According to Statistics Canada, the various levels of government have substantially increased their investments in updating public transportation and water infrastructure in recent years. However, the agency reports that a significant proportion of infrastructure is either in poor condition, or in an unknown state.
The agency published a summary of its Canada's Core Public Infrastructure Survey: Replacement values, 2022 in its October 21 daily bulletin.
At the end of 2022, public transportation and water infrastructure (sewers and aqueducts) had a total replacement value of $2.6 trillion. Local and regional governments are responsible for 72% of this infrastructure.
In road transportation, municipalities and regional governments own the following proportions of replacement value: 64% of roads, 76% of public transit assets and 82% of active transportation infrastructure.
Provincial and territorial governments own 69% of bridges and tunnels.
Road transport infrastructure, including roads, bridges, tunnels, walking and cycling infrastructure, as well as public transit networks, represented $1.6 trillion of the current estimated replacement value at the end of 2022.
The replacement cost of all road transport infrastructure deemed to be in poor or very poor condition is estimated at over $250 billion, or 15% of the total replacement value.
“However, 17% of the public transit assets and 42% of active transportation assets were in unknown physical condition, accounting for an estimated $45.7 billion of current replacement value, or $141.7 billion when including roads, bridges and tunnels,” says Statistics Canada.
The replacement value of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater pipes was estimated at $963 billion. Some 11% of this amount, or $106.5 billion, is made up of assets deemed to be in poor or very poor condition.
Greener buses
From 2020 to 2022, the agency reports that the number of electric buses used in transit systems increased by 31%, while the number of diesel-powered buses has fallen by 16%.
There was a rise in the number of hybrid buses (15%), as well as increases in transit vehicles powered by biodiesel (64%) or natural gas (30%).
More and more roads
The pace of new road construction accelerated from 2020 to 2022. On average each year, the agency estimates that the equivalent of 12,396 two-lane kilometres were built during this period. This surpasses, by more than a quarter, the average annual length of roads built during any other period.
Statistics Canada makes the same observation for the construction of drinking water pipes, which also reached an unprecedented volume. During the same period from 2020 to 2022, 29,100 km of pipes were installed, or 9,700 km per year. By way of comparison, an average of 6,698 km of pipes were installed each year between 1970 and 1999, 7,202 km between 2000 and 2009, and 5,758 km between 2010 and 2019.
When it comes to active transportation, the agency reports that one-third of Canadian neighborhoods have no cycling infrastructure. Of the 28,122 km of bikeways in Canada at the end of 2022, nearly a quarter were completed between 2020 and 2022, and 38% during the previous decade.
