The Ontario government is launching a new infrastructure bank that will emphasize commercial real estate investments at the outset.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy announced the move as he issued the government’s 2023 economic outlook in the Legislature. The province also issued a news release.

The province is providing $3 billion for the new venture, which is designed to enable public-sector pension plans and other institutional investors to participate in large-scale infrastructure projects across the province.

The finance minister said the new arms-length, board-governed agency will focus its first loans on long-term care homes, affordable housing and infrastructure in the municipal, community, energy and transportation sectors.

“You look around the world, and there’s many infrastructure banks in many parts of the world, which helps get things built that perhaps otherwise wouldn’t get built,” Bethlenfalvy told reporters.

The federal government launched a national infrastructure bank in 2017. Bethlenfalvy’s his outlook anticipates that Ontario’s 2023-24 deficit will hit $5.6 billion.

That total is $4.3 higher than the $1.3-billion deficit forecasted in the March provincial budget estimate.