Canada’s federal government convened the first-ever Canada Investment Summit in Toronto on September 14 and 15, bringing together institutional investors, corporate executives, and public sector partners from nearly 30 countries to advance Prime Minister Mark Carney’s goal of catalysing $1 trillion in new investment across the country over the next five years.
The two-day event, hosted in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, delivered close to $500 billion in new investment commitments, including:
- Nearly $100 billion in new capital from Canada’s leading pension funds and insurers, led by a $50 billion Maple Fund launched jointly by CPP Investments and Brookfield Asset Management
- Nearly $325 billion in new financing from Canada’s top banks, with TD Bank alone pledging $150 billion over five years
- More than $14 billion from investment funds, including a $4 billion venture capital fund from Radical Ventures described as the largest of its kind in Canadian history
Alongside the investment figures, the federal government introduced a new Productivity Mega Deduction that expands immediate expensing to more than 65% of business assets, up from roughly 15%. Combined with a commitment to make immediate expensing permanent, the change is expected to lower Canada’s marginal effective tax rate on new business investment from roughly 13% to 6.4%, a rate the government says is the lowest among major economies.
Prime Minister Carney also announced that Ottawa will seek private investment to operate Canada’s four largest airports, while retaining public ownership of the underlying land and assets:
- The four airports named are Toronto Pearson, Montreal-Trudeau, Calgary, and Vancouver
- Capital raised, expected to reach the tens of billions of dollars, would fund regional airports and a new sovereign broadband backbone connecting Canadians coast to coast to coast
- No timeline or transaction structure has been released
Other sector-specific announcements included a $52.5 billion expansion of Bell Canada’s AI Fabric infrastructure in Saskatchewan, expected to create more than 4,500 jobs, and $700 million in new defence funding through the Business Development Bank of Canada.
Alberta also had a significant presence at the Summit:
- Premier Danielle Smith brought an idea book of 34 provincial projects, each worth $200 million or more
- Smith pitched investors on the proposed West Coast oil pipeline, which would carry Alberta oil to tidewater
- The federal government’s own list of more than 160 showcased investment opportunities included that pipeline alongside projects such as the Port of Churchill expansion
The Summit marks one of the most significant weeks for federal investment and tax policy in recent memory, with implications for businesses and governments across the country. You can read the government’s full announcement here.