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Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1547060
www.canadianlawyermag.com 49 AS THE CIB'S MANDATE EXPANDS, LEGAL STEERS HOUSING, TRADE, AND CLEAN POWER By the end of 2025, the Canada Infrastructure Bank had committed more than $18 billion across about 108 projects, with roughly $28 billion of its original $35 billion capital envelope already spoken for. That trajectory has, according to chief legal and information officer Frédéric Duguay, pushed Ottawa to raise that envelope to $45 billion so the institution can keep backing housing-enabling infrastructure, trade corridors, clean power, and AI-related systems without imposing an artificial cap on new deals. He frames that shift less as a windfall than as a response to the pace the CIB has already established, noting that over roughly the past five years it has been committing between $3 billion and $5 billion a year to about 20 to 30 projects. Housing is the most visible front and, in his view, the most misunderstood, because the Canada Infrastructure Bank does not finance homes but, rather, the foundations that FROM PRIVATE PRACTICE TO ALBERTA'S FRONT LINE OF HEALTH REGULATION Bringing 40,000 healthcare aides into full regulation is forcing an Alberta regulator to revisit its assumptions about risk, fairness, and institutional change, says Katrina Haymond, the college's first general counsel. Haymond holds that role at the College of Licensed Practical Nurses and Health Care Aides of Alberta (CLHA), which, until recently, regulated only about 21,000 licensed practical nurses. She provided the organization with external legal support as a partner at Fields LLP and joined to help with its expanding mandate. "As external counsel supporting the college from the outside, the work was more focused on discrete matters like professional conduct … and certain specific registration issues," she says. "When you're in-house as general counsel, it's a whole different level of involvement." Haymond joined in February 2025, with the proclamation of the healthcare make them buildable. "It's the roads, it's the district energy system, it's the broadband, it's essentially the site preparation that is needed to enable more development," he says, allowing municipalities and developers to build at scale without carrying all the early-stage risk. Indigenous communities are the second pillar of where he wants the expanded envelope to land. The Indigenous Equity Initiative offers loans so communities can buy equity stakes in CIB-backed projects, shifting the conversation, as Duguay puts it, "from benefits to ownership." Clean power now accounts for the largest share of the CIB's portfolio. Duguay highlights the electricity link between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where the CIB and Mi'kmaq communities on both sides are investors and where the financing helps preserve more than $200 million in benefits for Nova Scotia ratepayers. On trade, Duguay calls it "a huge focus" as the federal government works to build "one Canadian economy" that grows exports and reduces reliance on a single trading partner. aide regulations later scheduled for February 2, 2026. That year was dominated by the work of turning a directory into a legislated registry, including consultation on regulatory amendments, new standards of practice, and policies. "There's just been a magnitude of legal issues that … you try to anticipate, but there are just things that come up," she says. The in-house vantage point has reshaped how she thinks about risk. "I'm gaining a much better understanding of all of the college's program areas, and I'm much better able to make connections about how … something in their registration might be related to something in their program approval of post-secondary institutes, and how those things all fit together," she says. For private practitioners contemplating a similar move in-house: "We like to think about the shiny new thing that we're going to. But I think you have to think about, 'What am I leaving behind?' as well. And don't take the things you're leaving behind for granted." FRÉDÉRIC DUGUAY Company: Canada Infrastructure Bank Title: Chief legal and information officer KATRINA HAYMOND Company: College of Licensed Practical Nurses and Health Care Aides of Alberta (CLHA) Title: General counsel