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Canada is a safe and competitive place to do business, teeming with hundreds of capital-ready major projects to pour dollars into — at least, that’s the pitch Canadian business leaders and politicians are in the midst of making to some of the world’s top money managers.
And as this week’s Canada Investment Summit kicks off, there’s plenty of optimism on the Canadian side that investors are starting to see the country that way.
The multi-day summit is bringing financiers from abroad responsible for managing trillions of dollars worth of capital to Toronto, where they’ll be pitched on major Canadian projects.
Led by the Prime Minister Mark Carney, the exclusive summit is set to feature a Monday night dinner at the Art Gallery of Ontario, talks from high-profile Canadian business leaders and closing remarks from former prime minister Stephen Harper.
The list of invitees spans Canadian business leaders, foreign investors and politicians past and present. Chief executive of investment bank Barclays C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Blackstone president and CEO Jon Gray, president and CEO of CIBC Harry Culham, and head of OpenAI for Countries George Osborne are among them.
On the political side, National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, CEO of the government’s Major Projects Office Dawn Farrell and former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien will also attend.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting a two day investment summit in Toronto in an attempt to attract foreign capital to the country amid an escalating trade war with the United States.
Though foreign investors haven’t always viewed Canada as the best place to pour their money, Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, says that attitude is changing.
“It’s really cool to be Canadian right now. People I’ve been meeting with are excited about what they’re hearing and what they’re seeing,” Hyder said.
The government has already made moves aimed at showing they’re serious about building big things, too.
Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne on Monday announced the Canadian Revenue Agency will prioritize advanced income tax rulings for investments over $1 billion.
The program, which goes into effect immediately, will allow investors to know how income tax law will apply to a proposed investment before they commit money to it, reducing risk, according to a government release.
“When investors are considering major projects, certainty matters,” Champagne said.
Companies see changes
In recent years, long turnaround times for major projects and uncertainty about whether or not projects will get approved have hurt Canada’s reputation in the eyes of investors, business leaders say.
A recent report by the CPP Investment Insights Institute collected responses from global investors and found that while Canada ranked high in terms of stability, regulatory complexity and permitting timelines were big concerns, especially among energy and mining projects — the areas where investors saw some of the most value in Canada.
But provincial and federal governments seem to be working better with the private sector to clear the way for big projects, Hyder said, and bringing Indigenous nations on board with new projects.
Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel Company, has seen the change from within, too.
He says changes to the permitting process have helped his company secure key federal permits for the Crawford nickel project, which is included in the government’s pitchbook for the summit, in about half the time it would have taken previously.
That 66-page pitchbook obtained by CBC News last week listed more than 160 projects that will be on the table at the summit, 11 of which were listed as shovel ready and about two dozen more in an advanced stage.
Frank McKenna, deputy chair at TD Securities and former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., said many of the projects are “fully baked” opportunities ready for financing, which could help meet the moment for investors.
As the world’s richest investors head to Toronto next week, former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. Frank McKenna tells Power & Politics that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s investment summit is ‘more audacious and more ambitious’ than previous government attempts to attract foreign investment, especially at a time when investors are looking for reliability in the face of global uncertainty.
And while Canada finds itself in a moment of trade upheaval with the U.S., which some have worried could make Canada look less stable, McKenna points out the rest of the world is going through that upheaval in tandem — which could work in Canada’s favour.
“We represent those other options, and we represent a country with a well-developed rule of law and stability,” McKenna told CBC’s Power & Politics on Friday.
“All of that makes us an attractive … alternative place to invest.”
Deals could take time
Selby is seeking $2 billion to help fund the Crawford mining project included in the prospectus, but he’s not expecting to walk away from the two-day event with it in hand.
“The summit for most mining companies is really a door-opener,” Selby said.
He says some of the really big international investors likely won’t be looking to put their money in projects that only need a few billion, like his. Still, he says the attention of the prime minister will make Canadian industries including mining more attractive, and will open more doors for the future.
Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly said she was hopeful “good deals” and memorandums of understanding pledging future investment will come out of the summit, though the full impact of those deals might only be apparent in time.
“What I’m hearing and based on many of the conversations I’ve had, it’s a great momentum,” Joly said. “We will see the impacts of this summit in three months, in six months, in a year.”
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt echoed the message, saying the meetings happening at the summit are like a “first date.”
“You’re getting to know someone, making sure that they’re marriage material and they’re doing the same with us,” Holt said.
She says success will come in the form of follow-up meetings that lead to deals on paper.
