Only One in Three (33%) Canadians Satisfied with Canada's National Infrastructure, but Canadians Not Convinced that Foreign Investment, Borrowing are the Solutions to Fund Infrastructure Spending

Toronto, ON - As Canadians await Finance Minister Bill Morneau's fiscal update which will include new policy measures guiding the next phase of the federal government's infrastructure spending, a new Ipsos poll conducted for Global News has revealed that only one in three (33%) Canadians is `satisfied' (4% very/29% fairly) with Canada's national infrastructure, including things like road, rail and air networks, utilities, broadband or other communications networks. Conversely, 26% are `dissatisfied' (6% very/20% fairly) with Canada's national infrastructure, while 37% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 4% simply do not know.

Moreover, a majority (54%) `agrees' (17% strongly/37% tend to agree) that as a country we are not doing enough to meet our infrastructure needs, while 9% `disagrees' (1% strongly/8% tend to disagree), three in ten (28%) neither agree or disagree and 9% don't know. Three quarters (74%) `agrees' (31% strongly/43% tend to agree) that investing in infrastructure is vital to our future economic growth, while just 2% disagree (1% strongly/1% tend to disagree), nearly two in ten (17%) neither agree nor disagree and 7% do not know.

Major infrastructure projects take major dollars to build, and these funds need to be raised from somewhere. On this point, though, Canadians are split on whether foreign investment or borrowing funds is the right approach to fund infrastructure spending, suggesting that funds would instead need to be re-directed from other policies or programs:

• only one in three (31%) Canadians `agrees' (6% strongly/25% tend to agree) that they are fine with foreign investment in new infrastructure if it means it gets built more quickly, while a similar proportion (30%) `disagrees' (11% strongly/19% tend to disagree), three in ten (28%) neither agree or disagree and 11% don't know. 160
• just one in three (32%) `supports' (7% strongly/25% tend to support) the federal government borrowing money to fund the building of more or better infrastructure, while a similar proportion (28%) `opposes' (8% strongly/20% tend to oppose), one in three (32%) neither support nor oppose and one in ten (8%) do not know.

Whether the dollars will make a difference is another matter: while one in three (34%) Canadians `agrees' (11% strongly/24% tend to agree) that `we have a poor record at getting national infrastructure projects right, few (13%) `disagree' (2% strongly/11% tend to disagree) with this premise. Four in ten (37%) neither agree nor disagree and 16% don't know.

Rating Canada's Infrastructure and Prioritizing for the Future...

Canadians have varied opinions of our country's existing infrastructure, believing that we do some things quite well, while other aspects lag significantly. The chart below demonstrates the proportion of Canadians who say we have `good' infrastructure in each area, the proportion that says Canada's infrastructure in each regard is `poor', and the proportion who doesn't know either way.

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When asked what types of infrastructure should be made a priority for investment, the top three areas that Canadians said should be made a priority are local roads (53%), major roads/highways (51%) and water supply/sewage (42%). Fewer included energy generation excluding nuclear (36%), new housing supply (30%), rail (26%), high speed broadband (21%), flood defences (20%), airports (15%) or nuclear generation (14%), or some other area (5%) among their top priorities. One in ten (10%) don't know what the priorities should be.

Canadians do not believe that projects should be rushed into without consultation, however, with a majority (62%) agreeing (21% strongly/41% tend to agree) that local communities' views on plans for infrastructure should be heard properly, even if it means delays'. Conversely, 6% disagree (1% strongly/5% tend to disagree), believing that communities don't need to be extensively consulted if it means delays, while one in four (24%) neither agree or disagree and 8% don't know.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between August 26 and September 9, 2016, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18-64 from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting160was then160employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval.160 In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ - 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18-64 been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Darrell Bricker, PhD
CEO
(416) 324-2001
Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry. With a strong presence in 87 countries, Ipsos employs more than 16,000 people and has the ability to conduct research programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is controlled and managed by research professionals. They have built a solid Group around a multi-specialist positioning-- Media and advertising research; Marketing research; Client and employee relationship management; Opinion & social research; Mobile, Online, Offline data collection and delivery. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. www.ipsos.com