GLOBAL ECONOMY

Grow the economy, create jobs and make the country more sustainable.

Canada’s new infrastructure minister says projects that are shovel-ready and meet the Liberal government’s national objectives will get some of the billions in new federal cash being made available.

Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi says those big objectives are threefold: grow the economy, create jobs and make the countr y more sustainable. Sohi says shovel ready projects mean a municipality has done all the relevant studies, public consultation and planning — to qualify for financial help from the federal government.

He accused the Harper Conservatives of announcing money for projects that weren’t ready to begin so they could reap some political capital. “We want to create a process where I don’t go out and make announcements without even consulting with my departmental staff or getting their input or not even having an application in for that project,” Sohi said in an inter view with The Canadian Press. “ We will develop some processes that bring in more accountability and also more transparency.”

That will include better explanations to cities about why a project proposal was rejected, and set new service standards like speeding up application processing times. “If we make a commitment to a projec t, and if a project has been sitting on our staff ’s table for six months, that’s unacceptable,” Sohi said. The Liberals have promised to increase infrastructure spending by an average of $6 billion a year over the next 10 years, raising the federal investment to $125 billion during that time.

The extra money is supposed to be spread equally to public transit projects, green infrastructure, such as wastewater facilities, and social infrastructure like affordable housing. Sohi said the government plans to refocus the government’s marquee infrastructure program, the New Building Canada Fund, to focus on more cross-countr y projects like highways, por ts, and border crossings to help speed up the flow of commercial goods and trade. Sohi didn’t say whether the new money the Liberals are promising would top up a suite of existing 4 | Endeavour Magazine

funding programs at Infrastructure Canada, or add a new program on top of what is already there to pay for upgrades to water and wastewater systems, social housing, seniors’ facilities, and infrastructure in aboriginal communities.

“You can’t fit all of those in one policy,” Sohi said. “You have to design your program in a way that it acknowledges the uniqueness and then we have to adapt different approaches to meet those unique needs.” The Liberals made running deficits of up to $10 billion a year to pay for the infrastructure program a key election promise. They hope the money will jolt the economy and raise federal revenues, helping to pay for their spending promises and balance the budget in four years. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned to Sohi, a former Edmonton city councillor, to oversee the program.

Sohi defeated former Conservative cabinet minister Tim Uppal in the Alberta riding of Edmonton-Mill Woods by 92 votes in the Oct. 19 elec tion. Sohi takes a broad definition of infrastructure: It is anything, he said, “that allows you to be par t of your community.” That includes public transit to get to a job or school; a shelter for a woman escaping domestic violence; affordable housing for someone living on the street.

“You can’t talk about infrastructure without talking about the community aspect of it. It is a means of building strong, sustainable, livable communities that we all want to be part of,” he said. The reason for that definition lies in his personal background: After Sohi immigrated to Canada from India in 1981 at age 17, he took the bus in Edmonton to the library and then later classes to learn English. He later worked for the city’s disabled transportation system and drove a bus for a time. “Infrastructure is a way to opportunities,” he said.

Infrastructure for economic and social development, and a more sustainable world

The need for infrastructure development is the great global challenges of our time. For a better, greener, safer and more sustainable world the infrastructure community must unite, says ACE vice chairman Gavin English.

The need for infrastructure development is the great global challenges of our time. There is an essential and growing demand for infrastructure to address critical global issues such as climate change, energy demands, water and food shortages, mass urbanisation and economic and social development.

To satisfy this need effectively and deliver lasting economic and social development the world needs the collective leadership, experience and creativity of the infrastructure community. There is clear evidence that Investment in infrastructure leads to the growth of a countries economy and the improved wellbeing of its people. The McKinsey Global Institute recently estimated that over the next fifteen year the world needs to spend $57 trillion on infrastructure to realise global economic growth ambitions. In the UK alone infrastructure spending may need to run at £40bn to £50bn each year up to 2030 to meet demand.

