Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers remarks to Canadian business leaders at the Canada Investment Summit welcome reception, in Toronto, on Sunday.Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press
John Graham is the president and CEO of CPP Investments.
Canada has captured the world’s attention.
The country has not fundamentally changed overnight. But its strategic value has. The world now places a higher premium on qualities Canada has built over decades.
Today, investors are putting a much higher premium on resilience, secure supply chains, reliable energy, trusted partners, policy predictability and geopolitical alignment.
These are long-standing Canadian strengths. And, in today’s volatile world, the value of those attributes has risen steadily. Canada is also making the pragmatic choices needed to compete, such as balancing economic growth, energy security and responsible development, while working across governments to advance projects of national importance.
In a more polarized world, the ability to balance competing priorities and make durable decisions is itself an advantage.
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That’s why 100 of the largest global investors have arrived for the Canada Investment Summit on Monday, hosted by the Government of Canada in partnership with CPP Investments and PSP Investments.
The summit unites global investors with Canadian business leaders and governments to turn that attention into action. It is also an example of something Canada does particularly well when we are at our best: bringing governments, institutions and businesses together around shared national opportunities.
CPP Investments itself was built through federal-provincial co-operation and has become one of the world’s leading institutional investors. The summit offers another opportunity to bring that collaborative instinct to the challenge of attracting global investors who are now curious to learn more about Canada.
The question is: What will it take for global investors to commit more capital and build partnerships in Canada?
Sophisticated investors weigh multiple attributes in deciding where to allocate long-term capital and research shows a predictable and stable policy environment is a top driver. About this specifically, Canada is graded an A+ by global investors, and we must play to our strengths and build from there.
Increasingly, countries are competing for capital by showing how their strengths in different sectors work together to support big development initiatives. That’s because the largest investors are often now looking for a combination of energy, infrastructure, technology, resources, financing and skilled talent that can support projects large enough to absorb capital at scale.
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Canada has this unique combination. The task is to connect these strengths and translate them into a deeper investment pipeline, positioning Canada’s traditional advantages as the foundation for the further development of conventional and renewable energy and strategic infrastructure.
That would not only benefit new investors but also long-standing domestic players, such as CPP Investments. A more dynamic and competitive market in Canada will create more opportunities for us and other Canadian investment managers, while helping to build or strengthen partnerships at home and abroad.
During the two days of the summit, investors from around the world will learn that Canada is simplifying how decisions get made and that governments, Indigenous partners, operators and investors are working together and moving with greater urgency.
Canada has a window to turn its growing strategic value into investment, partnerships and economic growth at home. But windows of opportunity do not stay open indefinitely. Capital moves, and Canada must move with it.
The Canada Investment Summit has a rare chance to seize the day and build on the world’s interest. Our success will ultimately be measured by what follows: investments evaluated, projects advanced, partnerships formed and capital committed.
Canada has captured the world’s attention. Now we must make the most of it.