Canadian Legislative Issues

For many Canadians summer is a time of vacation, slightly less intense days at the office, and maximizing the precious warm months that are the exception and not the rule for most of our country. For politicians, ever-wary of the label of full-time pay for part-time work, the hot months are for BBQs with voters and flesh-pressing in the riding. Time away from capitals also means cutting novelty-sized ribbons with 40 inch scissors and posing for photos with local grandees and cheques the size of king mattresses. In summer politics, as in Texas, everything is bigger. This may be truer than ever this season, given a renewed push from Ottawa and the provinces towards greater infrastructure spending.

Though the federal government has warned us that the current first phase of its massive new infrastructure spend will be mostly "unsexy" items like repairs to existing projects and equipment – the political equivalent of filling potholes – even they have been unable entirely to resist the opportunity $60 billion in new funding presents.

The Prime Minister recently traveled to Vancouver, as an example, to announce nearly a billion dollars in infrastructure for British Columbia alongside a Premier whose beaming smile was eclipsed only by the picturesque mountains in the backdrop of the photo op. That billion won’t go to potholes alone and one can expect it to translate into more oversized ribbons and "announceables" in the months to come.

Ontario, in a similar vein, recently announced a $20 million investment in electric vehicle charging stations that reportedly will allow today’s EV owners to travel from Windsor to Ottawa and from Toronto to North Bay without being overcome by range anxiety along the way. Though a significant announcement in itself, it is only a drop in the bucket of the province’s $325 million Green Investment Fund, out of which many more such announcements will be made over the long hot "no-politics-allowed" months.

Canada, it is often said, has two seasons: winter and construction. The latter of these two may as well also be called ribbon-cutting season, and leaders across the country are sharpening their scissors this month with an unprecedented fiscal bonanza waiting to be announced. Let us hope these funds are wisely invested, and that dividends may be yielded for generations to come.