Canada Investment Summit: Pension Powers, Geofinance and Country Attractiveness

As Mark Carney and François-Philippe Champagne prepare for the inaugural Canada Investment Summit (14-15 Sept. 2026) bringing together “big institutional investors who are collectively responsible for allocating more than $100 trillion in capital funds [with] the ambitious goal of catalyzing $1 trillion in investment over the next five years”, the Hon. Nick Sherry and Nicolas J. Firzli were asked to comment on the Federal Government’s ambitions plan to attract a massive influx of foreign direct investments in the coming quarters, focusing on “energy, critical minerals, defense, AI and modern transportation” (pillars of the Fifth Industrial Revolution)

The idea of associating domestic “anchor co-investors” such as large public pension funds from Canada’s 13 provinces and territories deserves praise. But, as of today, the contours of the summit itself and the objectives sought by the prime minister remain vague… More than 40% of the asset management, pension and investment banking CEOs and CIOs in attendance will come from the United States: it’s highly unlikely they’ll invest any substantial amount in illiquid, regulation-sensitive assets in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta right in the middle of a messy U.S. Canadian trade war! More importantly, as we told Canadian federal and provincial PMs and other G20 policy makers earlier, “there are key policy measures which must be taken domestically first, ahead of any serious attempt to appeal to foreign direct investment in venture capital and infrastructure” (see notably our Feb. 2022 World Bank primer)

We summarize them here:

Ensuring the sovereignty of (public) pension boards when it comes to allocation decisions. Investment committees must remain at arm’s length from government.

Guaranteeing the sanctity of property rights and contract law (safeguarding privatized assets and public-private partnerships notwithstanding changes in government) with truly independent judiciary branches

Adopting a pragmatic, centrist approach to energy transition and asset classification: recognizing that ‘natural gas and nuclear energy could make a contribution in the difficult transition to climate neutrality’

Being willing to commit to truly long-term privatization and concession programs e.g., ports and airports in the US, Canada, Latin America, and the EU, where governments need to secure [more ambitiously] a sufficient number of assets in their privatization pipelines

And, perhaps more importantly, adjusting macro-prudential regulation to allow pension investors – and the investment banks that lend them money – to allocate substantially more to ‘illiquid’ assets without being handicapped by overzealous financial regulators

As we move to a world of durably higher interest rates and greater focus on government debt, policymakers will need to rely more than ever on foreign and domestic pension capital. Hopefully, this will make the above policy measures more likely to be adopted

We’ll further develop these ideas with some of the world’s leading pension and sovereign wealth asset owners and policy thinkers at the upcoming World Pensions® Forum held in the City of London 19-20 November 2026, before the 2026 G20 Summit — see AssetOwners.Net