New Brunswick aiming to attract $30 billion in investment at Toronto summit

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says the top executive from Bank of Montreal Financial Group is one of several business leaders she’s meeting with this week as her government looks to attract billions of dollars of spending.

Hundreds of executives and global asset managers descended on Toronto on Monday for Canada’s first-ever national investment summit — and, like many of her counterparts, Holt is hoping to attract some of that capital to her province.

The provincial Liberal government said it will pitch investors on a new nuclear development, the Sisson Mine, a proposed data centre, an expansion to the Belledune port and four other projects.

All eight projects represent $30 billion in capital investment opportunities in New Brunswick and demonstrate the province’s potential in sectors critical to Canada’s economic and industrial future, government officials said.

Holt said she’s pitching New Brunswick’s value to would-be investors in a series of closed-door meetings. She said that while the summit has brought in many foreign investors, there are domestic players who could be good partners, too.

That includes Bank of Montreal Financial Group CEO Darryl White.

“We’re talking about the kind of growth that New Brunswick is seeing and making sure that he’s aware of the kind of mineral assets that we’re developing,” she told The Canadian Press by phone.

Holt noted her government’s ongoing efforts to reinvigorate the Maritime province’s once-thriving mining sector, as Canada and its allies look for secure, trusted sources of minerals critical to the production of semiconductors, batteries and other everyday products.

“They have capital that we’d like to see deployed towards some of these projects. And we learn more about what kinds of things they like to invest in, what kind of businesses (and) what kind of projects,” she said.

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The premier added that after an initial conversation, her team can connect a potential investor with the appropriate government department or private firm involved in a capital project, such as the Port of Belledune expansion.

“The team at Opportunities New Brunswick and I follow up on those and continue the work to grow our economy (and) produce the kind of good-paying jobs that New Brunswickers are looking for.”

The country is hosting the Canada Investment Summit as it aims to improve its reputation in the eyes of investors after years of stagnant business investment. It comes also amid an unpredictable trade war with the United States.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has set a lofty goal of attracting $1 trillion in investment over the next five years and has reoriented federal spending priorities to focus on critical infrastructure and other major projects.

Herb Emery, political science department chair at the University of New Brunswick, said the summit amounts to “great political theatre” in the way it appears to show co-ordinated action on attracting new cash flow to the country.

“It does advertise and aggregate the range of opportunities that the world could be looking at in Canada,” Emery said in an interview Monday afternoon.

“But it doesn’t get around our fundamental problem, which is for over a decade Canada has been seen as a poor return place to invest.”

And he questioned why the premier and her government would need to be so hands-on as a marketer if New Brunswick’s energy and mineral projects are the great opportunities her government says they are.

Holt said it was important for investors to see a jurisdiction they can trust will be reliable long-term.

“Evaluating the political stability of a country, of a province and of a project is a piece of investors’ due diligence, and this is where Canada shines and where New Brunswick shines as well,” she said.

“We know how to develop resources in this province and this country, and we can show that we’ve had the kind of political stability … that is attractive to investors.”

But even if New Brunswick were to get an influx of new public and private cash boosting its large-scale energy and resource projects, Emery said it may not be enough to have the impact taxpayers are looking for.

“These projects would generate GDP too far down the road,” he said.

“And the growth that it would generate isn’t enough to close the hole that they’ve created with the spending,” he added, referencing New Brunswick’s budget deficits.

The eight projects the New Brunswick government has chosen to highlight are among those being pitched by Canada at the Toronto conference.

Holt said she wouldn’t have any deal to announce right away, instead describing the meetings Monday and Tuesday as “first connection points” as they evaluate whether they are a good fit for New Brunswick.

“Our ultimate goal is to get investment into our key projects and to do so in the near term,” she said.

“And we’ll certainly be sharing with New Brunswickers the outcomes and the successes from this effort.”

Meanwhile, Holt said she’ll join about 100 other officials and investors at the Art Gallery of Ontario for a gala dinner that is closed to the public and the media.

On Tuesday, attendees will huddle at the downtown Four Seasons Hotel for presentations on Canada’s investment landscape.

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper is expected to deliver closing remarks at the summit, according to a source with knowledge of the planned events.

— with files from Craig Lord