Published plans and annual reports 2021-2022: Ministry of Infrastructure

Ministry Overview

Ministry’s Vision

The Ministry of Infrastructure (MOI) is committed to maximizing the Province’s public infrastructure and infrastructure investments to benefit all the people of Ontario. Whether it is building new infrastructure, or making key investments to upgrade Ontario’s schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and transit or broadband infrastructure, the Province needs to make strategic investments efficiently across government by prioritizing infrastructure activities and unlocking existing opportunities.

The Ministry is responsible for strategically guiding infrastructure investments based on strong evidence. This includes managing the implementation of the Infrastructure for Jobs & Prosperity Act, 2015 which establishes mechanisms to encourage principled, evidence-based and strategic long-term infrastructure planning with the goal of job creation and training opportunities, economic growth and protection of the environment, and incorporation of design excellence into infrastructure planning.

MOI leads the Province’s efforts to expand broadband and cellular access to unserved and underserved communities across Ontario. This involves making investments as well as working closely with the federal government and telecommunications sector to find innovative ways to maximize existing programs and assets while removing barriers to deployment of broadband and cellular infrastructure.

MOI develops, designs and oversees the delivery of municipal infrastructure policy and programs to ensure alignment with broader provincial infrastructure policy. The Ministry also manages the government’s relationship with the federal and municipal governments in order to make the right infrastructure investments. The Ministry negotiates with other government partners in order to implement and directly administer funding programs that support local infrastructure across Ontario.

The Ministry also acts as the steward of provincial asset management planning, including developing tools and analyses to consistently track both current infrastructure assets and planned investments across government. The Ministry is also responsible for the municipal asset management planning regulation.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has legislative responsibility for Infrastructure Ontario and, in partnership with the federal government and the City of Toronto, is also responsible for oversight of Waterfront Toronto.

COVID-19 Responsecovid 19 response

• The global pandemic has placed tremendous pressures on all governments, including on our municipal partners. The ministry recognized that there is a need to provide municipalities with stable funding to support critical local infrastructure projects.
• On October 28, 2020, the province announced that it was providing up to $1.05 billion in combined federal-provincial funding under the COVID‑19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream. The funding is part of the federal government's Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).
• The COVID‑19 Resilience stream will deliver:
  • Up to $700 million for education-related projects to be nominated and administered by the Ministry of Education;
  • An allocation-based program that will deliver $250 million to municipalities to address critical local infrastructure needs, including a minimum of $6.5 million that will be directed toward Indigenous and on-reserve education, through the Ministry of Infrastructure in collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Indigenous Affairs; and
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  • Up to $100 million for long-term care projects to be identified and administered by the Ministry of Long-Term Care.
• Ontario has nominated projects under the COVID‑19 Resilience stream to the federal government and is beginning to receive federal approvals.
• For 2021, municipalities are being provided with the same Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) allocation amounts they received in 2020. This approach allows for stability and is responsive to municipal needs during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
• While some municipalities have been able to make significant progress on their asset management plans, the Province also recognizes that some municipalities are facing resource constraints in meeting the timelines as a result of COVID‑19. For this reason, the phase 2 timelines and all subsequent timelines under O. Reg. 588/17 have been extended by amending regulation O. Reg. 193/21. This change is effective as of March 15, 2021.

Infrastructure Policy Program

The Ministry manages the implementation of the Infrastructure for Jobs & Prosperity Act, 2015. As part of the regulations in the Act, the ministry is responsible for developing Ontario’s infrastructure plan, including gathering and assessing data on the Province’s existing assets, analysis of future infrastructure needs, and a strategy to meet those needs.

The Province will focus on infrastructure projects that provide the greatest benefit to the people of Ontario by ensuring projects are feasible from a technical and commercial perspective, align with the government's priorities and provide the greatest value for money for any investment of public dollars.

