This year’s Top 100 Infrastructure Projects list represents over $68-billion in infrastructure investments in Canada. The fact that 46 of those projects are new to the list is an indication of just how robust the infrastructure industry in Canada was in 2009.

Projects on this annual listing of the biggest infrastructure undertakings in Canada are ranked by dollar value—that’s the cost of the project including all stages and elements, down to the nuts and bolts in a billion-dollar power plant or the cement and steel needed for a new bridge. To be considered, a project must be under construction or at least have reached financial close.

The upcoming Olympic Games in British Columbia had stacked the list over the last few years with projects like the $2-billion Canada Line and the remediation of Southeast False Creek. Now that those projects are complete, an influx of transit projects in Ontario has replenished the list. There are scores of rail improvements and light rail transit (LRT) and bus rapid transit projects in the works, including GO Transit improvements and VIA Rail investment.

Beyond two LRTs in Alberta and some subway upgrades in Quebec, the rest of Canada is weak on transit investment. That doesn’t mean the winner for greatest number of projects on the list is transportation. It’s health care.

Not only do health care projects outnumber all others on the list, but they account for 18 of the 34 public-private partnerships (P3s) on the list. Besides the 34 P3s on the list, only a handful of other projects involve private funds. Out of the top 25 projects, only two aren’t publically funded. Then again, these are mostly public works projects. We chose to disqualify certain projects that have a large amount of private financing because they don’t fit under our definition of infrastructure. Both commercial/residential developments, as well as oil and gas pipelines, have been omitted from the list.