Overview
The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) is a federal Crown Corporation of Canada tasked with financially supporting revenue-generating infrastructure projects that are "in the public interest" by catalyzing private investment through methods such as direct investment and public-private partnerships.
The bank was set up in coordination with equity investors such as BlackRock and Canada's largest pension funds. The CIB was officially established in June 2017 and its inaugural chairperson was former Royal Bank of Canada CAO and CFO Janice Fukakusa. The CIB functionally replaced PPP Canada, which was dismantled in 2018.
The CIB's stated purpose is to support the government of Canada's official infrastructure priorities, such as investing in public transit, trade and transportation, and green infrastructure.
The bank's role and operations were criticized by a wide variety of associations, scholars and opposition parties from its early beginnings. Critics decried the CIB's lack of transparency, poor efficiency and high costs. In May 2022, the House of Commons transport committee recommended that the bank be abolished.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).