June 2, 2005

Ontario Hospital Association Conference on Capital Planning in the New
Era of LHINs - Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel
by David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal

Check Against Delivery.

Thanks very much, Reg Andres for the introduction. I’m delighted to be here this morning, to represent the Government of Ontario.

And I’m delighted to be sharing the stage here with my distinguished political colleagues, the Mark Holland, MP, Ajax-Pickering, and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone.

I bring greetings from our Premier, the Honourable Dalton McGuinty. And I’d like to extend a special welcome to those of you who are here from the United States and overseas.

I want to thank the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering for organizing this important and timely conference. My ministry is proud to be a partner in this event. But I also have to admit that our participation is not entirely devoid of self-interest.

We are about to begin a major infrastructure renewal and expansion program in Ontario. And we need the expertise and experience of people like you to make our program a success.

This morning, I’d like to tell you about the infrastructure challenges we’re facing in Ontario, and the steps we’re taking to meet them.

Some of you probably know that engineering is sometimes called “the invisible profession.” And that’s because even though quality engineering is very important, most people never see or appreciate the work that engineers do.

In the same way, “public infrastructure” sounds like pretty dull stuff, and much of it is invisible to most people. But as you know, it’s absolutely essential to our society and it’s critical to our competitiveness and our quality of life.

But our province is facing some major challenges in this area.

First, much of our existing infrastructure is old and beginning to wear out. Some of the water pipes in cities like Ottawa and Toronto were installed before the turn of the century ... and I’m talking about the before the 20th century.

Some of our highways were named in honour of Queen Elizabeth but that was our current Queen’s mother.

Some of our schools were built in the 1920s and so were some of our hospitals.

The second part of our infrastructure challenge is that we are going to need a lot more – to accommodate the rapid growth we’re expecting over the next 25 years.

And this brings me to the third major aspect of our infrastructure challenge. The question is: where are we going to find the money? Tens of billions of dollars are needed. And unfortunately, although we have tens of millions of trees in Ontario, not one of them is a money tree!

There’s no appetite for new taxes. And even if there was, there is no way that the provincial budget could provide all the investment dollars that are needed.

Clearly, we need to start thinking outside of the box. And that is precisely what our government has been doing.

Before getting into more detail on our plans for infrastructure renewal I’d like to briefly describe the overall approach we’ve taken to planning for Ontario’s future growth.

Ontario is expecting some four million new people over the next 25 years. Over the same period, we’re projecting the provincial economy to generate almost two million new jobs.

Most of the new people will move into the Greater Golden Horseshoe region extending around the shores of Lake Ontario, from Peterborough to Niagara. This part of Ontario has already grown rapidly over the past several decades – and that growth is expected to continue.

Previous provincial governments did not plan well for growth. They developed short-term solutions and assumed they’d be good enough.

Today, the problems with short-term thinking are obvious. And the situation is coming to a head in the Greater Golden Horseshoe – where urban sprawl is causing more and more traffic gridlock, degrading air quality, eating up farmland and greenspace, and creating inadequacies in our public infrastructure.

However, it’s a much different story in parts of northern and rural parts of Ontario. In many communities, growth has slowed down, or stopped altogether. Young people have to move away to find employment, and the tax base is declining.

In these communities, the problem is not how to control and focus growth, but rather how to stimulate more of it.

The proposed Places to Grow Act, which is currently before the provincial legislature, is new legislation that addresses both scenarios. The legislation would allow the provincial government to work with local communities and other stakeholders to develop growth plans for any area of Ontario.

The plans would provide clear direction on how and where future growth should take place in each growth plan area.

Growth planning would enable us to get a firm grip on growth in south-central Ontario, and to plan ways to attract more growth in those areas where it’s needed.

Just as importantly, growth planning would enable us to focus on the benefits of growth, and avoid potentially harmful effects, such as urban sprawl.

Given the urgent need to address the growth pressures in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, which is the fastest-growing and most important economic region in Canada, our government has been consulting for the past year on the priorities for a growth plan for this area.

This past February, I released a draft Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The draft plan sets out, for the first time in Ontario’s history, a rational and coherent plan for future development in this vital part of the province.

This is the first growth plan that would come into effect if the proposed Places to Grow Act is passed into law. And the growth plan would serve as an important companion piece to another important new government initiative called the Greenbelt Plan.

The Greenbelt Plan covers an area that runs across and around the Greater Golden Horseshoe. It is designed to protect 1.8 million acres of environmentally sensitive and agricultural land from major urban development.

In effect, the Greenbelt Plan spells out clearly where we do not want urban growth to take place in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area.

Our draft growth plan for this important area contains important changes in the way we develop and use our urban land.

For example, it sets an intensification target within the built areas within the plan area by the year 2015 it proposes more transit-supportive development in greenfields and it identifies urban growth centres where growth can revitalize existing downtowns.

The draft growth plan also calls for investments in expanded public transit, to reduce our dependency on cars. And it points to the importance of redeveloping brownfield and greyfield sites.

