Canadians living in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver lose 88-million hours a year sitting in traffic, which equals 10,000 years. That’s according to a new report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Senior Vice President of Policy Warren Everson says it’s both residents and businesses that lose out because of poor infrastructure.
“We argue that those problems are not only costing people severely in quality of life in those cities, but also costing the economy of the cities and the provinces around them quite severely because it’s now so inefficient to try and do business in those [cities],” said Everson.
The report also found Oshawa residents waste an extra 2.3-million hours per year in traffic.
Everson says the chamber is pushing the provinces and the feds to make big infrastructure investments to get goods and people moving.
“Most infrastructure money should be spent on things that are going to generate economic activity,” said Everson. “A rising tide will lift all the boats. More employment for everyone, more tax dollars for governments to deploy.”
He says although money for social infrastructure is important, more money should be spent on infrastructure investments with a return, so the government makes back the money it borrowed for the project in the first place.
From durhamradionews.com
Read the full report here.
