Canada’s cities and smaller communities are facing a looming crisis in deferred maintenance and construction of critical infrastructure, both physical and social. Indeed, eight years into the Federal government’s Investing in Canada Plan, Canada’s infrastructure deficit is estimated at a minimum of $150B, and up to a trillion dollars.
The lack of this critical urban infrastructure – from roads and water systems to transit, parks, and public housing – weakens Canada’s global competitiveness. And it doesn’t just undermine the potential for place-based prosperity, but also weakens civic infrastructure. Faltering community support systems have led to a mental health and drug addiction crisis and a decline in civic engagement, undermining the culture of collective care and connection that used to define Canada. Addressing the infrastructure deficit is key to bolstering democracy, and will require multi-solving, cross-sectoral investments from both provincial and federal governments.
The chapters in this report, commissioned from experts and researchers across Canada, tackle these issues and explore ways forward.
The report was originally written in collaboration with, and to be launched at, the Canadian Urban Institute’s State of Canada’s Cities Summit, held in Ottawa in December 2024.
Foreword
Hardly a day goes by without news of transit system failure, congested highways, flooded schools, and overcrowded long-term care facilities. Canada’s rapidly growing population, fuelled by immigration, is taxing both physical and social infrastructure in our communities. Not only is this infrastructure inadequate to address today’s challenges, but it also lacks the resilience to adapt to the uncertain crises of the future, from climate change to economic and political turmoil. It’s clear: we are not keeping up.
Canada desperately needs rigorous research on our growing infrastructure deficit to spur more effective policy-making and action. To that end, the Canadian Urban Institute and University of Toronto’s School of Cities partnered to commission a series of articles on the infrastructure deficit from Canadian universities, to spell out the challenges communities of all sizes are facing. With 46 authors from 18 different institutions, this volume provides the evidence base needed by multiple orders of government to design and implement new approaches to infrastructure investment – and soon.
Canada’s Urban Infrastructure Deficit begins with an overview of the challenges by Exon Smith, Chapple, Fagan, and Siemiatycki. The chapter shows how Canadian infrastructure policy, programs, and investments have evolved over time – both positively and negatively – and identifies international best practices that Canada needs to consider to build more sustainable and equitable infrastructure to anchor its democracy.
Next, the volume assesses challenges and potential solutions in three broad areas: housing and governance, social and civic infrastructure, and transportation and sustainability. The recent addition of the responsibility for housing to the name and mandate of a major federal department – Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada – underscores the public realization that housing is infrastructure. In other words, the housing affordability crisis will not be solved in isolation, simply by building more: housing has to be coordinated with investments in all forms of infrastructure that build complete communities where people thrive.
To reach the scale of investment required, the public sector must resume a significant role in housing delivery, a theme explored by four articles in this volume. Frate and Robitaille probe the long-term shift toward greater municipal autonomy and explore the opportunities and risks of using preemption, or greater provincial control, to address the infrastructure deficit. Connolly, Grisdale, Power, Flynn, Jones, Rigsby, and Walks describe how the absence of a robust data infrastructure across multiple orders of government is creating a significant barrier to leveraging public lands for housing development. Two papers show how the housing crisis has amplified existing infrastructure challenges in the North. Pottie-Sherman and Christensen highlight the disconnect between northern housing policy and immigration policy, and Tsenkova, Derkowski, and Taylor argue for the diversification of housing models, following models put forward by Indigenous-led organizations.
The second area this volume highlights is the risk Canada faces with respect to the state of our social and civic infrastructure, from libraries to schools to playgrounds. These institutions and spaces support Canadian cities by facilitating connections across diverse groups, providing access to opportunity, building trust in the public sector, and fostering space for democracy. As Biggar, Veloso, and Pottie-Sherman show for Halifax, cities often have inadequate community spaces to welcome newcomers. Mehta argues that community media infrastructure ensures access to trustworthy information and empowers local communities to dispute misinformation and participate in civic discussions. Both social and physical infrastructure are essential to addressing the social determinants of health, and well-connected, protected bike lanes are key to healthy cities, as explored by Fuller, Winters, Kestens, Mamiya, Sones, Thierry, and Poirier Stephens.
Finally, four articles examine the sustainability challenges related to transport and water infrastructure. Fischer, Anderson-Gregson, Farber, Tiznado-Aitken, Páez, Winters, Woodward, and Smith examine sustainable transport modes like walking, cycling, and public transit. Their research reveals low levels of access – particularly for walkability – and acute transportation disadvantages for Indigenous groups and extreme commuters. Similarly, Parga, Soukhov, Arku, Higgins, and Páez point out how shifts in transit service since the pandemic have disproportionately affected low-income groups in cities across Canada. Analyzing the issue of cost overruns in transit system construction, Mok, Crane, Chitti, and Shalaby show how Canada could do better by adopting practices of project planning and cost estimation used in Europe and Asia. Ahuja, Saxe, and Meyer analyze greenhouse gas emissions from water infrastructure, identifying the benefits of denser urban form.
