Examining the Social Elements of Public Infrastructure : Impacts on

Competitiveness and Implications for Governance

City of Ottawa/ Infrastructure Canada:

Knowledge-Building, Outreach and Awareness Research Program

Outline of presentation Research project Research questions and theoretical

framework Case studies: Calgary and Ottawa Break Toronto case studies Key findings Data and measurement Implications for policy and governance

A three year research program Funded by Infrastructure CanadaCoordinated by City of Ottawa Housing

Branch

Goals: oReframe traditional view of infrastructure and

its role in local economy and city competitiveness

oExpand knowledge and engagement

What do we mean by competitiveness

= economic development

How do cities compete?

How does infrastructure contribute to competitiveness?

Does social infrastructure contribute to competitiveness, and if so, how?

What implications does an evolving scope and role for infrastructure have for governance?

Selecting Cities/Cases What is each City’s strategy and the intent

of the investment?What was the context?Have the effects been measured – are they

measureable?What are the implications of new

infrastructure strategies for governance?

Key Issues for Case Studies

Case Studies

Affordable Housing Strategy, Calgary

Rural Broadband Initiative, Ottawa

Sheppard Avenue Subway, Toronto

St. Lawrence Neighborhood, Toronto

MaRS Centre, Toronto

Calgary Affordable Housing Aggregate investment $160m/6 yrs Concurrent with ED Strategy Context – excessive growth – affordable

housing needed to sustain growth Employment, GDP data – inconclusive

evidence re direct effect But – important in managing externality of

growth In place infra, physical capital, indirect

effects

Expansion of rural broadband across the City of Ottawa

What was the investment?

P3: $750K City, $10.4 M private investment

Funding went primarily towards building transmission towers

Supportive of human capital, local and external network infrastructure

How it came about

New political dynamic: 2001 amalgamation

Well developed economic rationale: The City of Ottawa’s 20/20 Economic Plan, Broadband Plan (2003)

Mobilisation of rural residents (Rural Summit)

Intent of Broadband investment Expand the City's innovation economy; Attract knowledge-based workers to the City; Improve quality of life through access to online

health care, education, government and commercial services;

Reduce daily commuter traffic; Bridge the "digital divide" between urban and

rural Ottawa Foster economic development outside the urban

core.  *Broadband Plan, 2003

Electronic Survey 17.7% response rate 29% business owners

Key findings of survey1. 75% of business owning respondents stated that access to

high-speed Internet has improved their business sales and profitability while 63% noted that access to high-speed has helped reduce their business expenses.

2. 15% of rural business owners stated that without access to

high-speed, they would relocate to other areas.

3. 20% of non-business owning respondents would not be able to continue working for their current employer if they did not have the capacity to telecommute.

Broadband: key findings

Multiple factors led to the success of this investment

Political Economic rationaleResident mobilisationGovernance modelType of investmentGeography

Break

Sheppard Avenue Subway Investment of 933.9 million, 2002 “Straddled” the inception of a

competitiveness strategy Example of intended internal network infra Truncated from major system investment Has not appreciably contributed to

competitive business growth in North York Centre or elsewhere

Good data availability

St Lawrence Neighbourhood Aggregate investment $46million/10 yrs Predates formal competitiveness strategy New n’hood, brownfield area next to CBD Removed externality (derelict land use) Catalyst for residential growth in downtown Expanded CBD labour supply (low wage) Data suggestive but inconclusive In place infra, physical capital, indirect

effects

MaRS Centre Investment from Province/GOC, with City

facilitation Directly in line with competitiveness

strategy Combines in-place capture of knowledge

and innovation with network functions, directly supporting external business

Anecdotally appears to be well situated to contribute to the Discovery District

Very little data

Insights from the case studies? Increasing awareness and explicit strategy on

competitiveness – at least in rhetoric Cases often pre-date a formal

competitiveness strategy – but still contribute More recent cases (Broadband, Mars) more

directly follow from competitiveness strategy Seldom are there mechanisms to measure

impact ex poste Importance of infrastructure investment on

human capital effects

Measuring Competitiveness Effects in Case Studies?

Some useful data elements available and were applied (e.g. Sheppard – transit data; Broadband electronic survey; Calgary and St L employment data).

More frequently, data was not available at appropriate scale, or frequency to explicitly measure impact of discrete investments (causality)

Conceptual model helps identify which data would be useful – for future collection and monitoring outcomes

Policy Implications Importance of specific goals and strategies Indirect effects (managing externalities) Relative importance of scale and targeting Importance of physical/functional

connection Importance of systems (aggregate impacts) Human and physical capital and the

meaning of “infrastructure” (re social elements of public infrastructure)

Implications for Governance

Preoccupation with apriori justification for project but limited attention to ex poste measurement of impacts

Strengthen linkages between strategic goals and investment decisions

Importance of capital budget process Multiple government conditionality can

undermine (no fed/prov policy/strategy for city competitiveness

Research Team Russell Mawby, City Ottawa/Places Group, (as

of November 2008) David Hay, CPRN/Information Partnership Inc.

(as of October 2007) Steve Pomeroy, Focus Consulting Inc, and

University of Ottawa John Burrett, Capacity Strategic Networks Inc Leonore Evans, Carleton University Duncan Maclennan, University of Ottawa

(through 2006)