OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Ottawa is earmarking $5.8 billion over three years for spending on aboriginal reserves, as well as museums, research centres, parks and other federally-owned infrastructure across Canada.

Harper has been announcing budget-type spending and tax cuts in recent weeks as the federal government is on the verge of ending years of budget deficits.

“In a very real sense, Canada’s federal infrastructure creates jobs,” Harper said during a campaign-style event in London, Ont.

Of the $5.8 billion total, $500 million for refurbishing and building on-reserve schools has been announced in previous federal budgets. The other $5.3 billion of funding — some of which appears to have been previously announced — will go to border facilities, airports, rail services, small craft harbours and shipbuilding yards, Harper said.

Ottawa will also spend to modernize federal laboratories and research centres and upgrade national defence and RCMP facilities, as well as investing in restoration efforts at national historic sites and in improvements at museums, parks and marine conservation areas.

The government had previously committed $53 billion in infrastructure spending over 10 years, but opposition MPs and the province of Ontario have complained that this commitment, when broken down year-by-year, is inadequate.

The NDP has been urging the federal government to invest more on infrastructure to boost the economy and reduce unemployment.

“The criticisms are hurting,” NDP finance critic Nathan Cullen said in response to Harper’s announcement on Monday.

Cullen questioned whether, with an election looming, the Harper government is promising to spend money it may never have. Finance Minister Joe Oliver is predicting $31 billion in budget surpluses over the next five years. In recent weeks, the Conservatives have announced nearly $30 billion in new spending and tax cuts over the same period.

Liberal deputy leader Ralph Goodale said a lot of the money referred to Monday by Harper has been previously announced. “It’s a rebundling and reorganization of existing funding,” he said. “I think they (the Conservatives) were feeling the heat for not having much in the window in terms of infrastructure.”

Ontario economic development minister Brad Duguid said the province was pleased by the announcement but was “disappointed to see no additional funding for important provincial and territorial projects across Canada.

“As we have consistently said, the federal government is falling behind in infrastructure investments while provinces and territories are picking up the slack,” he said. “There remains a number of areas in which we continue to look to the federal government to match Ontario’s funding commitments, including our $1-billion commitment to the Ring of Fire (mining development), investments in transit and social housing, and we will continue to call on the federal government to close this funding gap.”

With files from Rob Benzie

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