Prime Minister Mark Carney convened the first Canada Investment Summit in Toronto earlier this month, drawing investors from nearly 30 countries managing more than $100-trillion in assets, and announcing close to $500-billion in new commitments from domestic investors.
The prime minister’s pitch focused on Canada delivering domestic projects, “building big,” and inviting foreign investors to “build with us.” The government also announced a hefty tax write-off—the Productivity Mega Deduction—to incentivize new business investment, bringing in the lowest tax rate among major economies; signalled long-term private concessions for Canada’s four largest airports; and committed $700-million through the Business Development Bank of Canada for defence and dual-use technology.
While $500-billion in commitments and new investment incentives are welcome, it remains to be seen whether they translate into foreign investment in the 167 projects featured in the summit’s prospectus. Major Indo-Pacific investors were at the table, including Singapore’s Temasek, Australia’s Macquarie Group and IFM Investors, and China International Capital Corporation, but, as far as we know, no chequebooks were opened—yet.
Investment decisions of this magnitude take time, and Ottawa’s new framework is nascent and novel. Canada’s growing connections with Asian markets, accompanied by growing Asian awareness of and appetite for what Canada has to offer, may naturally attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) from the region. But as Canada offers new domestic investment incentives—and courts the European Union in welcoming a proposal for Canada to become the bloc’s first “associate member”—the Indo-Pacific must remain central in our country’s diversification frame.
The Investment Summit arrived at a critical time, as the Trump administration’s disruptive trade policy continues to negatively affect Canada’s trade and FDI. While FDI flows going into Canada have increased by 30 per cent from around $91.6-billion in 2024 to $119-billion in 2025, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s recently released Investment Monitor report, which tracks investment flows between Canada and Asia, shows that FDI from the Indo-Pacific to Canada has declined by 52 per cent, falling from $19.3-billion in 2024 to $9.2-billion in 2025.
It remains to be seen whether the participation of major Indo-Pacific players at the summit will lead to the concrete investments needed to raise Canada’s investment numbers, and boost our economy. Preliminary data from APF Canada’s Investment Monitor for the first quarter of 2026 indicates that Indo-Pacific FDI into Canada has continued to decline and was approximately 73 per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2025, signalling there is still much work to be done.
We expect that Carney’s visits to Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea in the past 12 months will bear fruit, with the many agreements and new co-operation mechanisms coming out of these visits positively influencing two-way FDI in the coming years. Upcoming federal and provincial government visits to the region, including the Team Canada Trade Mission to India in October, will similarly help strengthen investment ties. And we look forward to official confirmation that the Canada Investment Summit will become an annual event on the global business calendar. An important accompanying step would be to hold satellite events during the year in major regional investment hubs, such as Singapore.
But time is of the essence: as Canada’s trade and investment relations with the U.S. deteriorate, investment diversification is critical to our country’s future economic security. To strengthen our investment relations with the Indo-Pacific, we need to continue the patient work of showcasing Canadian opportunities through trade and investment missions in the region, and targeted initiatives to bring prospective large-scale investors to Canada.
Most determinative in attracting substantial new investment from the Indo-Pacific region will be the even-harder work of improving conditions in Canada. Initiatives such as the Major Projects Office, “one review, one year,” and the Canada Critical Minerals Accelerator strengthen the investment proposition by demonstrating the government’s commitment to advancing projects in strategic sectors. And free trade agreements—such as the Canada–Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership—and strategic agreements and frameworks designed to attract investment in specific sectors (e.g. the Canada–Japan Battery Supply Chain Memorandum) send positive signals to businesses at home and abroad. But whether businesses will leverage these agreements and turn them into investments will depend on sustained focus and disciplined execution by Canadian governments—at all levels—on the relevant policy and regulatory changes.
This piece first appeared in The Hill Times on September 28, 2026.
