OTTAWA — Parliament's fiscal watchdog is projecting that the Canada Infrastructure Bank will fall more than $20 billion short of its investment targets for the coming years.
In a new report released Thursday, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer said the infrastructure bank is on track to disburse $14.9 billion by 2027/28 — well below its $35-billion goal.
That sum is also $1 billion lower than earlier PBO projections from 2021.
The bank was launched in 2017 and invests alongside private and public sector partners to help get green energy and other infrastructure projects off the ground in Canada.
The infrastructure bank also has sector-specific investment goals for five priority areas — broadband, public transit, clean power, green infrastructure, and trade and transportation — ranging between $3 billion and $10 billion each.
But the PBO said the Crown corporation is not on track to meet any of those targets either.
Expanding the funding horizon out to 2029/30, the PBO's projections see only the public transit sector meeting its $5-billion investment goal.
The report said the infrastructure bank already has hit its goal of investing $1 billion in Indigenous-led projects.
In the Canada Infrastructure Bank's market update for the first quarter of this fiscal year, it said its investments to date already value $16.8 billion.
Katarina Michalyshyn, the author of the PBO report, said in an email Thursday that those CIB figures track financial closes — the point at which deals are struck but the money has yet to flow.
The PBO's report focuses more on disbursements, or the point when funding has actually been transferred for the project.
The PBO expects disbursements by 2027/28 to come in two per cent lower — or $350 million less — than the CIB's most recent projections.
Based on the pace of investments to date, the fiscal watchdog sees the infrastructure bank hitting its disbursement goal of $35 billion by 2034/35 — seven years after its deadline.
If it were using financial closes as the benchmark, the PBO sees the bank hitting that goal by 2029/30.
A spokesperson for the CIB said in a statement that the infrastructure bank has "a lot to be proud of" so far. The CIB has now invested in 100 projects over its eight years in operation with seven completed.
The spokesperson noted that projects typically take three to five years of funding before completion, which is why the CIB's financial close figures will lag disbursements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
