Enticing large pension funds to spend big on Canadian infrastructure projects will form a key part of the Liberal Party's cities agenda, which is among the next policy planks that Leader Justin Trudeau will announce in the coming weeks.

Mr. Trudeau and his team of advisers are working on the final details of the infrastructure platform, which the party has long said would form a significant part of its pitch to voters in the October election.

But having decided to largely devote future surpluses toward tax cuts and enhanced direct payments to families, there is little room left to promise major additional spending on infrastructure.

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Senior Liberals responsible for the party's economic policies say the infrastructure component will draw inspiration from Australia and Britain, where efforts are being made to plan infrastructure projects so they meet the needs of pension investors looking for large, long-term projects that are open to private investment.

Liberal finance critic Scott Brison said in an interview that the Liberal plan would not interfere with the mandate of large Canadian pension funds such as the Canada Pension Plan, but would aim to address the reasons these funds are more likely to invest in infrastructure abroad than at home.

"You can respect absolutely the independence of Canadian pension funds to do their jobs – and that is maximize long-term pension security and returns for their members – but at the same time you can package projects within Canada that are attractive to not just Canadian pension funds but global pension funds," he said. Mr. Brison and Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland met Monday with The Globe and Mail's editorial board.

While no date has yet been set for the release of the party's infrastructure platform, the annual meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is scheduled for June 5-8 in Edmonton and the party would like to have details ready by then to discuss with Canada's mayors and city councillors.

Mr. Trudeau was also in Toronto on Monday where he delivered a speech to the Canadian Club that promoted the tax policies he announced last week. He argued that taxing high-income Canadians to pay for these measures is a better way to raise revenue than the NDP's proposal of higher corporate tax rates.

The tax proposals were the first of what is expected to be a series of policy announcements in the coming weeks that will include infrastructure, child care and innovation.

Attracting more pension investment in Canadian infrastructure would require selling Canadians on a much larger role for public-private partnerships than is currently the case. It would also mean going further in a direction that is already preferred by the Conservatives. It is the Harper government that created a Crown corporation – PPP Canada Inc. – in 2009 focused on public-private partnerships for infrastructure. The 2015 federal budget promised a new public transit fund that would run through PPP Canada and would receive $1-billion in annual funding starting in 2019-20.

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A 2013 analysis by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development looked specifically at pension-fund investment in infrastructure and compared the Australian and Canadian approaches.

It said Canadian pension funds have been dubbed the "Maple revolutionaries" by the Economist magazine for their expertise in infrastructure investing around the world, but that these funds "bemoan the lack of investment opportunities at home."

The report said these funds view public-private partnerships in Canada as too small. While Mr. Brison and Ms. Freeland said in interviews Monday they are interested in Australia's approach, the OECD report questioned whether these policies would be popular with Canadians.

"Australia has a history of privatization over the last two decades, especially in large transport items such as airports, ports, toll roads and tunnels. In contrast, only very few privatizations of public infrastructure assets have occurred in Canada," it said. "According to observers, there is no widespread political will to do so in the foreseeable future."

Meanwhile, a 2011 program in Britain called the Pensions Infrastructure Platform that was meant to entice pension investment in infrastructure has run into criticism and has so far failed to meet its initial targets.