Feds to consider public pension funds to help bankroll big infrastructure – by Andy Blatchford (Toronto Sun – April 24, 2016)

http://www.torontosun.com/

THE CANADIAN PRESS – OTTAWA — The federal government has identified a potential source of cash to help pay for Canada’s mounting infrastructure costs — and it could involve leasing or selling stakes in major public assets such as highways, rail lines, and ports.

A line tucked into last month’s federal budget reveals the Liberals are considering making public assets available to non-government investors, like public pension funds. The sentence mentions “asset recycling,” a system designed to raise money to help governments bankroll improvements to existing public infrastructure and, possibly, to build new projects.

For massive, deep-pocketed investors like pension funds, asset recycling offers access to reliable investments with predictable returns through revenue streams that could include user fees such as tolls.

“Where it is in the public interest, engage public pension plans and other innovative sources of funding — such as demand management initiatives and asset recycling — to increase the long-term affordability and sustainability of infrastructure in Canada,” reads the sentence in the new Liberal government’s first budget.

Asset recycling is gaining an increasing amount of international attention and one of the best-known, large-scale examples is found in Australia. The Australian government launched a plan to attract billions of dollars in capital by offering incentives to its states and territories that sell stakes in public assets.

For the original source of this article, click here: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/04/24/feds-to-consider-public-pension-funds-to-help-bankroll-big-infrastructure