On October 9, 2020, Canada Infrastructure Bank announced its intention to provide $407.5 million in funding to a Special Purpose Vehicle supported by the Province of Alberta and eight Irrigation Districts to create more than 200,000 additional irrigable acres. The deal reached financial close on December 21, 2020. The funding will be put towards an irrigation project that will build new irrigation infrastructure and increase water storage capacity in southern Alberta. The investment from CIB is part of the Bank’s $10 billion Growth Plan.
Canada Infrastructure Bank specializes in attracting and co-investing with private sector and institutional investors in infrastructure projects that are in the public interest. The Bank has a particular focus on investments in agriculture and is using an innovative financing approach to invest in projects as the sector faces obstacles attracting long term private capital due to the uncertain nature of revenues. CIB’s initial focus will be large-scale irrigation projects in Western Canada.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP advised Canada Infrastructure Bank with a team consisting of Dana Saric, Chris Bennett (Financial Services), Frank Turner, Allan Morgan (Corporate), Sander Duncanson (Regulatory, Environmental, Aboriginal and Land), Paula Olexiuk (Construction and Infrastructure), Shawn Denstedt, Brad Wall (Special Advisors) and Luke Stretch (Real Estate).