The challenges outlined here only begin to cover all of Canada’s infrastructure gaps. And if we do not act, these gaps will only grow bigger: our infrastructure is aging, with many of our collective assets built decades or even a century ago. Infrastructure is expensive, but it is a remarkable job creator, and a gift that keeps on giving by delivering benefits to future generations. It is also essential to making our economy productive, our communities safe, our neighbourhoods vibrant, and our lives rewarding.
In the future we are eager to explore topics such as education, labour, and culture, among others. Cross-cutting themes such as how to finance both operations and new infrastructure investment, the potential for data and technologies to introduce efficiencies, how to adapt infrastructure for an aging population, and addressing climate-related challenges, deserve volumes of their own.
At a time of global political, economic, and climate upheaval, Canada must strengthen the quality of its places, and their capacity to support the people living and working in them. This body of research is an important contribution to the serious conversation Canadians are beginning to have about assessing our infrastructure needs and the actions needed to secure our future.
– Karen Chapple and Mary W. Rowe
Canada’s Infrastructure Deficit: What’s needed
This video accompanies the report and looks at the gap between Canada’s current infrastructure and what we need in order to grow our economies and communities. Our decisions about infrastructure investment need to be based on data and evidence, and spending shouldn’t be ad hoc and only aimed at filing in the gaps.
Topics
Making Up for Lost Time: Strategic infrastructure development for growth and resilience
This introductory chapter discusses the evolution of Canadian infrastructure policy since WWII, outlines the critical role of infrastructure in economic productivity and innovation, and explores how civic infrastructure facilitates interaction across different income and ethnic groups.
- Kathryn Exon Smith, Senior Research Officer, School of Cities, University of Toronto
- Karen Chapple, Director, School of Cities and Professor, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto
- Drew Fagan, Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- Matti Siemiatycki, Director, Infrastructure Institute and Professor, Department of Geography & Planning University of Toronto
Housing & Governance
Toward an Open Database of Public Land Ownership: A key to addressing housing affordability challenges in Canadian cities
Canada’s capacity to develop an equitable response to the housing affordability crisis depends on having access to information about public lands. Through partnerships with 13 localities across Canada, the authors found that there are only a few instances of truly open and accessible data on public lands – a serious hinderance to constructing new affordable housing infrastructure reliant on free or low-cost land.
- James Connolly, Associate Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia
- Sean Grisdale, PhD candidate, Department of Geography, Geomatics, and the Environment, University of Toronto and Fellow, Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance
- Cameron Power, Planning Analyst, City of Vancouver
- Alexandra Flynn, Associate Professor and Director, Housing Research Collaborative, Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia
- Craig Jones, Associate Director, Housing Research Collaborative, Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia
- Andrew Rigsby, Data Access and Engagement Manager, Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART), University of British Columbia
- Alan Walks, Professor, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto
Immigration, Housing, and Infrastructure Deficits in the Urban North: Situating northern immigration policy and equitable prosperity within a context of chronic housing need
This chapter shows that the northern housing crisis, in tandem with northern immigration policy, reveals critical deficits in infrastructure in northern Canada and vulnerabilities in the capacity of the North to promote equity in Indigenous home sovereignties and sustainably welcome newcomers.
- Yolande Pottie-Sherman, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Julia Christensen, Associate Professor, Department Geography and Planning, Queen’s University
Between Expansion and Preemption: Canadian municipal powers in an age of infrastructure deficit
This chapter explores the status of municipal powers in Canada amidst ongoing and complex legislative and judicial changes, focusing on the infrastructure deficit and highlighting two conflicting trends – expansion and preemption, whereby provinces and courts have significantly expanded municipal powers but municipalities still frequently encounter reminders of their subordination to provincial control.
- Benoît Frate, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Tourism, Université du Québec à Montréal
- David Robitaille, Professor and Associate Dean (Academic), Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
Pathways to Resilience: Addressing the housing crisis in Canada’s North
This chapter recognizes the power of recent housing initiatives by Indigenous-led organizations, and argues for transformational change to build more resilience through policy integration, and investment in affordable housing to open pathways towards reconciliation and improve economic and social opportunities.
- Sasha Tsenkova, Professor, School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, University of Calgary
- Kristel Derkowski, Manager of Research and Development, Taylor Architecture Group, Yellowknife
- Simon Taylor, Principal and owner, Taylor Architecture Group, Yellowknife
Social & Civic Infrastructure
Constraints on Social Infrastructure Facing Newcomer Communities in Halifax
This chapter examines how newcomers engage with community spaces, the challenges faced by organizations in developing and maintaining social infrastructure, and the capacity of existing community gathering spaces for newcomers in Halifax, and makes recommendations pertaining to infrastructure planning for Halifax Regional Municipality.
