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It was during the 2015 election campaign that we first heard Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to create the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Three years later, the $35-billion bank is still struggling to find its footing and many Canadians are asking themselves what the purpose of this bank is, if it even has one.

According to its website, the Infrastructure Bank will use federal money to “attract private sector and institutional investment to new revenue-generating infrastructure projects that are in the public interest.” While the Crown corporation boasts that it will help with infrastructure projects that otherwise wouldn’t be built, it will essentially use public money to underwrite loans to protect private investors from losses while putting all the risk on taxpayers.

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In the past year, the Infrastructure Bank has requested more than $11 million from the $35 billion to cover salaries, legal services, travel, expenses for its board of directors and other capital costs. That’s $11 million in spending, all before the bank had even announced its first project. In August 2018, the Canada Infrastructure Bank announced it would be loaning $1.28 billion to an electric rail system for Montreal at an unusually low interest rate — one per cent, rising to three per cent over the 15-year term.