Canadian companies are snapping up their share of worldwide infrastructure projects because of their ability to deal with harsh climates and huge distances, the Export Development Corporation said Wednesday.

EDC, a federal Crown corporation that helps Canadian exporters, said the country's corporations have a superior ability to build large-scale power and other infrastructure assets in inhospitable environments.

That gives domestic firms a leg up in getting design and construction work for foreign projects, the federal agency said.

Canadian companies are helping build water treatment plants in several countries. (CBC)

"Canadian companies bring to the world stage the lessons learned from one of the harshest climates and geographically diverse countries in the world," said Françoise Faverjon-Fortin, EDC's vice-president for infrastructure and environment.

She made the comments in an EDC report outlining 50 infrastructure projects in other countries in which Canadian firms already have a portion of the work.

Canadian firms will need all of the acumen that comes from building facilities in regions as diverse as marine areas and in the far North in order to tap into the growing global infrastructure market, Faverjon-Fortin said.

She said as much as $70 trillion in power and water projects and other public assets will be built worldwide by 2025.

By way of comparison, in 2007, Canadian firms snagged approximately $17 billion worth of infrastructure work on 1,100 projects.

The infrastructure work will become doubly important because of diminishing markets for Canadian exports. EDC has estimated that Canadian overseas sales to developed countries will fall by 27 per cent in 2009 and only grow by seven per cent in 2010.

EDC's report noted Canadian involvement in overseas jobs, from three projects in Algeria to six in the United States. The study also pointed to:

• A $900-million hydroelectric development in Cameroon where Tecsult Inc., the Montreal subsidiary of U.S.-based AECOM, heads the project.
• A $645-million coal-fired power plant in Poland where SNC-Lavalin Inc. is managing the project.
• A $2-billion project to expand the rail network in South Africa in which Toronto's Hatch Inc. has a big stake.