Mr. Barton is talking through his hat, and I'm sure he knows it. Money is just a means of keeping score. If Canada has the productive capability to build infrastructure projects, then Canada has the ability to finance those infrastructure projects. "The government doesn't have the money" is just nonsense; by an appropriate combination of taxes, borrowed money, and money creation the government can get the money.

Regardless of who finances them, the question with major infrastructure projects is always opportunity cost. For example, a worker who is busy building a public bridge cannot be at work building a private factory; in this example, the unbuilt factory is the opportunity cost of building the bridge. Of course, if the infrastructure projects use labour and other resources that would otherwise be unemployed, there is no opportunity cost. That, as I understand it, is the government's intention.