BANK FOR FINANCING PUBLIC PROJECTS

The provincial government has unveiled a new infrastructure strategy, announcing plans to create a new Ontario Infrastructure Bank. The new agency will be responsible for attracting investors to participate in large projects to build the necessary infrastructure, with a proposed initial funding of three billion dollars from the public purse.

And as Premier Doug Ford's government faces questions about why it wants to create a bank to attract private-sector investment in projects such as long-term care homes, nuclear reactors and student housing, Ontario's infrastructure bank has been a hot topic in government. A fiscal update revealed the province's current deficit is $5.6 billion, four times more than projected in the budget Finance Minister Peter Bettlenfalvey proposed in March.

The government's capital plan calls for the spending of $185 billion over the next 10 years to build transit, highways, hospitals, schools, long-term care homes and other infrastructure projects.

Betlenfalvi pitches the infrastructure bank as a way to finance the construction of projects "that otherwise might not get built."

Brian Lewis, a fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, says Ontario's challenges in building infrastructure have always been getting projects done on schedule, never funding them.

The question many are asking is: Is it good for taxpayers?

Ontario currently finances all major construction projects by borrowing money.

Funding the projects through the Ontario Infrastructure Bank would reduce the province's borrowing, a senior finance ministry official said.