The Carney government is boosting taxpayer funding for the Canada Infrastructure Bank by 29%, even though the agency still hasn’t used the full pot of money it received when it was created eight years ago and its own CEO claimed it had become “self-sustaining.”Blacklock's Reporter says buried in Bill C-15, the budget implementation bill, is a provision raising the bank’s financing to $45 billion — up from the original $35 billion Parliament approved in 2017. Cabinet offered no explanation for the near one-third increase.The bank was launched with the promise it would spend in major public-works projects by drawing private-sector dollars. Conservatives say it has failed to meet that mandate. “Liberals are increasing its funding despite its failure,” MP Cheryl Gallant (Algonquin–Renfrew, Ont.) told the Commons.CEO Ehren Cory, who earns $679,000 a year, admitted in October testimony that only half the bank’s initial financing has actually been used. Just seven projects are completed or operating nationwide. .He insisted, however, that the bank has committed over $17 billion toward more than 100 projects, with a combined capital value of $50 billion. Seventy-one of those projects are still under construction.Cory told MPs the bank’s loans and equity stakes are fully repayable and now generate enough interest to cover operating costs. “As of last year the bank reached the status of being self-sustaining,” he said, meaning it no longer requires operating appropriations.Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North) defended the bank in the Commons, claiming its projects support “tens of thousands of jobs” and accusing Conservatives of wanting to shut it down outright.But even Liberal MPs on the transport committee previously recommended privatizing the agency. .A 2022 report concluded the bank’s performance was “pretty dismal,” a view echoed by the Canadian Construction Agency.MPs also highlighted failed ventures, including the Lake Erie Connector — a climate project that burned through $899,318 in legal and consulting fees before collapsing. And in 2024, the committee confirmed the Bank approved $1 billion for new BC Ferries vessels to be built in China’s state-owned Weihai Shipyards, a decision slammed by Conservative MP Dan Albas (Okanagan Lake West–South Kelowna, B.C.) for offshoring Canadian jobs while bank executives collected bonuses.
