Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is warning the provinces and municipalities to complete infrastructure projects that stemmed from federal stimulus funds before the money stops flowing next year.
The $4 billion in infrastructure funding that is part of the government's Economic Action Plan dries up in March. Flaherty, who issues his sixth update on the plan's progress Monday in Montreal, said 97 per cent of approved projects are under way and "we hope they all get completed on time.
"We're encouraging them to get completed on time; that was what everyone said they would do," Flaherty told CTV's Question Period on Sunday. "So we're encouraging them to accomplish that goal."
There are more than 22,500 projects underway in Canada, Flaherty said, "an incredible accomplishment, quite frankly, for the public service and for the provinces and for the municipalities -- for our government -- to have this much action happening in our economy."
The finance minister did not entirely rule out extending the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund or other measures in the plan designed to aid Canada's recovery from the economic downturn, including a freeze on EI increases and an extension of EI benefits.
But he also pointed out that the government ended the home renovation tax credit on time earlier this year despite calls to extend the benefit.
"The Economic Action Plan is for a period of time," Flaherty said. "It's public stimulus, it's taxpayers' money being used to create jobs and protect our economy. But it doesn't go on forever."
"But we do intend to stay on course, to stay on our plan overall," he added later, "because otherwise we won't be able to balance the budget in the intermediate term."
Flaherty conceded that the ongoing economic recovery is "fragile," particularly after recent growth and employment statistics failed to meet expectations.
But he said the government has been moderate in its expectations for economic growth, and Canadians should follow suit.
"I think some people think we're going to go back to the growth we saw before the recession, kind of boom times," Flaherty said. "Well, we're not actually. We're going to have moderate growth, we're seeing that in other parts of the world."