“For a better, greener, safer and more sustainable world the infrastructure community must unite at national, regional and global level to deliver the global sustainable infrastructure we need.” Around the world Investment in infrastructure has always played a leading role in economic development, from the roads and aqueducts of ancient Rome to the railway boom in Britain in the mid 19th century. Basic infrastructure – roads, railways, airports, for energy generation and supply, water supply, sanitation, etc. underpins sustainable development and economic transformation of emerging economies.

A few months ago KPMG published a list that showcased 100 of the most ambitious and exciting infrastructure projects from around the world. All the projects listed will contribute to the economic growth in the countries in which they are based and improve the lives of millions of people. Infrastructure investment is needed in developing countries to expand: transport systems (road, rail, airports, ports, waterways, etc.); energy generation, supply and transmission; water collection and supply; sanitation systems; communications systems (telecommunications, internet, etc.). Such investments will lead to very rapid economic and social development. In developed countries the economic and social improvements are not quite so pronounced because they are starting from a higher position in terms of the national economy and social conditions but there are still clear improvements.

In particular at times of recession or economic downturn when investment in infrastructure is often used to create jobs and stimulate the economy. “The human suffering and financial costs of the impacts of climate change are enormous, affecting both rich and poor countries alike.” Climate change is a reality and the consequences are devastating – rising sea levels, decreasing fresh water resources, extreme droughts, storms and flooding, etc. The human suffering and financial costs of the impacts of climate change are enormous, affecting both rich and poor countries alike.

Appropriate sustainable infrastructure is needed to: mitigate and adapt to the consequences of climate change; and to develop and deploy clean energy technologies to energy efficiency to make substantial and long term reductions in global greenhouse gas emission. “Infrastructure investments can also help improve peace and security by enabling, sustaining and enhancing societal living conditions”

Infrastructure investments can also help improve peace and security by enabling, sustaining and enhancing societal living conditions and the welfare of people in developing countries. Infrastructure connects communities and countries with market, health and education facilities, gives access to clean water, sanitation and power, and improves livelihoods and generates employment creating the conditions for lasting peace. For a better, greener, safer and more sustainable world the infrastructure community must unite at national, regional and global level to deliver the global sustainable infrastructure we need. We must all collaborate and take a lead in the financing, planning, designing, construction, operating, managing and maintenance of major future global infrastructure programmes. Endeavour Magazine | 5

In Canada’s far north, warm weather threatens vital ice road

Each winter, in the far reaches of Canada’s north, a highway of ice built atop frozen lakes and tundra acts as a supply lifeline to remote diamond mines, bustling with traffic for a couple of months before melting away in the spring. This year, the world’s busiest ice road is running late.

Unseasonably warm weather has set back ice formation on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, named after the first and last of hundreds of lakes on the route. The road is still expected to open on schedule in late January, but if current weather patterns continue that could mean more work for crews trying to build the ice or cut the road’s already short period of operation.

Since its first season in 1982, the road has been vital to a handful of mines scattered across Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT), cut off by a maze of water and spongy tundra, otherwise only reachable by air. Running 400 kilometers (248 miles), it links to three diamond mines, stretching as far as 600 km when it supplied a nowshuttered gold mine.

A shorter season could mean extra costs and inconvenience for moving what amounted last year to 9,000 truckloads of diesel, machines and mining supplies from the NWT’s capital city, Yellowknife. To climate scientists, this year’s late freeze could be a harbinger of winters to come. It also raises the alarming prospect of thawing permafrost - the frozen layer of soil covering nearly half of Canada’s landmass - which traps methane, a greenhouse gas, which would only hasten warming.

This year’s warmer temperatures may be connected to the El Nino climate phenomenon, a periodic warming of Pacific Ocean waters that has far-reaching effects. It is Yellowknife’s second warmest December on record, said David Phillips, a senior climatologist at Environment Canada, Canada’s national weather service.

So far, the average temperature for this December is just above -15 Celsius, marginally cooler than the -13 Celsius for December 2005, but well above the mean of around -22 Celsius. 6 | Endeavour Magazine

The NWT falls largely within the Mackenzie River Basin, an area where winter temperatures have warmed by 4.5 degrees Celsius over the last 68 years. “That’s a sea change,” said Phillips. “It is just runaway warming.”