The Ministry develops and designs infrastructure policy and programs and oversees their delivery to ensure policies and programs are consistent with broader provincial infrastructure policies, including alignment with the municipal asset management planning regulation. Active programs include:

• The Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) – provides small, rural and northern communities with annual funding to build and repair critical infrastructure and supports municipal asset management planning.
• Asset Management tools and supports – provides funding to third party delivery partners that work with municipalities to help them develop and improve their asset management plans.
• Broadband and Cellular Action plan – In 2019, Ontario released Up to Speed: Ontario’s Broadband and Cellular Action Plan, a commitment over the next five years to expand broadband access to households and businesses. Since its introduction the Action Plan has expanded to include nearly $4 billion for broadband infrastructure to connect all Ontarians to reliable broadband by the end of 2025.
• As announced in Budget 2021, the Province is investing approximately $200 million to provide infrastructure funding to larger, strategic projects and sports facilities through the newly established Strategic Priorities Infrastructure Fund (SPIF). This fund will help address some of the unmet demand under the ICIP Community, Culture and Recreation stream, which received more applications than could be funded under that program.
• The SPIF will be delivered through two streams. The Priority Local Infrastructure stream will support new build multi-purpose facilities for community, culture and recreation purposes and the Sport and Community Renewal Stream provides funding to support the renovation and rehabilitation of sport and community infrastructure. The fund will also support the sport and recreation sector, which was one of the hardest hit sectors during the COVID‑19 pandemic.

In addition to these provincial programs, the Ministry leads the implementation and negotiation of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), which is a federal-provincial cost-shared infrastructure program.

The Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program includes up to $11.8 billion in federal and provincial funding for Ontario across four funding streams:

• Public Transit: $8.3 billion.
• Green Infrastructure: $2.8 billion – Based on federal requirements, 45 per cent of this funding is to be invested in greenhouse gas emission mitigation projects.
• Community, Culture & Recreation: $407&bnsp;million.
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• Rural & Northern Communities: $250 million.

• In October 2020, the Province announced the launch of the new COVID‑19 Resilience Infrastructure stream under ICIP, which leverages up to $1.05 billion in federal-provincial funding. This stream was created to respond to the impacts of COVID‑19 and has more flexibility, expanded project eligibility and accelerated approvals.
• The ICIP program will unlock up to $30 billion in combined federal, provincial and local investments in communities through 2027-28.
• The Ministry of Infrastructure is focused on implementing this program and has closed intakes for all five streams of available funding. The Ministry continues working closely and collaboratively with the federal government and with local communities to implement funding programs for each of the funding streams. No funding streams are currently open for application.
• Ontario continues to work with the federal government to oversee the delivery of program funding to recipients under previous infrastructure funding programs, including the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF), Clean Water and Wastewater Fund (CWWF) and the New Building Canada Fund (NBCF). Aside from project-specific extensions, these legacy programs are currently winding down and are not accepting applications. While the Ministry of Infrastructure oversees these programs, some are administered by partner ministries or agencies (e.g., Infrastructure Ontario, MTO, MHSTCI).

As part of its responsibilities, the Ministry oversees the Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation (Infrastructure Ontario) in the support of the government’s policy and program delivery. The Ministry develops policy to support a broad spectrum of delivery models that are used by Infrastructure Ontario to deliver infrastructure projects. The delivery models in this spectrum can range from what is often referred to as a Traditional Procurement Approach, to other models that include more private sector responsibilities, typically referred to as Public-Private Partnerships (P3).

The P3 model is typically used to delivery large, complex public infrastructure projects, as it makes use of private-sector resources and expertise to provide on-time, on-budget, and on-specifications project delivery.

In partnership with the Federal Government and The City of Toronto, the Ministry also oversees the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, which has a mandate to carry out the tri-government initiative to revitalize and transform Toronto’s waterfront into sustainable new communities, parks and public spaces, and to foster economic growth in knowledge-based, creative industries. The Province, alongside the federal government and the City of Toronto has provided $1.25 billion in funding to support the Port Lands Flood Protection Project. This project will help create a resilient neighborhood by protecting southeastern portions of downtown Toronto from flooding, and by delivering a substantial return on investment by unlocking the area’s potential for future residential and commercial development.

