Canada’s Early Days Brought Us a Transcontinental Railway. Let’s Restore Our Ability to Build Infrastructure

Canadian Pacific Railway director Hon. Donald A. Smith drives home the symbolic “last spike” in a ceremony marking the completion of the railway in Craigellachie, B.C., on Nov. 7, 1885. The Canadian Press/National Archives of Canada

Commentary

In 1885, a ceremonial final spike was driven into a piece of railway track in B.C. to signify the completion of Canada’s transcontinental railway. The rail line linked the nation from coast to coast and the federation of Canada likely would never have remained united without it. The line was constructed through some of the roughest terrain on earth, with unforgiving weather conditions and limited technology. Canada had proven itself a tenacious, forward-thinking nation that could get things done. It truly was a wonder of its day.

Today, cities across the country struggle to complete even short, light-rail transit projects to service growing populations, and major cross-country infrastructure projects such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion suffer from major delays and massive cost overruns.

Calgary’s Green Line light rail transit expansion has been plagued with delays and cost overruns since 2015. Construction was to begin in 2017 and nearly 50 kilometres of track was to be constructed by 2024 for a price of $4.6 billion. In early August, Green Line planners sheepishly released a new Green Line plan which would only be 10 kilometres long while the price tag for the project had grown to $6.2 billion. Although $1.5 billion had been spent on land acquisition and engineering work, no track had been laid in nine years.

Now, the Alberta government has suspended its funding commitment and the Green Line likely will never be built.

Calgary isn’t alone. Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver are all experiencing severe challenges in expanding rail transportation infrastructure.

Canada’s population has been surging, with 3.2 percent growth in 2023 leading to a population of nearly 41 million people. While immigration may be slower in the future, it won’t be stopping. Most of the growth is happening in major cities, and infrastructure of every kind is being overwhelmed. If Canada can’t figure out how to construct major infrastructure projects, whether in transportation, health, or educational facilities, the challenges of today will become a crisis tomorrow.

Labour costs, high land prices, excessive regulations from all levels of government, and a glacial pace of bureaucratic approvals for projects have made it nearly impossible to get anything done within projected budgets or timelines. Something must change.

The first thing that must be done to get costs in line for megaprojects is to speed up the timelines. Delays always lead to cost overruns and make it difficult for contractors to plan for construction work.

Nothing delays a project more effectively than having multiple levels of government involved. Transportation infrastructure projects are usually dependent on funding from all three levels of government and the funding comes with strings attached. A municipal government can spend years locking in funding sources for a project only to find the cost has grown beyond their budget while they had been negotiating. Only one level of government should be managing a project. If different levels of government start squabbling over a project, contractors will flee and costs will rise while work becomes stalled. Multiple levels of government can certainly pitch in funding, but there can only be one level running the show.

Regulations must be dramatically cut. The Trans Mountain Pipeline project required 1,187 permits from the province of B.C. alone. That doesn’t include Albertan permits, municipal permits, or federal permits. The detail required and the redundancy with construction permits is out of control. It will take some political fortitude to stand down the bureaucracies, but the regulations for major projects must be brought in line.

Transparency in the process for large infrastructure projects is essential both for maintaining public support and reducing cronyism or potential corruption. Discretion is required in business dealings, but if contracts are awarded through sole sourcing to companies with political connections, they often haven’t gone to the best bidder. Public cynicism in the process then grows, and projects can face cancellation or delays if a new government takes power. Public accounts should be visible to the taxpayers footing the bill.

Governments should be studying other jurisdictions for inspiration on speeding up infrastructure construction. In the Netherlands, a 70-metre underpass was constructed under a major highway in 48 hours. In Calgary, renovations for a bridge connecting the city’s downtown is expected to take 18 months. While preparation for the Dutch project took months and costs were high, we should be looking at initiatives like that and seeing what we can emulate.

Canadians are feeling the economic pinch with housing as the population grows. While efforts have been made to relieve the housing crunch, we aren’t hearing about work being done to relieve the infrastructure bottleneck. If the nation wants to maintain and enjoy comfort and prosperity while growing, it must figure out how to efficiently expand its infrastructure. We need to become world leaders in responsible development again.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.