The cost to replace road transportation and water infrastructure in poor or very poor condition in Canada exceeds $350 billion, and that’s just for the assets that have been assessed for condition, reports Statistics Canada.
According to its most recent Core Public Infrastructure Survey, transportation and water infrastructure in Canada had a total replacement value of $2.6 trillion by the end of 2022. The report claims 15 per cent of road transportation assets and 11 per cent of water infrastructure are rated to be in poor or very poor condition, an amount estimated to be $356.7 billion in 2022. Local and regional government organizations were responsible for almost three-quarters of this infrastructure.
These organizations owned 64 per cent of the replacement value of roads, 76 per cent of the value of public transit assets and 82 per cent of the value of active transportation infrastructure. Bridges and tunnels were an exception, as 69 per cent of these assets were owned by provincial and territorial governments.
With Canada’s population increasing at its highest growth rate since 1957 between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, a larger amount of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater pipes were installed each year from 2020 to 2022 than in any other period on record. During those three years, 29,100 km of pipes were installed, or an average of 9,700 km per year. These distances of pipes were added at a faster pace than the 57,576 km installed between 2010 and 2019 (5,758 km per year) and the 72,015 km installed between 2000 and 2009 (7,202 km per year). Just over 40 per cent of all drinking water, wastewater and stormwater pipes were installed between 1970 and 1999, and these were put in place at an average of 6,698 km of pipes completed annually.
The pace of construction of roads also increased from 2020 to 2022. There were 12,396 two-lane equivalent kilometres completed on average per year in that timeframe, surpassing the annual average length of roads built during any other period by more than one-quarter.
There were also 28,122 km of bikeways in Canada by the end of 2022, with almost a quarter of that total having been completed in the three years between 2020 and 2022, a jump in annual placement from the 38 per cent of the cycling infrastructure that was completed in the prior decade.
Road transportation infrastructure, including roads, bridges, tunnels, walking and cycling infrastructure, as well as public transit systems, accounted for $1.63 trillion of current replacement value estimated at the end of 2022. The cost to replace all road transportation infrastructure rated as being in poor or very poor condition was estimated to be $250.2 billion, or 15 per cent of the total replacement value. However, 17 per cent of the public transit assets and 42 per cent of active transportation assets were in unknown physical condition, accounting for an estimated $45.7 billion of current replacement value, or $141.7 billion when including roads, bridges and tunnels.
The current replacement value of water infrastructure was estimated at $963 billion on December 31, 2022. The share of assets rated as being in poor or very poor physical condition accounted for just over one-tenth (11 per cent) of that amount, or $106.5 billion.
Estimated replacement values represent the approximate cost, at the end of the reference year, that would be required to replace the assets, including demolition costs, but excluding land costs and overhead. These values differ from book value and measures of gross stock, as they consider current prices as well as other factors that impact price at the time of the estimate, including modern construction techniques and materials.
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