Change Orders: Analyzing Proposed New Infrastructure Spending In 2016 Budget

Shortly after the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we summarized the infrastructure promises made on the Liberal campaign trail in our October 2015 Blakes Bulletin: Under Construction: Infrastructure Plans and Promises of the New Canadian Government. Now that the 2016 federal budget, titled "Growing the Middle Class" (2016 Budget), has been tabled in the House of Commons by the Minister of Finance, William Morneau, we evaluate how such plans and promises stack up to the budget reality. 

In the 2015 Liberal campaign platform, titled "A New Plan for A Strong Middle Class" (Liberal Platform), the Liberals proposed to add over C$5-billion in new infrastructure spending in each of the next two fiscal years, tapering down to approximately C$3.5-billion in new infrastructure spending in the third and fourth fiscal year. Over the course of the next 10 fiscal years, proposed new infrastructure spending was to be nearly C$60-billion, split evenly among three