- Jeffrey Biggar, Assistant Professor, School of Planning, Dalhousie University
- J.A Veloso, Recent graduate, Master of Planning, Dalhousie University
- Yolande Pottie-Sherman, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador
Community Media Infrastructures and “the Right to Know and Tell” in Canadian Cities
Through a case study of FOCUS Media Arts Centre in Toronto, the author shows how hyper-local groups respond to the gaps in news and media infrastructures by producing representative alternative media in various accessible formats; training residents in media production and literacy; circulating community-based non-English information; and creating informal, trustworthy mechanisms for hyperlocal information exchange and organizing.
- Aditi Mehta, Assistant Professor, Urban Studies, University of Toronto
Moving Healthy Cities Forward: The state of cycling infrastructure in Canada
In this chapter, the authors look at deficits in health-promoting infrastructure in Canada by focusing on one aspect of what makes a healthy city – cycling infrastructure – and presenting evidence on its health benefits and reviewing the current state of cycling infrastructure in four Canadian cities.
- Daniel Fuller, Associate Professor, Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan
- Meghan Winters, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University & CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Research Chair
- Yan Kestens, Professor, École de santé publique, l’Université de Montréal
- Hiroshi Mamiya, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, School of Population and Global Health, McGill University
- Meridith Sones, Knowledge Mobilization Manager, INTERACT
- Benoît Thierry, GIS Specialist, INTERACT
- Zoé Poirier Stephens, Research Manager, INTERACT
Transportation & Sustainability
Enhancing Equity in Transportation Infrastructure Planning: An analysis of disparities in spatial access to select destinations in Canada
This chapter evaluates access to schools, grocery stores, employment, healthcare, sport and recreation facilities, cultural venues, and post-secondary institutions, using sustainable transportation modes (walking, cycling, and public transit) and focusing on five populations who may experience transportation burdens: extreme commuters, low-income and housing-burdened households, and Black and Indigenous peoples. The research compares outcomes across large urban areas to provide a comprehensive snapshot of accessibility dynamics.
- Jaimy Fischer, Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Human Geography, UTSC and Knowledge Mobilization Lead, Mobilizing Justice
- Brenn Anderson-Gregson, PhD candidate, Department of Planning, UTSC
- Steven Farber, Professor, Human Geography, UTSC and Lead, Mobilizing Justice
- Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto and Associate Director, Mobilizing Justice
- Antonio Páez, Professor, School of Earth, Environment and Society, McMaster University
- Meghan Winters, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- Ben Woodward, MSc candidate, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo
- Alex Smith, Education and Research Group, Esri Canada
Understanding the Drivers of Transit Construction Costs in Canada: A comparative study
This chapter delves into Metrolinx’s project portfolio in the Toronto area, comparing it with transit initiatives in global cities, categorizing expenses into soft and hard costs, and identifying specific cost drivers linked to project scope and design choices. Comparisons with peer cases reveal four primary cost-driving factors – design choices, procurement, risk management practices, and external constraints – and the authors propose reforms in project planning, delivery, and cost estimation that can be implemented across Canada.
- Jedwin Mok, Research Fellow, Metrolinx
- Balthazar Crane, Senior Transportation Planner, Metrolinx
- Marco Chitti, Fellow, Marron Institute of Urban Management, New York University
- Amer Shalaby, Professor and Bahen/Tanenbaum Chair in Civil Engineering, University of Toronto and founding Director of the Transit Analytics Lab
Democratic access to our cities: The impacts of recent changes to transit services in major Canadian metropolitan areas
This chapter reports changes in public transit service in Canada’s 12 largest census metro areas and assesses transit accessibility levels to jobs and groceries – showing how levels changed spatially and for people in different income levels and highlighting how changes in service levels impact accessibility to important destinations.
- João Pedro Parga, PhD candidate, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto
- Anastasia Soukhov, PhD candidate, School of Earth, Environment and Society, McMaster University
- Robert Nutifafa Arku, PhD candidate, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto
- Christopher Higgins, Assistant Professor, Department of Human Geography, UTSC & Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto
- Antonio Páez, Professor, School of Earth, Environment and Society, McMaster University
Water Infrastructure Renewal Policies to Enable Equitable and Sustainable Prosperity
Using publicly available pipe data from neighbourhoods in 11 cities across four Canadian provinces, this chapter evaluates the influence of neighbourhood-level urban design on the per capita embodied emissions of water, sanitary, and stormwater networks, and finds that emissions go down when population density goes up and when the percentage of single-family homes decreases.
- Chaitanya Ahuja, MASc candidate, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto
- Shoshanna Saxe, Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto & Canada Research Chair (Tier II), Sustainable Infrastructure
- David Meyer, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering & Centre for Global Engineering, University of Toronto
