People

Canada‘s $60-Billion Infrastructure Chief:
Amarjeet Singh Sohi

BETSY POWELL

 

Amarjeet Singh Sohi believes his unusual career path makes him well-suited to head the federal ministry that will dole out billions of dollars for infrastructure projects in cities across Canada.

Amarjeet, 51, spoke no English when he moved to Edmonton from Punjab as a teenager, and ended up wrongly imprisoned when he returned to his homeland to do volunteer development work. After returning to the Alberta capital, he drove a public transit bus for more than a decade.

Then in 2007, he was elected to city council, where he worked with the provincial and federal governments to help negotiate the largest construction project in Edmonton’s history: a $1.8-billion, 27-kilometre light rail transit line that’s now underway.

That gave him invaluable insight, the newly minted Minister of Infrastructure and Communities said during a recent sojourn in Toronto that included a tour of the city’s waterfront and a meeting with Mayor John Tory.

“Here’s another thing we want to do differently than the previous government, which is to allow local communities to determine what their priorities are,” he says.

Consultations to determine a transit project’s route selection, environmental studies and exploring land-use opportunities can’t be left up to the federal government, says Amarjeet.

“It’s the local communities that do that . . . that’s the perspective I want to bring to the table.”

Amarjeet wasn’t here to announce which local proposals are in line for a piece of the $60 billion promised by the Liberal government for projects over the next decade, to be equally shared among transit, social infrastructure and environmental initiatives.

Federal staff are conducting a sweeping review of the many proposals coming in, including those to which funding was previously committed, Amarjeet says while sitting in a boardroom at Waterfront Toronto, the tri-partite government agency in charge of revitalizing the city’s lakefront.

“There are national objectives in mind that are going to influence our decision-making process,” says the soft-spoken Liberal.

“How we grow the economy, how we make our economy more efficient, productive, create jobs; how do we build infrastructure that encourages socially inclusive communities, and deal with climate change, reduce environmental footprints?”

So how does the expensive and contentious three-stop Scarborough subway extension fit into the national framework? The previous Conservative government promised $660 million for it.

Amarjeet smiles.

Opponents, including former city councillor-turned Liberal MP Adam Vaughan, have argued that the $1.48-billion LRT previously approved by council and fully funded by the province was a more cost-effective transit solution for Scarborough.

“Here again, our approach is going to be different,” he says, after a long pause and sip of coffee.

“I’m not going to determine what the local priorities should be. Local priorities should be determined by local elected officials. Once they make the decision, then we will look at those priorities and how they fit into the national objectives.”

When it’s pointed out that the new federal government, by refusing to open up an original no-jets agreement, has effectively killed a proposal to introduce jets at Billy Bishop Airport before city council had a chance to decide, Amarjeet smiles again. He moves to address any lingering concerns that an Edmonton city councillor might not understand the pressing priorities of Canada’s largest metropolis.

He says he has been to Toronto “many times,” and he points to his experience leading Edmonton’s “transformative” redevelopment project.

“Someone from Edmonton and Alberta can actually understand how important revitalization of our cities is.”


[Courtesy: The Toronto Star]
December 22, 2015
 

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