During this seminar, authors Pierre-Carl Michaud (HEC Montréal, CIRANO), Marcelin Joanis (Polytechnique Montréal, CIRANO) and Louis Lévesque discussed a CIRANO study in which they conclude that the investments planned in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) for the coming decades are unlikely to be sufficient to address the rapidly growing asset maintenance deficit (AMD).
Specifically, they show that:
- the current dynamic of the government’s infrastructure investments is not sustainable
- the current pace of growth in infrastructure spending poses a risk to fiscal sustainability
- at the rate things are going, the asset maintenance deficit (AMD) of $35 billion today, equivalent to 6.5% of GDP, could rise to 14% of GDP in 15 years and to 33% in 25 years
- an increase in the portion of PQI investments allocated to AMD resorption would likely result in a significant reduction in AMD without any impact on fiscal sustainability
