Welcome to Economic Insights, your twice-weekly deep dive into the major projects and policy shifts shaping the Canadian economy.

Stories we are following:

– Ottawa to fund Mackenzie Valley Highway as review board expands assessment north. 

The federal government announced $405 million for the Mackenzie Valley Highway project Tuesday.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty were in Norman Wells, N.W.T for the announcement.

The project is among the first that could land a national interest designation under the Building Canada Act, although Ottawa’s regulatory fast track power is limited in this case. The review falls under the purview of a co-management board created out of a modern land claim agreement.

The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, which conducts the environmental assessment that will determine whether the project moves forward, recently announced it would be expanding its review to include a northern segment running from Norman Wells to Inuvik.

The northern segment would connect Yellowknife to Arctic waters, but would add $2 billion to the estimated $1.65 billion highway project.

We have more on that here.

– Information trickling out on the Canada Investment Summit.

The Prime Minister Office is still finalizing the event schedule for the Canada Investment Summit to be held next week, on September 14 and 15. The invite-only event is expected to draw about 250 financial executives from investment groups, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds.

Many of these are most likely invested in U.S. projects, just as the White House ramps up the trade war rhetoric with Ottawa. 

CPP Investment is co-hosting next week’s summit, and its insights institute released research Tuesday suggesting capital allocators are looking at a hierarchy of developed economies to invest in, but that the U.S. sits in a category of its own. 

Its report suggests smaller institutions and investments already familiar with Canada tend to rank it highly, “reflecting confidence in its stability and institutional quality.” 

It also notes digital and AI infrastructure now leads global investment themes, selected by 65 per cent of respondents, followed by energy in second place. Both sectors are linked.

The PMO is also finalizing a project deal book to present to investors, which will likely include many of the projects referred to the Major Projects Office in the past year.

Here’s the latest.

By the numbers:

18: The number of projects the Major Projects Office is currently focusing on.

$1 billion: The size of the Arctic Infrastructure Fund introduced in Budget 2025, the envelope being used to fund part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway project. 

October 1, 2026: The date Canada intends to give notice on if it plans to list the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest.

Major projects watch:

– In a new report, C.D. Howe Institute authors argue major project investors need a less political, more predictable regulatory process. While the Building Canada Act and Major Projects Office are intended to help accelerate major projects, Vegh and Koplovich identify two underlying sources of uncertainty that remain: political decision-making over individual projects and open-ended review criteria that require regulators to consider broader public-policy objectives.

– Spotted: The head of Trans Mountain, Mark Maki, on the sidelines of annual industry gathering APPEC in Singapore, telling reporters he expect China to remain the main customer as optimization projects get underway, while also expecting new customers in Thailand, India, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.

– Enbridge Inc. said Tuesday Greg Ebel will step down as the company’s top executive in December after a three-year run at the helm of the Calgary pipeline company. Ebel will be succeeded by Michele Harradence, an internal pick who came up through natural gas rather than the oil pipelines the company was built on. She starts on Jan. 1.

– RBC’s latest insights piece, “Canada’s New Capital Playbook”, argues Ottawa has a powerful story to tell as an investment hub. It identifies five sectors to focus on: LNG, mining, EVs, pharmaceuticals, and data centers.

– Manitoba has announced that it is establishing a trade presence in India, joining several others who already have a base in the country, including Ontario, B.C., Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

– European natural-gas prices climb more than 2 per cent Tuesday, trading just shy of 74 euros a megawatt-hour as supply flows from Qatar remain severely disrupted. “LNG has not been flowing out as much as crude oil, leaving the gas market increasingly vulnerable as we near the 2026/27 heating season,” ING analysts say.

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