While consumption of biodiesel is increasing substantially on both sides of the border, U.S. subsidies for biodiesel are unmatched on the Canadian side, meaning that Canadian-priced biodiesel is uncompetitive. Without matching subsidies to keep Canadian prices competitive, Canadian biodiesel producers may abandon the market, leaving Canada with no domestic source of biodiesel. 

By 2041, more than 64 per cent of the expected growth in the City of Niagara Falls will happen in the South Niagara Falls area. This necessitates building a new wastewater treatment plant in South Niagara Falls that can handle 30 million litres of wastewater per day. Without it, population growth – let alone increases in tourist traffic – simply can’t happen.

The GO train not only drives the economic integration of the golden horseshoe, but has a major role in relieving traffic congestion on the QEW, reducing emissions, and promoting productivity by reducing the time spent commuting. However, practical all-day, year-round GO train service has yet to be delivered to Niagara. 

Niagara is a big tourist destination, but it doesn’t have an international airport, and any trip to Niagara is bookended by long overland trips to/from Toronto or Buffalo. 

Many services in Ontario are delivered by municipal governments, despite being provincial responsibilities elsewhere in the country. With declining revenues and increasing costs, municipalities can’t meet this demand, which means property taxes are going up and services are declining. 

Municipal governments are facing growing demand for new infrastructure, a growing backlog of infrastructure in need of maintenance, but have less money with which to fund them. Almost all municipal services are legally mandated by the provincial government, so cutting them isn’t an option. 

Canadian crude oil can be shipped by rail as far as Thunder Bay, but a lack of tankers and oil infrastructure prevents it from going further. This necessarily limits Canadian oil exports eastward when markets in Europe are interested in new sources of energy from reliable and ethical trading partners like Canada.

Development charges are levied on new and repurposed buildings by municipal governments. This is to recover some of the costs associated with servicing a building with roads, water, sewers, etc. However, these development charges will be reflected in the final price of a home, and higher development charges deter development and increase housing prices.

The housing supply is in a crisis, but building more houses depends on infrastructure to service them – roads, water, wastewater, etc. The Government of Canada’s contributions to infrastructure are much smaller relative to the taxes it collects than those of either provincial or municipal governments in Ontario.