Community Benefits Agreements – Empowering Communities to Maximize Returns on Public Infrastructure Investments

Armine Yalnizyan Senate of Canada December 4, 2018 community benefit agreements

Canadian governments are committed to spending at least half a trillion dollars1 on public spending over the next decade, to repair and expand public infrastructure that benefits households, businesses and communities and that creates a platform for future growth. We haven’t seen that kind of public investment since the 1960s and early 1970s.

This presents a historic opportunity for guiding public spending to do double and triple duty, with each dollar purchasing not just economic value, but also social and environmental value in neighbourhoods across Ontario and Canada. It also offers a way to amplify policy commitments to reduce poverty.

Increasing attention is being paid to the pursuit of community benefits as part of the process of public infrastructure investments because o

The challenges of slowth (slow or no growth) and the need for more inclusive growth when economic activity does increase;
The search for equity that is “baked in, not sprinkled on;” and
The potential to lever new opportunities for marginalized individuals and communities as a natural by-product of public spending.

All infrastructure projects have the capacity to align with poverty reduction strategies, transforming both neighbourhoods and lives in the process. Community benefits agreements tied to public
infrastructure funding can, for the same dollar value, boost local economies, lever additional
community assets, build social capital, and enhance individual as well as place-based resilience––or not.

As this wave of taxpayer-funded investment flows into neighbourhoods across Ontario and Canada to repair and extend public infrastructure, it can also reduce poverty and build community assets. None of this will happen by accident, though: to make sure inclusive growth takes place, Canadians need a policy focus and legislative framework to accompany its fiscal plan for infrastructure investment.
Ontario is already a leader in this regard, passing the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act in 2016.2 At the federal level, legislation like Bill C-344––and its predecessor, Bill C-277––can align
several government objectives, reducing poverty by ensuring that infrastructure investments build up communities while building community infrastructure.

Read the entire report on IFSD’s website.