The Canada Infrastructure Bank is launching a program to offer low-interest and long-term financing for Indigenous infrastructure projects.

 

The bank says the Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative will offer loans of at least $5 million for up to 80 per cent of the capital cost associated with green infrastructure, clean power, broadband internet, transportation and trade projects.

 

The loans are meant to create economic growth in Indigenous communities, enhance energy security, reduce greenhouse gases and give more people access to reliable internet and safe drinking water.

 

The program comes after the federal government urged the bank to allocate at least $1 billion for Indigenous infrastructure projects in February.

 

First Nations communities alone face an infrastructure deficit totalling as much as $30 billion, said a 2016 report from the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

 

A 2020 analysis from the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which represents the territory's Inuit and their rights under the Nunavut Act, didn't quantify the infrastructure gap across its community, but found the territory's infrastructure is commonly “inadequate, in poor repair, or altogether absent” when compared with the Canadian baseline.