Infrastructure Research and Planning

The Ministry collects data and performs analysis that contribute to evidence-based infrastructure planning to make informed decisions about the investments required to maintain service levels across the province.

For example, the Ministry provides guidance to other government ministries regarding methods to measure the condition of infrastructure assets and related information for the purposes of standardizing provincial asset management practices. The Ministry then collects that data to feed into its analytical models. The Ministry has built and maintains an analytical model to project infrastructure renewal needs into the future. The model has been improved by expanding the number of assets that are included and increasing the number of parameters that can be changed to build different scenarios.

The Ministry is also building and leveraging existing models that help to project future infrastructure expansion needs based on infrastructure capacity and demand. For example, in 2020 the Ministry completed the development of the first phase of an infrastructure expansion model that projects infrastructure needs based on expected growth in demand. The first phase of this model covers the Education, Healthcare and Justice sectors.

To meet the requirements of the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act and inform infrastructure planning more broadly, the Ministry of Infrastructure continues to collaborate with capital ministries to standardize evidence to enable comparison of infrastructure needs across sectors. In addition, the Ministry continues to develop a suite of research initiatives to understand and develop best practices in infrastructure planning and to support the enhancement of government-wide practices in related fields, such as asset management. These initiatives include collection and analysis of data from municipalities about their asset management plans to build the Ministry’s knowledge of municipal infrastructure needs. The Ministry also collect data on the condition of municipal assets from other sources, such as the Canada Core Public Infrastructure survey.

The Ministry leads venues for strategic and technical discussions across ministries with capital planning and delivery responsibilities in order to guide infrastructure policy initiatives collaboratively across government.

The Ministry administers the Unsolicited Proposal (USP) framework and intake portal that accepts infrastructure related proposals (including transit lines, highways, health care facilities, housing supply projects, and energy generation proposals). The Framework provides a clear structure for receiving and evaluating proposals submitted by the public and stakeholders to leverage private sector innovation and facilitates government decision-making. USP Framework are a leading global practice that allows the government to leverage the expertise of the private sector to develop innovative infrastructure solutions.

Responding to COVID‑19 (Part 2)

With the support of the Ministry of Infrastructure’s crown agency, Infrastructure Ontario, and other capital ministries, MOI is assessing the impacts of COVID‑19 on provincial infrastructure projects. This includes actively working with the federal government to seek flexibility within its programs to respond to the impacts of COVID‑19.

Following the closure of non-essential workplaces, the Ministry responded to inquiries from the public about impacts on construction activities through the Stop the Spread information line. The Ministry has undertaken analysis impacts of the pandemic to on provincial infrastructure projects to provide advice to the Government on responding to the COVID‑19 crisis and supporting and restarting Ontario’s economy.

MOI has taken immediate action to adapt to the impacts of COVID‑19, including providing an opportunity for funding recipients to submit project extension requests under the federal-provincial Clean Water and Wastewater Fund (CWWF) and Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF). These extensions are providing recipients additional time to incur costs for previously approved projects and are subject to final approval by Infrastructure Canada.

As previously outlined, Ontario has allocated up to $1.05 billion in combined federal-provincial funding available under the new COVID‑19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream. As part of the effort to address urgent infrastructure needs, MOI has also worked with Infrastructure Ontario and other capital ministries to pilot a Rapid Infrastructure Delivery Model (RIDM) to increase surge capacity in the health and long-term care sectors.

In order to take advantage of the new stream, the federal government required provinces and territories to redirect funding from existing ICIP streams. The Ministry reallocated uncommitted funding from one of the four original streams to address critical issues resulting from the pandemic. This new stream allowed for investments in specific types of infrastructure projects that were not previously within the scope of any of the original ICIP funding streams. These investments will help support key sectors – education, long-term care and local communities in recovering from the economic impacts of COVID‑19 and support priority local infrastructure investments.

Ministry Administration Program

The Ministry Administration Program provides strategic advice and support services that enable the Ministry to achieve government objectives and fiscal priorities.

