Indicators
Canada’s Infrastructure Keeps Aging as Investment Fails to Keep Up
- Remaining life of non-housing capital fell annually since 2015
- Data suggest government, business investment lagging need
Traffic on a highway in Toronto.
Photographer: Cole Burston/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Canada’s highways, shopping centers, schools and equipment are aging without being replaced as investment in infrastructure slows.
The average age of the country’s non-housing capital stock was just over nine years in 2023, leaving 63.3% of its “useful” life remaining, according to data released Thursday by Statistics Canada. It’s the eighth consecutive year that the so-called remaining useful service life ratio has fallen, leaving the nation with the oldest infrastructure it’s had in data going back to 2009.