For Ron Near, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who manages the road for a group of mining companies, slow ice formation is a transportation problem. Despite the warmer weather, he said it is not “panic time,” and said he expects the road to start operating by the end of January, with the heaviest loads waiting until a harder pack of ice at the beginning of March.

“It has affected us some, but we’re still within guidelines of previous warmer years,” he said. “It’s just going to take considerably more management this year to have success.”

Alternate Routes

Ice roads cross eight Arctic countries, and Canada alone has 5,400 km of them, critical to unlocking mineral wealth from remote, harsh regions. In the NWT, a vast land covering more than 1.3 million square km with just 43,000 residents, diamonds were the biggest contributor to the economy last year.

It is no surprise that the territorial government has been pushing a partial all-season road on the southern end of the mine supply route, which could extend the ice road’s duration to three months.

The C$170 million project may find favor with Canada’s recently elected Liberal government, which has pledged to spend about C$10 billion annually on infrastructure for the next three years. But it is a long way from the ambitious idea first mooted in the late 1950s by then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who campaigned for a “road to resources” running through NWT’s Mackenzie Valley and connecting to the Arctic coast.

More than a half century later, that vision for a Mackenzie Valley Highway remains elusive. There is a road in the south that extends as far as the town of Wrigley, and a C$300 million road is being constructed to connect the far north town of Inuvik with Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic coast. But there is no road connecting those

two ends, a highway that proponents say would assert Canada’s Arctic sovereignty, but would likely cost more than C$1.7 billion to build. And advances on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk project are slow because construction occurs only in winter to minimize permafrost damage.

More than half the NWT permafrost is sporadic, or discontinuous. It is easily disturbed, which in turn produces ground thaw and instability. Some 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon are held in permafrost soils globally in the form of frozen organic matter, researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Colorado said in September.

If that methane and carbon dioxide were released, it would increase the risk of catastrophic weather, or loss of agricultural land, causing up to $43 trillion in economic damage globally by 2200, the study calculated. By mid-century, rising temperatures may reduce the land in Canada suitable for ice roads by 13 percent, or 400,000 square km, concluded researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles in a 2011 study published in Nature Climate Change. Risky Future

The consequences of those warming temperatures pose an additional risk to mining companies in the NWT, where a half dozen planned mines are on hold due to multi-year low prices for gold, rare earths and other metals.

A taste of the trouble warm winters cause came in 2006, when the road closed after just 36 days. Miners spent more than C$100 million to charter flights for fuel and began talking seriously about options like hovercraft and blimps. To make the most of winter’s cold, lightweight groomers are now clearing snow that insulates and slows ice growth. Later, amphibious tracked vehicles, called Hagglunds, will tow groundpenetrating radar to measure ice thickness.

Crews may need to flood more of the road than normal to quicken the freezing process this winter to overcome the warmer weather, Near said. The road, tracked by global positioning system technology, now allows longer trailers that haul heavier loads and even has ‘express’ lanes, so returning trucks with empty loads can exceed the 25 km per hour speed limit.

“We think about climate change all the time,” said Near. But he said he “learned a long time ago you can’t control the weather. You just have to be able to plan for it.” GLOBAL ECONOMY Contributing to climate change are the critical levels of atmospheric CO2 levels which will continue to grow with increasing global Infrastructure connects communities and countries with market, Mining:

In Canada’s far north, warm weather threatens vital ice road

Each winter, in the far reaches of Canada’s north, a highway of ice built atop frozen lakes and tundra acts as a supply lifeline to remote diamond mines, bustling with traffic for a couple of months before melting away in the spring.

This year, the world’s busiest ice road is running late. Unseasonably warm weather has set back ice formation on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, named after the first and last of hundreds of lakes on the route.

The road is still expected to open on schedule in late January, but if current weather patterns continue that could mean more work for crews trying to build the ice or cut the road’s