Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question for the government leader also concerns the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

In April of 2021, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, PBO, released his most recent report on the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The PBO’s analysis concluded that the Canada Infrastructure Bank was losing money, unlikely to deliver on its mandate and would miss its own infrastructure spending targets by over 50%. Yet the Canada Infrastructure Bank is very good at spending taxpayer dollars on bonuses, as Senator Plett has just mentioned.

Senator Gold, does your government disagree with the findings of the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Will the senator answer a few questions?

Senator Patterson: Gladly.

Senator Martin: I have one more question, then. It seems that this is something the government should be focusing on to achieve such a goal. I am wondering if you have had conversations with the minister’s office. Perhaps this is something the government should be putting forward.

Senator Patterson: As I said, no, I haven’t had an opportunity to speak to the minister about it, Senator Martin. But it’s in his mandate letter, so I want to help him achieve his mandate. There are many other things, no doubt, on his plate. I think we can help him achieve his mandate with this bill. It’s precisely what the mandate letter says, and what other parties’ policies say. I like the phrase “use it or lose it.” I think it has meaning. Let’s help the minister achieve one of the bullets in his mandate letter. I will speak to him about this at your suggestion. Thank you.

Senator Martin: When announcing the creation of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, the Trudeau government claimed it would attract four to five dollars in private capital for every tax dollar invested. In the five years of the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s existence, this has never occurred or even come close. The Canada Infrastructure Bank’s website currently shows that of $19.4 billion invested so far, about $7.2 billion is from private and institutional investors, and the rest appears to come from different levels of government — in other words, taxpayers.

In February, Minister LeBlanc acknowledged before a House committee that he was not satisfied with the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s ability to raise funds from private investors. Isn’t that grounds for scrapping the Canada Infrastructure Bank, leader?

Senator Martin: Thank you, Senator Patterson. This is such an essential service that we take for granted in urban Canada. We’re complaining about the connectivity if it’s not within seconds of us touching a key. You raise some really important points of how the North and rural communities are impacted.

In terms of what you said, the government has a goal to have everyone connected by 2030. That’s eight years away. Would you further expand on this statement and whether your bill will help address this to speed up the process?

Senator Patterson: Thank you for the question. Yes, this is a stated objective of the government. It has been well presented and lauded in official government proclamations and promises. The problem is that the spectrum policy has not been reviewed for years. It has not kept up with successful nations, and we all know that cell phones and broadband are cheaper in other parts of the world. Canadians are often complaining about these extremely high costs. The reason we have not been able to successfully lower costs and deploy broadband to regions of the country, especially the remote regions, is because we have outdated policy, and because the government has treated the spectrum option, dare I say, as a significant source of revenue — I think it was $9 billion in the last spectrum auction — instead of deploying it in ways that promote good public policy.

We need to change the spectrum policy, and we will have a chance of reaching these laudable goals of connections in all parts of this great country by 2030.