The program provides financial, human resources, planning, legal, communication and other corporate services for the Ministry’s operational programs.

2021-22 Strategic Plan

Key Decisions Approved for 2021-22

• Introducing the Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act (SBIEA), 2021 in March. The SBIEA is transformational legislation that, aims to reduce barriers to the deployment and expansion of broadband infrastructure in Ontario.
• As announced in the 2021 Ontario Budget, the Broadband and Cellular Action Plan has increased from its original budget of $315 million to $3.8 billion, to help connect all of Ontarians to reliable broadband access by the end of 2025.
• As noted in the 2021 Ontario Budget, Ontario is investing approximately $200 million to provide infrastructure funding to larger, strategic projects and to sports facilities through the newly established Strategic Priorities Infrastructure Fund.

Key Issues & Risks Impacting Program Delivery

• The COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented impacts, including delays in planned expenditures by recipients in transfer payment programs such as Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program and other legacy Federal/Provincial Infrastructure programs.

For additional financial information, see:

• Expenditure Estimates
• Public Accounts of Ontario: past editions
• 2021 Ontario Budget

Agencies, Boards and Commissions (ABCS)

Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation

The Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation (Infrastructure Ontario orIO) is a Crown agency established under the Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation Act, 2011.

IO’s mandate is to provide a range of advice and services, as set out in the Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation Act, 2011, to support the Ontario government’s initiatives to modernize and maximize the value of public infrastructure and realty. Infrastructure Ontario fulfills its mandate through the following roles and activities, subject to written direction from the Minister, as required:

Modern Procurement and Project Management

• Infrastructure Ontario is dedicated to the renewal of the Province’s hospitals, courthouses, and other essential public assets. Ensuring appropriate public control and ownership, IO also uses Private Public Partnerships (P3) to build vital infrastructure, on time and on budget.

Infrastructure Lender

• Infrastructure Ontario provides Ontario municipalities, universities and other public entities with access to affordable loans that help loan recipients build and renew public infrastructure through the IO Loan Program.

Commercial Project Advisor

• Infrastructure Ontario also leverages private sector partnerships and investments for revenue generation, liability/cost reduction and efficiency in government services and investments.

Government Organizations

Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation

The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (Waterfront Toronto) was established by the federal government, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto to oversee and deliver the revitalization of Toronto’s waterfront. Waterfront Toronto has a mandate to implement a plan that enhances the economic, social and cultural value of the area and creates an accessible and active waterfront for living, working and recreation in a fiscally and environmentally responsible manner.

Waterfront Toronto develops and implements a coordinated and comprehensive waterfront vision while promoting and encouraging public and private sector engagement in revitalization efforts.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has oversight of Waterfront Toronto jointly with the federal government and the City of Toronto.

Ministry organization chart

• Minister, The Honourable - Kinga Surma
• Deputy Minister, Infrastructure - Chris Giannekos
  • Director, Communications - Lidia Piccolo
  • Director, Legal Services - Fahteh Salim
  • Chief Information Officer - Manish Agarwal
  • Chief Administrative Officer & Assistant Deputy Minister - Ramneet Aujla
    • Director, Corporate Coordination - James Northey
  • Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure Program Design and Delivery - Adam Redish
    • Director, Infrastructure Program Delivery - Paramjit Kaur
    • Director, Infrastructure Program Policy - Trevor Fleck
    • Director, Broadband Deployment and Digital Connectivity - Fausto lannialice
  • Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure Research and Planning - Grant Osborn
    • Director, Policy and Planning - Chris Monahan
    • Director, Capital Planning and Coordination - Carolina Torres Acevedo
    • Director, Infrastructure Research - Vijay Gill

Annual Report

2020-21 Results

The Ministry of Infrastructure continues to create and deliver key initiatives to support the government’s top priorities, including building provincial infrastructure, creating jobs and increasing economic growth. The following successes highlight the achievements of the Ministry for the 2020-21 fiscal year:

