Overview

Public sector infrastructure across Canada and the United States is deteriorating and there is little money to modernize it.  This has resulted in many complex social issues which do not seem to have easy answers.

Social Issues

Many writers and journalists have written about budget challenges in schools. Every year when the weather warms up, nightly news reports feature parents with sweating kids who cannot concentrate, and yet year after year nothing is done to fix the root problem – schools need central air conditioning and they cannot afford it. 

Writers have covered the need for social housing in large urban areas.  In almost every major urban centre, the quality and quantity of social or low-income housing is completely insufficient and nobody knows how to fix it.  In Toronto especially, there are so many layers of new home regulations that a viable solution, once agreed upon by decision-makers,  would take years to implement.

Journalists have written scathing reports on the Canadian federal government’s inability to fix boil water advisories at First Nations. Although the best solution is to prevent these boil water advisories before they happen, the underlying causes of these water problems, although identified by some researchers, are going unrecognized by decision makers. 

How many times have we seen families on the evening news who have been victims of “hall-way medicine”? 

These are just a few examples of the complex social issues Canada and the U.S. face but do not know how to resolve. Although complex, they really are just symptomatic of a bigger problem. There is a huge backlog of required infrastructure modernization.  Billions of dollars are required, and governments don’t have the means to squeeze budgets any tighter.  With tighter budgets, symptoms are treated instead of the root causes.  Portable air conditioners are purchased for school gyms as ‘cooling centers’, plaster is applied to crumbling low-income housing walls, inadequate amounts of bottled water are delivered to First Nations communities, and governments cancel needed services to pledge money to fund new hospital beds.

Society is Stuck

Public sector organizations need solutions, but often they are reluctant to try something they perceive as unknown. Society appears to be stuck.  Municipal and provincial governments all talk about their issues. They all say they desperately need solutions to their complex social issues.  Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on writing research paper after research paper, but no one has pulled all the pieces together and come up with a comprehensive solution.  The research findings all say the same thing – a new approach to addressing the root problems is required. 

A Solution Exists

Now imagine if there was a sustainable and cost-effective solution to each of these issues. Suppose there was a way to make funds available for lost school programs? Suppose there was a way to create new homes for the homeless?  Suppose there was a way to solve existing and prevent new boil water advisories on time and under budget? Suppose there was a way to mitigate the declining state of health care all within the current budget? Now imagine the solution to all these problems could be performed by one nonprofit whose only motivation was to better society.

IGNITE Infrastructure

After a decade of exhaustive research and meeting people from a broad cross section of public sector organizations, and reading and re-reading the research papers, a solution has been developed. An Ontario-based nonprofit has found an answer to many of the complex public sector issues. IGNITE Infrastructure Association is a nonprofit entity founded and incorporated in Ontario. It was designed to modernize public sector infrastructure and save billions in taxpayer dollars. IGNITE has spent the last decade designing and field-testing its breakthrough approach. IGNITE’s approach works well and feedback has been excellent.

Affecting Social Change

Do you believe a compelling story can affect beneficial social change? If so, we invite you to create a compelling story in print or other media on why the existing approaches are not working and what the research says is needed.  You can help shape public opinion and perhaps even affect beneficial social change.   

This could develop into a series of articles or stories, each focusing on one major public sector issue that affects the daily life and well-being of citizens.  This will be a chance to dig deep and report on issues from a fresh perspective, bringing the potential for solutions to the court of public opinion.  The fresh change needed to revitalize the infrastructure scene will only happen when the average person is aware of the problems and starts demanding change.  These will be the stories that people will read to the end, that spark conversations and debates in homes, offices, gyms, and grocery stores from coast to coast.   We can provide you with reams of research conducted by think tanks and public policy research firms, environmentalists, universities, and more. 

Conclusion

We have also written a series of articles titled 6 Secrets for Public Sector Infrastructure to Thrive in the 21st Century.  We look forward to your comments and feedback.  We also welcome your input on how this story should be told.  Please contact me at 1.800.407.9181 x 3011

Sincerely,

Owen Roberts,

IGNITE Infrastructure Association