Capital Power CEO Avik Dey speaks on a panel hosted by The Globe and Mail at Intersect 26 in May. He sees opportunity, but also some challenges, to reaching final investment decisions at the Canada Investment Summit.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
Transforming the enthusiasm of business and political leaders into final investment decisions will be the real challenge at the Canada Investment Summit this week in Toronto, says Capital Power chief executive officer Avik Dey.
Prime Minister Mark Carney first announced plans for the summit in April, saying it will focus on attracting new investment from domestic and global players for nation-building projects. It is part of his stated effort to broaden Canada’s economic ties in order to reduce its dependence on trade with the United States.
The business community is on board with that ambition and committed to big projects, but catalyzing it into final investment decisions and shovels in the ground means busting through Canada’s multiple layers of bureaucracy and regulation, Mr. Dey told The Globe on Monday.
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Ottawa’s Major Projects Office goes some way toward doing that, but lacks the teeth to say, “These are the projects we’re supporting, and here’s how we’re going to push them through to approval,” he said.
Mr. Dey spent Sunday evening at an invite-only reception at the Royal Ontario Museum. There, nearly 500 guests from sectors such as banking, mining, pension funds and technology rubbed shoulders with federal and provincial politicians ahead of the summit.
He described the event as something of a “rallying cry;” a chance to say, “Let’s put our game face on, and let’s not lose this opportunity” to get major projects built.
“I’ve been in finance and energy my entire career, working around the globe, and I’ve never seen a room like that assembled last night of Canadian business leaders, policymakers, the federal government,” Mr. Dey said.
“It was very inspiring as a Canadian to be in that room.”
Mr. Dey comes to the event in something of a unique position. When he meets with investors, he’ll be tapping his experience on their side of the table from when he worked in private equity and pension investments.
He expects conversations between CEOs and global investors will outline not just potential projects, but the benefits of being in Canada; namely, the country’s security of law, proximity to markets and a regulatory body that, “if you can navigate it, gives you security of outcomes.”
Officials organizing the Canada Investment Summit identified more than 160 projects in various stages of development that are open for investment, including a proposed $10.9-billion high-speed rail link between Edmonton and Calgary and a planned $57-billion Port of Churchill expansion project.
Capital Power was on that list for a proposed US$2-billion to US$6-billion expansion of its Genesee electricity generation station site near Edmonton. The project would make the site a “major power generation and energy storage hub capable of supporting large industrial and data centre demand.”
The 66-page “prospectus” booklet, shared with summit attendees ahead of the event, was framed as “a snapshot of the diverse opportunities available across multiple asset classes, sectors and stages of development.”
Yet the next two days are “just the tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Dey said.
Global investors will be in Toronto “excited and ready” about major projects, he said. “But the deliverability of them is going to be on us.”