Helping people make connections

Failing to pay attention to our social infrastructure yields a result similar to neglect of bridges and roads, writes Milton Friesen.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities will no doubt attract significant media interest at its upcoming annual conference with calls for great physical infrastructure spending.

Indeed, even before it kicks off its gathering in Edmonton from June 5 to 8, the FCM has already won well-deserved attention for a report showing Canada is $123 billion behind on physical infrastructure, and lagging by a further $2 billion annually.

New federal investments of $75 billion over 10 years for Canadian infrastructure will help, but even that can't catch us up completely. The FCM is right to raise concern about this chronic infrastructure shortfall, which generally captures our awareness only if a large chunk of a local bridge plunges into a river or a broken water main snarls commuter traffic.

We need these things so that we can live the lives we do, yet we forget and neglect them until trouble reminds us they're essential.

Yet there is another kind of essential infrastructure that all too often has even lower visibility: social infrastructure.