The Canada Infrastructure Bank and the private bank are each investing $135 million in expansion plans at Markham District Energy, a municipal utility that delivers central heating and cooling to multiple buildings. The loans will broaden the company’s reach in the northeastern suburb of Toronto, it said, and will cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 33,700 tonnes a year by displacing higher-carbon sources of energy. (The Logic)
Talking point: This deal is a rare one for the infrastructure bank that brought in investment from a private profit-making company, which was the infrastructure bank’s founding purpose. The announcement said CIBC’s involvement “aligns with CIBC’s ambition to achieve net-zero operational and financing activities by 2050,” and the bank’s vice-chair, former Conservative cabinet minister Lisa Raitt, lauded the project for helping CIBC pursue its sustainability goals.