Almost $2 billion is being allocated to resurface roads, repair bridges, restore schools and fill potholes as the provincial government tries to get thousands of people back to work.
Premier Jason Kenney says infrastructure investments will be focused on projects that can be started quickly.
He also says this is just the first of several measures to create jobs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, adding “many of those measures will be implemented following the peak of the pandemic because right now our economy is still in a serious contraction mode.”
Kenney says “it wouldn’t make sense for us to blow all of our fiscal power, to use up all of our resources right now, when the economy is in contraction.”
The government says it’s doubling the capital maintenance and renewal funding in 2020-2021 from $937 million to $1.9 billion by accelerating the capital plan.