The bottom line is that Ontario is getting smarter about how it grows. And I’m pleased to say that we are meeting this challenge head-on.

Last week, I released Ontario’s new five-year infrastructure investment plan, called ReNew Ontario. Over the next five years, the plan calls for more than $30 billion in infrastructure investments by the province and its partners.

The main focus of our infrastructure investment in the next five years will be the areas Ontarians have told us are the most important: healthcare, education and the maintenance of our economic prosperity, especially through improvements in our transit and transportation systems.

Together, those three areas account for 80 per cent of the infrastructure investments in our five-year plan a total of more than $26 billion.

More than $5 billion will be used to build more hospital and healthcare facilities so people can get the treatment they need more quickly, and in better conditions.

Another $10 billion will be invested to repair elementary and secondary school classrooms, so our students can learn in an environment that promotes success.

And it will expand universities and colleges, to accommodate more students, and relieve the chronic over-crowding that impedes scholarship.

More than $11 billion will be invested to support economic growth and prosperity by investing in our transportation networks and public transit systems.

You have the strategic highlights of the five-year plan that will guide these investments.

No previous government has been able — or willing — to prepare a blueprint like this for the future development of the province. Copies of ReNew Ontario are available at our ministry booth in the conference’s Trade Show area.

We are investing a lot of money in public infrastructure. And to make sure we invest it in the right things, at the right place, with appropriate public controls the Ontario government is looking at a combination of traditional government financing, and new alternative financing strategies that can help us build more infrastructure, and deliver it sooner.

Our government and our other partners in the public sector will be bringing billions of dollars to the table for investment in public infrastructure. But even with those resources, we still need to attract capital from other sources other sectors and other partners.

We are determined to pursue these partners – and use innovative arrangements to help us finance, deliver and even operate the vital infrastructure that Ontario needs. This policy is controversial in some quarters. But it shouldn’t be.

We are NOT talking about privatization. All our hospitals, schools and water and sewer facilities will remain publicly owned, and other core public assets will remain under appropriate public control.

However, we do intend to pursue alternative financing and procurement projects in the future – because we think it makes good public policy and good financial sense to pay off the cost of major public facilities over the useful lifetime of the asset.

We need to make sure we have our collective acts together – and that the facilities we build today will fit in with the facilities we’re going to need down the road, in 10 or 20 years’ time. And we have to exercise prudence about the kind of projects we invest in, to ensure they have a reasonable economic payback – and meet our strategic objectives.

Let me give you an example that some of our American guests may be familiar with.

On July 4th, 1828, John Quincy Adams, then the President of the United States, put the first shovel in the ground to begin construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

This was a massive undertaking. It was designed to link Chesapeake Bay and the Ohio River, to help move freight between Washington, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

On the same day, with considerably less fanfare, the opening ceremony was held to mark the beginning of construction for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.

Fast forward to when the new railroad was completed. The Baltimore and Ohio was one of the longest railways in the world, at a total of 380 miles. And not only was it a modern marvel of engineering, but it was also an instant economic success.

Today, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is a national park. It attracts almost three million visitors a year, but as a transportation asset, it was a dismal failure.

When it was finally completed – 23 years after construction started – it did not even cover half of the intended distance. It came in way over budget, and way behind schedule. And by the time it opened, the canal was already redundant because of new developments in rail transportation.

You can probably see where this is leading. As the minister responsible for Ontario’s investments in public infrastructure, I want to make sure that we put our money into the 21st-century equivalent of railroads – not canals.

Ontario’s renaissance in infrastructure should be exciting news for professional engineers and other professions in the building industry, as well as the business community in general.

Certainly, we’ll be looking to professional engineers and many other partners to help us accomplish our goals. We’ll be looking for innovative new designs for public facilities for faster, value-added construction techniques for state of the art project management services and for new operating efficiencies when facilities are completed.

Our public facilities have to be functional, efficient and affordable. And they have to last a long time. I believe your profession has a key role to play in helping us meet our objectives.

Ontario is about to begin a massive rebuilding program. And I’d like to think that our professional engineers and members of the other professions who are represented here will help guide our public investments in ways that serve our people well, and stand the test of time.

I want to conclude my remarks here by inviting all members of your distinguished profession to continue to support and work with us in pursuing the important goals I’ve described today.

Together, I’m confident that we can leave Ontario a better, stronger, more prosperous and civilized place for future generations.

I have one more very pleasant duty to perform here this morning. And that is to present these Awards of Excellence, on behalf of the Province of Ontario and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.

The certificates go to the members of the conference’s International Forum, for their expert contributions to the First Infrastructure Technologies, Management and Policy Specialty Conference.

I’m going to call the recipients up to receive their awards – and as I call their names, please join me in showing our appreciation for their efforts in making this event such a success.

• From New Zealand – Tony Porter, of OPUS International
• From Japan – Eiki Aramaki, of the Infrastructure Development Institute, and finally,
• From Canada – Allan Perks, of R.V. Anderson Associates Ltd.