Over two days in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney will try to stanch $1 trillion of foreign investment flight over the last decade.
You can’t fault the man for lack of ambition.
Carney is presiding over what he’s calling the Canada Investment Summit — a gathering of international business leaders, CEOs and institutional investors aimed at recouping the losses over the next five years.
If he pulls it off, it would mark a stunning reversal.
Calling it the “most significant capital exodus in modern Canadian history,” the Royal Bank of Canada reported that over a nine-year period — roughly corresponding to former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s time in office — $2 exited the Canadian economy for every $1 invested, totalling $1 trillion.
Carney clearly wants to turn the page on that particular legacy.
“It’s certainly an ambitious target … and challenging to attain,” Marc Desormeaux, a vice-president with the Business Council of Canada, told Global News.
“(But) there is enthusiasm from the business community to invest in Canada that we haven’t seen in a while.”
A central theme of Carney’s leadership over the last year and a half has been about making Canada more attractive to businesses and investment — creating a Major Projects Office (MPO) to stickhandle files of national significance, reducing regulatory burdens, aggressively seeking out new trade partnerships and jettisoning environmental protections.
Politically, it is a signal that Carney’s Liberals have turned the page on the Trudeau era — or perhaps returned to the “Business Liberal” days of the 1990s and early 2000s.
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Economically, the jury is still out. Foreign direct investment reached $96.8 billion in 2025, the highest inflow of capital to the Canadian economy since 2007, but how much of that can be attributed to either Carney’s policies or “open for business” vibes is an open question.
Amid the ever-present trade dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Carney has had some success in trade talks with major economies such as China and India and has made inroads with non-traditional partners like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He’s also moved to strengthen Canada’s economic ties to the European Union. Carney’s recent trip to the G7 in France highlighted $5 billion in partnerships between Canadian companies and firms in Germany, Japan, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Portugal.
But those two days in Toronto this September — and what buy-in the government can secure from international investors — should serve as an indicator for how high Canada’s stock is with international investors.
Less than two months before the summit, it’s not clear how many have accepted Carney’s invitation. A spokesperson for International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu told Global News in a statement that the government could not yet say how many attendees had confirmed, but that “interest is strong” and Sidhu has been “actively engaging” international investors.
The government’s renewed focus on investment and economic growth appears to be matching the mood of the electorate.
The latest numbers from Abacus Data this month showed that Canadians’ top-of-mind concern remains overwhelmingly the cost of living (64 per cent). The poll, which surveyed 4,205 Canadians online from July 9 to 16, had Carney’s Liberals maintaining a seven-percentage-point lead over Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party.
All that’s to say that Carney does not appear to be paying a political price for abruptly shifting Liberal policies and tone. The same voters who supported the Liberals’ Trudeau-era environmental protections appear happy to support a Carney government that does pipeline deals with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
But the Carney government’s desire to build big and build fast was always heading for some challenges, despite public approval. “Fast” is not typically what the federal government is known for when it comes to greenlighting major projects.
Earlier this month, unnamed sources told the Financial Times that the MPO told UAE officials looking to invest $70 billion into Canada that it was “too soon” to inject capital into the projects.
Set up just months after last year’s general election as a “single point of contact” for projects of national significance, the MPO aimed to shepherd those projects through government regulations and approvals to get them completed “faster, responsibly and sustainably, while respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and protecting the environment.”
Projects like major liquefied natural gas facilities in B.C., critical minerals mines and significant infrastructure expansions have been referred to the MPO in its first year of operation.
Carney lured Dawn Farrell, the well-respected former CEO of Trans Mountain Corporation and TransAlta, to serve as the MPO’s first chief executive. In its first year, the Liberals referred a total of 24 initiatives — 17 projects and seven “transformative strategies” — to the MPO.
They call them “major projects” for a reason. Valued in the billions of dollars, they are complex, cross-jurisdictional, and are longer-term wagers.
Investors, like the attendees at this September’s summit, would then be able to make decisions on these multi-billion-dollar projects faster without worry that they’d be tied up in years of red tape.
Robert “RJ” Johnson, the director of the University of Calgary’s Energy and Natural Resources Policy branch, said an assessment of the MPO’s effectiveness would be premature at this point.
“The MPO did sort of symbolize (change)” in Carney’s approach to industry, Johnson said.
“In terms of where we are in that change, if it were a baseball game, we’d be in the third or fourth inning.”
Johnson said that the MPO should be considered among a suite of policy changes Carney and his team have made since coming to office, which, taken together, signal a friendlier environment for business investment than past governments.
Desormeaux cautions that there’s always a “lag” between when an announcement is made and when it makes a measurable difference in hard numbers, making it difficult to assess how successful Carney’s push has been.
“The early indicators of positive moves in the right direction are these announcements from companies and these pledges to invest more in Canada, because that really does represent a change in tone and a change in our prospects over the longer run,” Desormeaux said.
Whether the tone has changed to the tune of $5 trillion in new investment remains to be seen this September.
Carney should first transfer his family’s wealth back to Canada. He has been doing nothing but bragging every day
Correcting the doubtful bias in this article: Carney has already reversed the flow. $1T over 10 years averages out to $100B out each year. In 2025 the flow was $96.8B in. The piece also says that foreign investors are being turned away by this new Major Projects Office because the projects aren’t far enough along for their money. I think those projects will end up in the Canada Strong Fund.
