Prime Minister Mark Carney has rightly spent much of his tenure selling Canada as a wise place to invest. He has made the pitch in New York, Davos, the U.A.E., India, Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia. He has circled the globe promoting Canadian energy, critical minerals, infrastructure, technology and defence. And this week he brought many of the world’s largest investors to Toronto for the Canada Investment Summit . Countries compete fiercely for capital, and Canada has for too long assumed advantages such as resources, talent and stability would sell themselves. By placing serious global investors in the same room as project proponents and the local governments that can green-light them, the summit could end up being the catalyst for change we’ve been missing. But for Carney’s big reset to be truly successful, it should be the last investment summit the government needs to lead. Canada’s economy cannot rely indefinitely on a prime minister to curate investment opportunities one meeting, one trip and one deal at a time. Our appeal to investors should not depend on who occupies the prime minister’s office, how persuasive that person is in a boardroom or how many international relationships they can build. The inclusion of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the summit program may be an acknowledgement that investors need to see a longer and more stable policy horizon to convince them we mean business this time. Governments change. Investment conditions must endure. Investment is not a nice-to-have; it’s a need-to-have. When businesses invest, they build facilities, buy better tools, develop new products and hire more people, fuelling momentum in the economy . With it, workers become more productive and wages have more room to rise. When investment stalls, the quality of life Canadians have come to expect from a growing economy comes under pressure, too. The current economic landscape is not sending us a message to rest on our laurels. Canadian direct investment abroad began to outpace foreign investment in Canada around 2015. Once almost equal, the delta between them has grown to an incredible $828 billion over the past decade, as Canadian capital “fled” the country faster than other investments have come in. This means that Canada is currently exporting significantly more investment capital than we attract. It also means that while some international investors may be increasing their share of Canada’s businesses (largely through mergers and acquisitions), not enough of them are contributing to new, “greenfield” investments that grow new businesses or build new factories. Meanwhile, Canadian investors are too often seeing dollar signs elsewhere rather than out their own front doors. According to analysis from the Canadian Chamber’s Business Data Lab, from 2006-2021, Canadian investment per worker declined by 15 per cent. By 2024, for every dollar that OECD countries invested per available worker, Canada was investing 82 cents; for every dollar the United States invested, Canada invested 55 cents. And the mood hasn’t improved much in recent months. The Business Data Lab’s latest quarterly research finds business expectations have remained negative for eight consecutive quarters. We’re in a domestic economy that has, at best, stabilized (with a trade war adding more uncertainty to the mix), with a lot of capital parked on the sidelines. Canadian companies are still spending money, but most of it is going toward maintaining what they already have, while investment that expands capacity or raises productivity remains weak. The Fraser Institute reached a similar conclusion in May. Investment in productivity-enhancing assets, including machinery, equipment and intellectual property, remained below its pre-2015 level as a share of the economy in 2025. To be successful, we have to reverse these trends. It’s not just global investors in major projects that we need to provide with confidence in Canada. If we’re to be “masters in our own home,” we’re going to need to spend some of our own money and use our own tools. The past week’s series of announcements of new funding envelopes from Canadian financial institutions are a promising start. We now need to see a fall budget that backs up the tone of the summit with specific tax measures and investment vehicles that confirm Canada is a competitive jurisdiction for ongoing investment. What matters more than this week’s summit is what happens after investors leave Toronto, including what the government does in its fall budget to put proof-points against its pitch. Investors at home and abroad need to walk away confident that an opportunity announced by one government will still be viable under the next. And to do that, bold measures must be taken to make Canada the best place in the world to invest. Canada Investment Summit live: Ottawa to raise billions by privatizing airport operations, Carney says’All on the same page’: Collaboration between provinces on approvals a key selling point at summit, Anand says For starters, in his fall budget, the finance minister should extend and expand the Productivity Super Deduction from 2025, allow capital gains deferral for reinvestment in capital property (as companies in the U.S. can do) and implement a globally competitive patent box regime with a preferential tax rate on income derived from intellectual property developed and commercialized in Canada — all of which will support innovation, commercialization and long-term investment. But this is just a start. We will know this effort has succeeded when investment is no longer remarkable enough to require a summit; when Canadian companies are expanding here with confidence; and when global investors arrive already convinced that this is where their next project belongs. Matthew Holmes is executive vice-president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Why Carney’s investment summit should be a one-and-done event
