The Canadian government’s 2017 budget is big on grand plans for infrastructure improvements in transportation, social needs and environmentally friendly utilities.
But there is relatively little on funding these projects, particularly through the concept of an infrastructure bank mostly funded by non-government investors like alternatives managers and domestic and international pension plans.
Finance Minister William Morneau, who introduced the budget to the Canadian House of Commons on March 22, “pitches it as a ‘stay-the course’ budget, but people think it’s more like a ‘wait-and-see’ budget,” said Scott McEvoy, Toronto-based partner and specialist on alternative investing at law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. “There wasn’t a lot of detail in the budget that the government didn’t already give.”
