Canada’s latest Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC) was released in January 2016. The CIRC project is the continuation of a collaboration struck in 2012 between the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), the Canadian Public Works Association (CPWA), the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The 2016 edition also received support from the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) as well as the Federal-Provincial/Territorial Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Committee.

The Report Card provides comprehensive, scientifically based, and standardized information on the inventory, condition and asset management practices of Canada’s core public infrastructure. It is intended to assist policy-makers, asset owners and managers in their infrastructure asset management, planning and decision-making. The total value of core municipal infrastructure in Canada was estimated to be $1.1 trillion, one-third of which was identified as being in fair, poor or very poor condition. This infrastructure represents a call for action – and governments at all levels seemed primed to respond with significant investments in a range of infrastructure systems across Canada.

The speakers present a detailed overview of the CIRC process and results and provide some ideas for how we can engineer our infrastructure to make sure it can be sustained over the long term.