Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader in the Senate.

Senator Gold, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, or CIB, has launched a new Knowledge and Research initiative aimed at building “a centre of expertise,” with a goal to “partner with leading experts from across Canada.”

Senator Gold, on the face of it, so far all the money in this initiative seems to be going to big think tanks. Could you please name and tell us how many Indigenous-led, as well as northern-led, knowledge-gathering project proposals are planned under this initiative?

Senator Patterson: Senator Gold, northern leaders say that we need to properly inventory existing northern infrastructure to make sure we’re making smart, targeted investments. This could be in the form of an interactive map. However, an initiative to do just that was turned down by the CIB.

Does the CIB have an equivalent tool already at their disposal? If not, would such a tool not be useful given the difficulty the CIB has had getting money out the door to northern projects?

You mentioned some projects, not all of which are in the North. For context, my research shows the CIB website only lists four nascent, embryonic projects in the Arctic: one is an MOU and another is classified as advisory.