OTTAWA — As the trade war escalates between Canada and the U.S., Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is trying to put a positive spin on the organizational turmoil behind the Canada Investment Summit to be held in Toronto in mid-September.
In April, when the summit was announced, Prime Minister Mark Carney set the ambitious goal of securing $1 trillion in investment over the next five years. But that was before the collapse of trade talks.
The federal government is set to launch retaliatory dollar-for-dollar tariffs against the U.S. after Labour Day, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs took effect.
Laurel Broten, CEO of the agency Invest in Canada and a key organizer of the summit, also unexpectedly quit two weeks before the high-stakes event without any explanation.
When asked by CTV News during a media call back at a meeting of G20 finance chiefs in Asheville, N.C., Champagne said he believed it was going to “be a very successful event.”
Deep pockets
Champagne said big capital investors and sovereign wealth funds representing more than $100 trillion are expected to convene in Toronto and provide Canada the opportunity to showcase its nation-building projects and demonstrate that it “is really open for business.”
Champagne said that big projects that will be pitched to institutional investors include the recently announced Churchill Falls and Gull Island hydroelectric project, which is expected to generate 14,000 megawatts of renewable energy. He also listed critical minerals and AI data centres as projects that will be pitched.
Industry sources have told CTV News that each province has submitted a list of potential projects, most of which involve infrastructure expansion such as ports, or resource development.
The look book
That list is being whittled down to a final look book to be sent to investors ahead of the invite-only summit.
About 100 large state and institutional investors have been invited to the event which will be held at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Toronto.
Each investment firm will be represented by its top decision maker in the presentation room. It’s not known how many Canadian companies will be given the opportunity to make their pitches for funds.
The summit’s agenda, obtained by CTV News, shows that Carney will be the opening keynote speaker, while five of his top ministers are also scheduled to speak throughout the summit.
Carney will sit down for a fireside chat with Deborah Orida, the president and CEO of PSP Investments.
The minister responsible for U.S.- Canada Trade, Dominic LeBlanc will speak, so will Champagne, along with Industry Minister Melanie Joly, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Maninder Sidhu, the minister for international trade.
The closing keynote speaker has yet to be announced.
The Prime Minister’s Office has not disclosed which investors it has invited to the summit. But according to a tally of meetings recorded in readouts on international trips, Carney has met with the heads of seven sovereign wealth funds from Norway, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He also met with the managers of nine Australian superfunds and nine Canadian pension funds. American investors have also been invited to the summit.
Champagne says Canada’s biggest drawing point is “trust,” especially when it comes to long term investments that span decades.
“Obviously people look at the balance sheet, they look at the number. But they (also) look at the world and say, ‘Who can we trust today?’ And certainly, Canada comes top of mind.”
The prime minister’s call
On Monday, after Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario and as the U.S. administration’s Secretaries of Commerce, Treasury and War hurled new insults, Carney held a conference call with executives from 23 of Canada’s biggest companies.
They ranged from RBC to Enbridge to PSP to Bombardier to Teck Mining. Some of the executives will be attending the Canada Investment Summit.
Of the 23 companies, only CAE, an aerospace company, responded to a CTV News inquiry about what issues executives raised with the prime minister.
Samantha Golinski, CAE’s senior vice-president of communications said in an email, “As a Montreal-based company working with customers and partners around the world, we value the Government of Canada’s efforts to support Canadian businesses and strengthen international relationships.”
But the company also expressed concerns that although the highly integrated aerospace industry remains exempt from tariffs for now, it could be impacted if the Canada-U.S. trade war escalates.
“We continue to monitor developments closely and assess any potential impacts, including those related to raw materials and our supply chain,” Golinksi stated.
“Our focus remains on executing our strategy, supporting our customers and managing risk prudently. We continue to believe that a stable, predictable and constructive Canada-U.S. partnership best supports industry, economic growth and North American security.”
Replacing the summit’s key organizer
On the same day as his call with business leaders, Carney appointed replacements to lead Invest in Canada, after Broten’s sudden resignation. Gurwinder Grewal was named as chief executive officer, but it was Carney’s appointment of Dominic Barton as chair that raised some eyebrows.
Barton is the current chair of Rio Tinto and LeapFrog Investments. He’s also the former ambassador to China who helped negotiate the release of the two Michaels. But the majority of his career was spent at McKinsey and Company, a global management consultancy firm headquartered in New York.
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre took to social media to criticize Barton’s appointment in two separate social media posts on X.
A controversial or comforting choice?
Poilievre homed in on Barton’s problematic tenure at McKinsey.
He said Barton “led a company that worsened the opioid crisis” through its work with Purdue Pharma, and had cozied up to China by working with state-owned enterprises that violated international law.
The Conservative leader also noted that the auditor general found the Liberals had “broken all the rules” when it awarded McKinsey $200 million in contracts while Barton headed up former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s economic advisory council.
Barton says he had nothing to do with federal contracts awarded to McKinsey.
Poilievre posted that as the new chair of Invest in Canada, Barton “will help insiders get billions in handouts, bailouts and carve-outs, paid for by you.”
But Benjamin Bergen, the CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, sees Barton’s appointment as reassuring force amid the turmoil at the agency.
“Dominic Barton’s record obviously speaks for itself in terms of his ability to create opportunity, to create networks, and to create deals,” he said in an interview.
Bergen says 80 per cent of every dollar being invested in growth companies currently comes from the U.S.
He says Barton’s skills and connections are needed at a time when Canada needs to diversify away from the U.S. to strengthen its hand in a trade war.
The investment flow
Cheryl Hart is the founder and CEO of ONTASK Strategies, a Canadian firm that advises natural resource and technology companies. She’s one of the guests invited to the investment summit on Sept. 14-15.
Hart says it’s significant that critical mineral investment is being spotlighted given that the mining sectors employ 750,000 people in Canada and makes up a significant part of the GDP.
Canada has 34 critical minerals categorized as essential to the economy, clean energy transition and strategic supply for allies. Hart is optimistic that the summit will result in substantial investments that get minerals out of the ground and into markets faster because it brings politicians, entrepreneurs and investors together in one room.
But Hart says securing cheques won’t be enough for her to consider the summit a success, until people down the supply chain start seeing the benefits of the investments.
“To make sure that that investment is going to average Canadians and not just being stuck in the top tier. We need to make sure that those investments actually have cheques behind them being laid out to local communities, like our Indigenous communities, our northern communities.
