friendly investment. “It is another example of the bank’s momentum to quickly implement its $10 billion growth plan,” said its management. “This project will allow Ontario to export clean, non-emitting power to one of the largest power markets in the world.”Construction was never started. It was abandoned in 2022. Details of the CIB’s losses were tabled at the request of Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, ON), who asked for the total expenditures by it on projects that were not completed, delayed, or abandoned. Parliament launched it in 2017 with $35 billion in taxpayer financing on a mandate to build new public works by attracting private investment. The House of Commons Transport Committee recommended in a report in 2022 cabinet disband it. MPs cited a submission from the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) that called its performance “pretty dismal.” “Much of the discussion throughout this study turned on the question of the Bank’s efficiency with several witnesses expressing concern that projects were not flowing as quickly as expected,” said the CCA. Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer said at a Commons Transport Committee meeting in 2021 the CIB’s CEOs “have all made amazing claims that the $35 billion the Infrastructure Bank has, taxpayers’ money, would be able to unlock two times, four times, even seven times, the investment from the private sector.”“You haven’t got it done,” said Scheer. CIB CEO Ehren Cory said in February it has approved easy-term climate loans that will see taxpayers wait decades to get their money back. READ MORE: Canada Infrastructure Bank approves easy-term 'climate' loans“Our terms are quite flexible,” said Cory. “Infrastructure assets live a long time and so our loans have quite long terms.”