Infrastructure Policy

• Successfully negotiated and launched a new federal-provincial program to fund $1.05 billion in COVID resilience infrastructure under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP).
• As announced in the 2021 Ontario budget, the Strategic Priorities Infrastructure Fund (SPIF) will provide infrastructure funding to large strategic projects and to sports facilities. The fund will support the sport and recreation sector, which was one of the hardest hit sectors during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
• Introducing the Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act (SBIEA), 2021 in March. The SBEIA is transformational legislation that aims to reduce barriers to the deployment and expansion of broadband infrastructure in Ontario. As announced in the 2021 Ontario Budget, the Broadband and Cellular Action Plan has increased from its original budget of $315 million to $3.8 billion, to help connect all of Ontario to reliable broadband by the end of 2025.
• On January 25, 2021 the Province announced a $200 million investment in municipalities through the 2021 Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) to help 424 communities build and repair roads, bridges, water and wastewater infrastructure.
• The Ministry of Infrastructure continues to lead the cross-ministry, Asset Management Steering Committee, which coordinates the standardization, collection and use of asset management data across government. This coordination and standardization is a pre-requisite to ensuring that centralized decision-making regarding infrastructure planning and investment is informed by data and evidence. In 2020-21 the Ministry delivered new guidance on measuring asset condition and targets to capital ministries, meeting two infrastructure planning recommendations that had been made by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario.

Agency Oversight

• Ontario has continued to meet its commitment of providing the P3 market with updates four times a year.
• On April 8, 2021, the government released its latest Infrastructure Ontario Market Update, which included 41 projects, with 27 projects in pre-procurement and 14 in active procurement totalling an estimated $60 billion in contract value.
• As of March 31, 2020, of the 66 projects that had achieved Substantial Completion since the inception of IO’s P3 program, 95% were completed on-budget and 67% were completed within one month of the scheduled Substantial Completion date established at Financial Close.
• Infrastructure Ontario (IO) successfully oversaw the Loan Program, which offers affordable, long-term, fixed-rate loans to borrowers from eligible public sector clients. Since its inception, the IO loan program has approved over $11 billion in loans for over 3,200 projects representing 447 communities and organization.
• In 2020-21, the Province also provided provincial funding in support of the Port Lands Flood Protection Project. This project will help create a resilient neighborhood by protecting southeastern portions of downtown Toronto from flooding, and by delivering a substantial return on investment to unlock the area’s potential for future residential and commercial development.

Infrastructure Research and Planning

• Following the closure of non-essential workplaces, the Ministry provided support by responding to more than 700 inquiries from the public about impacts on construction activities through the Stop the Spread information line.
• The Ministry manages the Unsolicited Proposal (USP) Framework to identify innovative infrastructure proposals from individuals and organizations. Since its launch, the Ministry forwarded over thirty proposals to partner ministries for initial assessment, of which several are now under detailed assessment, and one was approved through the 2020 Budget. In detailed assessment, Infrastructure Ontario may work with the participant and impacted ministries on the development and assessment of the business case for the proposal. This provides the government with advice and options for realizing the value and public benefit of these proposals.
• The Ministry is helping to improve infrastructure asset management planning across government by enhancing the quality and comparability of asset data. This will give government more comparable evidence of provincial infrastructure needs across sectors to help guide public infrastructure spending decisions.
• In 2020, the Ministry updated the integrated asset inventory that includes data on the location, value, age and condition of many provincial assets. The Ministry updates the inventory on an annual basis and continues to expand the data on assets collected as well as growing the number of assets contained within the inventory. This is intended to provide the government with a one-stop location on information about all of the assets the government directly owns or those it consolidates on its financial statements, as well as on other assets for which it has provided significant funding. The inventory now contains information on over 20,000 assets, with a replacement value of more than $260 billion. Keeping this information up to date is an important step in meeting the requirements of the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act and helps the government take a portfolio approach to its infrastructure assets.
• In March 2021, the Ministry finalized and posted its updated Statement of Environmental Values on the Environmental Registry of Ontario, in compliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights.