Canada’s first investment summit saw leading pension funds, insurers and institutional investors pledge to invest billions of dollars across a wide range of sectors, but which projects will actually benefit remains to be seen.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will track whether the trillion-dollar investment goal for the summit is met. 

“There’s components from the public sector, so that will come from the federal government, the provinces… So that’s easily tracked,” he said. 

“We’ll be tracking investment, capital formation across the economy, and we’re going to know when we’re seeing it move.”

CPP Investments and Brookfield Asset Management launched a $50 billion Maple Fund to invest in critical infrastructure and strategic industries. PSP Investments committed an additional $25 billion to Canadian investments, while the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan pledged $10 billion in new Canadian investments by the end of 2027. 

Major banks stepped up as well, with TD committing $150 billion in financing over five years, Scotiabank pledging over $100 billion, and BMO mobilizing $70 billion over a decade. 

Bell Canada also announced a $52 billion investment in an AI infrastructure hub in Saskatchewan. 

Starlight Infrastructure Solutions leader Kristopher Wojtecki, whose practice focuses on sectors that include housing, transportation, the energy transition and the digital economy, attended this week’s summit.

He tells iPolitics many interesting projects were highlighted, but it will take time before deals materialize. “Doing private investments takes time,” he said. “You meet a partner, you have to underwrite the partner, conduct partner due diligence, and perform overall due diligence on the investment itself, on the risk-adjusted return… 

“And then, if you haven’t done business in Canada, you have to set up the right entity, figure out the tax structure to get the best net return.”

Earlier this week, Industry Minister Melanie Joly struck a confident tone, predicting deals and memorandums of understanding would be signed during the event.