Not all banks hold your savings. The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) holds something bigger; the financial foundations behind Canada’s ports, power grids, roads, and broadband networks.
Established by Parliament in 2017, it is a federal Crown corporation that uses public money to attract private investment in large-scale infrastructure projects that benefit Canadians.
What does the Canada Infrastructure Bank fund?
The CIB invests across four priority sectors, each chosen because it involves revenue-generating infrastructure that serves the public interest but needs a government push to attract private money.
Enabling housing supply
The CIB does not build homes. It funds the infrastructure that makes development possible at scale. “It’s the roads, it’s the district energy system, it’s the broadband, it’s essentially the site preparation that is needed to enable more development,” explained by Frédéric Duguay, the CIB’s chief legal and information officer, in a 2026 Lexpert interview.
A separate federal agency, Build Canada Homes, handles the delivery of housing units.
Clean energy
Clean power makes up the majority of the CIB’s portfolio. Here are two recent examples of these projects:
- On September 26, 2025, the CIB reached financial close on a $660 million loan to Irving Pulp & Paper for “Project NextGen,” the modernization of its West Saint John, New Brunswick pulp mill. It is the largest investment in Canada’s forest products industry since 1993. The project will produce up to 145 megawatts of renewable energy and cut emissions per tonne of Kraft pulp by 50 percent.
- On October 23, 2025, the Nova Scotia’s Mersey River Wind Project reached financial close, marking the first project to close under Nova Scotia’s Renewable to Retail Program. The CIB committed approximately $128.7 million to the 148.5 megawatt wind farm, developed by Roswall Developments and Slate Infrastructure.
Trade and transportation
On April 13, 2026, the Montréal Port Authority reached financial close on a $1.16 billion CIB loan for the Contrecoeur container terminal expansion, the largest east coast port expansion in Canadian history. Targeted for completion in 2030, the terminal will handle up to 1.15 million twenty-foot equivalent units annually and generate roughly $750 million in economic benefits each year.
Digital infrastructure and AI
Since 2019, the Canada Infrastructure Bank has invested to close rural broadband gaps, connecting approximately 499,680 Canadian households to high-speed internet. It is now expanding into AI data centres and the power systems they require, working alongside Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to align investments with Canada’s federal AI strategy.
Learn about the CIB with its year-end market update for 2025–2026:
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Who funds the Canada Infrastructure Bank?
The federal government provides the CIB’s capital through the Consolidated Revenue Fund. Parliament has authorized total funding of up to $45 billion, raised in 2026 from the Bank’s original $35 billion limit.
However, public money is only part of the picture. The CIB’s model for its infrastructure fund is built on leverage, where federal dollars are used to attract private and institutional investment that would not otherwise come forward.
In the Contrecoeur terminal project, for instance, more than 85 percent of total infrastructure costs will ultimately be carried by the private sector.
Payments to the Canada Infrastructure Bank
All CIB investments are repayable with interest, not grants. As loans are paid back, the Bank recycles that capital into new commitments.
By the end of 2025, the CIB’s investments had produced the following outcomes, per the Bank’s own reporting:
- $18 billion committed across approximately 108 projects
- 330,290 jobs created during construction
- average of 10.4 megatonnes of annual greenhouse gas reductions
- 173,272 daily transit trips supported
Who runs the Canada Infrastructure Bank?
Here’s how the Canada Infrastructure Bank is run from the inside:
The CEO and management team
The Canada Infrastructure Bank’s chief executive officer is Ehren Cory, a former McKinsey & Company partner appointed in October 2020. His legal counterpart is Frédéric Duguay, the CIB’s chief legal and information officer, who told Lexpert in April 2026 that the Bank takes “a whole of Canada approach to advancing these projects” and steers proponents to other programs when the CIB is not the right financing fit.
Here’s Cory talking about the infrastructure opportunities with the CIB:
Head over to our list of the best infrastructure lawyers in Canada as ranked by Lexpert for the top-ranking lawyers and firms in this practice area.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank board of directors
The Board approves all final investment decisions, where:
- the Board consists of a Chairperson, and between eight and 11 other directors
- all directors are appointed by the Governor in Council
- members cannot simultaneously hold positions in the federal public administration or any legislature
The current interim chair is Jane Bird, who took the role in January 2024.
Typical salaries at the Canada Infrastructure Bank
The CIB employs approximately 149 people as of March 2025. Executive pay is set by the Governor in Council on the Board’s recommendation, benchmarked against comparable market rates.
Specific salary ranges are not publicly disclosed. In 2021, a parliamentary committee request for executive bonus details was declined by the Bank, which cited competitive and privacy considerations, drawing criticism from opposition MPs.
How does the Canada Infrastructure Bank Act work?
The Canada Infrastructure Bank Act (CIB Act) received royal assent on June 22, 2017. It is the federal law that created the CIB, sets out its purpose, and defines what it can and cannot do.
The CIB Act permits the CIB to invest through:
- loans: including senior secured loans and royalty-style products
- equity investments: which are ownership stakes in project entities
- loan guarantees: which require the Minister of Finance’s approval
The Canada Infrastructure Bank must submit annual corporate plans and budgets to its designated Minister. Every five years, section 27 of the CIB Act requires a full legislative review tabled before Parliament. The 2017 to 2022 review has been completed and is available through Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada.
2026 amendment to the CIB Act
In March 2026, the CIB Act was amended following Canada’s 2025 federal budget, Canada Strong. As analysed in Lexpert by Dentons Canada LLP partners Lampros Stougiannos and Ali Amadee, the CIB Act amendments did two things:
- Raised the capital ceiling from $35 billion to $45 billion
- Broadened the investment mandate to allow the CIB to fund any nation-building project referred by the new Major Projects Office (MPO), regardless of sector or asset class
Section 28 of the CIB Act also protects all information the CIB holds about investors and project proponents as legally privileged. Unauthorized disclosure carries a fine of up to $10,000 or up to six months in prison.
Canada Infrastructure Bank: building what Canada needs
The Canada Infrastructure Bank is not a conventional lender. Rather, it invests where private capital needs a push to follow, from port terminals in Québec to wind farms in Nova Scotia. With its capital envelope now at $45 billion and its mandate expanded to cover nation-building priorities, the CIB’s reach into Canada’s infrastructure landscape will only grow.
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