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)