OTTAWA, ON – Leslyn Lewis, Conservative Shadow Minister of Infrastructure and Communities released the following statement after it was discovered that a $1.7 billion dollar Canada Infrastructure Bank project has failed:

“Trudeau’s bank invested $655 million in a $1.7 billion-dollar project to build an underwater electricity cable that is now dead in the water due to financial volatility and inflation. The Lake Erie Connector Project is yet another failure for the Canada Infrastructure Bank – a $35 billion taxpayer-funded bank that has not completed one project in almost 6 years.

“At a time when Canadians are struggling to put food on the table, this government keeps wasting taxpayer dollars. $655 million was promised to a multi-billion-dollar company for an electricity project that ironically seems to have failed due to inflation, caused by this Liberal government.

“One and a half years ago, the Liberals were gushing about their new partnership with Fortis Inc., a private company that rakes in billions in revenue every year, promising tons of low-carbon energy, billions in GDP and hundreds of Canadian jobs. Conservatives warned from the beginning that this was a risky and inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. We were ignored.

“What’s worse is that there has been no transparency. Only when Conservatives demanded answers last week in Parliament did the government or the Bank provide any update on a massive project that was quietly cancelled back in July. We also still don’t know the details of the Fortis agreement or where the cost overruns were. That’s unacceptable for a taxpayer-funded bank.

“Conservatives will continue to call on this government to respect the only recommendation from the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities – that this $35-billion-dollar boondoggle be abolished. It has failed to attract the promised private investment, it lacks transparency, and it can’t get a project built. This drain on taxpayer dollars must end.”