The GIIA named Canada as the top country for foreign investment in their last semiannual survey.
All 100 invitees to the Canada Investment Summit will send representatives. They may not all invest but the world wants to hear what Carney has to say.
Poilievre can bring them coffee and doughnuts like he did for the Freedom Convoy.
Lol suuure he will. When are Canadians going to wake up to the fact that a decade of terrible policies and leadership is crippling our country with every month that goes by…
Oh man. I actually laughed out loud when I read that headline. Isn’t Global ashamed to carry such ” Tainted water ” for the Dear Leader? Its like a game with Carney, to see how stupid and gullible Canadians will be before they call him on his lies… so far he’s winning…
Trump seen this happening when Trudeau was in power and laughed at him for 10 years. Now Carney is in power and Trump then started his his 51st state rhetoric and has found ways to point out Canada’s weaknesses. He is just planting the seeds of doubt here as he knows we are on the brink of implosion. Once we do, the USA wants us for our water and resources. So do the Chinese. Who will win?.
It’s utterly disappointing that Master Liar Carney’s pants didn’t actually catch on fire.
Really? Now isn’t that special coming from Carney who moved Brookfield HQ from Toronto to NYC to avoid paying $6.5B in Canadian tax..and he’s now going to rescue us…comical:
• Is this going to be Carney Sovereign Debt Fund 2?
• Wonder how much he’s going to give away to his buddies?
• Brookfield’s role is this one?
He can start by moving Brookfields HQ back
Doesn’t matter what Carney does. If he changes rules to allow investment, what about the next Liberal leader? What about anti-development provincial leaders like Eby and Wab Kinew. Will they allow investments? Companies have learned their lesson, Canada has unstable and unreliable governments and no one is going to risk their money when there are better places to go.
Carney should take the lead and bring his capital from the US back to Canada. Don’t just keep Shouting slogans and putting on a show every day, okay?
@Finch Bevdale. Yes, we did have an exodus because of oil prices. Respectfully, regarding additional industrial development banks, I’m not sure. The Business Development Bank does a great job, but not sure if more of the same would be the answer. Your comment about banks creating loans out of thin air is 100% true-loans are not created from deposits as you said.
The exodus was largely due to a temporary but huge crash in oil prices from 2015 to 2017 (70%). Canada’s oil sands are very expensive to extract and are uneconomic except at inflation inducing oil prices. Also, foreign investment isn’t really necessary. There is nothing stopping the federal government from establishing additional industrial development banks. Most people don’t realize loans are created out of thin air (banks don’t t lend deposits — no, really, they don’t). This is how Canada financed it’s post WW2 industrial boom and development.
We should ALL be asking Carney just how much HE has invested in Canada over the last 10 years or is it that his investments were fleeing Canada too. And is his investment portfolio STILL fleeing Canada for more lucrative places like the USA. All the while his policies are destroying investment in Canada.
Hard to fix what Stupid Trudeau and his Liberal communists did in a short period , the worst and stupidest PM in history left Canada in a mess financially that will be hard to correct in a short time frame . Goes to show that the Liberal sheep will follow anybody who promises to ruin Canada . Traitors and morons , the lot of them .
lol lol lol you all voted this mfker in ! And now looks who’s complaining 😂 Liberals suck ! Vote other parties and see how fast it changes. Pierre should’ve been voted in and you would’ve seen a difference
Loss of a trillion dollars of investment over the last 10 years. Hmmmm I wonder why that would have happened. Which party was in power and who was advising them. Well we all know the answer to those questions. The Trudeau Liberals were in power and …. Ta da …. Mark Carney was advising them on fiscal policy. Fiscal policy that has chased away a trillion dollars in investment money from Canada. And HE is going to stop the bleeding ?? “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Sir Walter Scott got it bang on with Carney.
Master liar Carney, as shown on the GH Bridge re-negotiation where the USA got even a better deal and Carney left with his tail between his legs
Has Canada’s capital and companies not been flowing out in the one and a half years since Carney took office? ! The outflow is even more severe than in the potato era. That’s why the Canadian economy is in such a bad state today, with the worst employment in 40 years and the highest prices in 40 years! It’s not as good as Trudeau’s time.
A few days ago, news reports indicated that 40% of enterprises were planning to move to the United States, and 70% were already in the process of relocation. Isn’t this capital flight?
Btw, Carney just moved some US$5.2 Billion of CPP fund to “invest” in commercial real estate in US.
Mmmkay… It only took 10+ years to f up things to this level but, yeah, good luck with that.
His track record proves he is incapable but I am sure his idiots believe him anyway
How would this benefit taxpayers?
As a leftist, I’m okay with a more pro-business approach from the government because of the threat from the US. Carney is the right person to deliver this.
So far Mark Carney just makes announcements then believes it happened. If he wants to signal to business that Canada is open, he should be repealing all that legislation Trudeau put in. Also, get out of the way and let business conduct business. Stop picking an choosing what projects will be done.
So far he’s done nothing but the opposite. No one wants to invest here, they are all running for the hills because the taxes are too high and the government is too corrupt, all money gets funneled through Brookfield so that Mark Carney can profit off the tax dollars of Canadians at our expense. He did this exact same scam while working in the EU, they will never recover. Did anyone check his disastrous resume or follow up on any of his references? No one this man has done business with has anything good to say about him. He is nothing but a elite con-artist.
No one with money is going to park it here in Canada with this clown in power.