Several of Canada’s largest banks and pension funds unveiled new investment and financing pledges this week, ahead of a major summit in Toronto led by Prime Minister Mark Carney aimed at drawing more foreign capital into the country.
Bank of Montreal said Friday it plans to deploy up to $70-billion in new capital over the next 10 years toward sectors it considers critical to Canada’s economy. The bank described the plan as a way to bolster the country’s economic security and resilience, with a focus on electricity, energy and transportation infrastructure, mining and critical minerals, AI computing, defence and security, and oil and gas. BMO said the capital would flow through bank financing, debt capital markets activity and public equity raises.
BMO chief executive officer Darryl White said in an interview that foreign investors are drawn to projects they can enter quickly and that offer strong returns. He said Canada has shifted toward a more welcoming posture for business and construction, which he said is now attracting foreign direct investment.
Hundreds of senior financial executives and CEOs from around the world are set to gather in Toronto early next week for the inaugural Canada Investment Summit, an event organized by Carney’s government along with two Canadian pension funds as part of a broader effort to attract foreign capital. The gathering follows a year of pressure on Canada’s largest banks to expand lending to small and medium-sized businesses, and on pension funds to increase their domestic investment.
Canada’s major pension funds have said they want to do more at home, while stressing that their mandates require them to seek the best possible returns for plan members at the lowest risk, regardless of geography.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan said Friday it intends to invest an additional $10-billion in Canada by the end of 2027, on top of its existing $100-billion domestic portfolio. The $303-billion fund said the new capital would go toward both publicly traded equities and private assets that meet its return targets, potentially including support for growing Canadian companies and infrastructure projects. CEO Jo Taylor said the fund has already added roughly $1.5-billion in Canadian assets over the past few months.
Taylor said international investors attending the summit are looking to assess the level of confidence shown by domestic investors, adding that it was an appropriate moment for Teachers to lay out its ambitions clearly. He said the fund intends to keep investing proactively in Canada.
Earlier in the week, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which manages $321-billion, said it aims to boost its Canadian investments by about a third, from $72.4-billion to $100-billion, over the next several years. In April, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which oversees $152-billion, became the first major pension investor to commit to at least $10-billion in new domestic investment over five years.
Sun Life Financial also announced a new infrastructure investing initiative Friday, targeting $5-billion in deployment over five years toward projects in digital technology, energy, transportation and logistics. The insurer said the commitment reflects its view that a stronger and more competitive Canada benefits everyone, according to a statement from CEO Kevin Strain.
Other financial institutions have made similar moves in recent weeks. Royal Bank of Canada earlier this month launched a $1.4-billion fund focused on investing in Canadian technology companies, including aerospace and dual-use defence firms whose products have both military and civilian applications. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has committed $2-billion over five years to small and medium-sized defence-related and dual-use businesses, aligning with federal efforts to expand the country’s military capacity. Bank of Nova Scotia has said it plans to issue Canadian defence bonds to help raise capital for companies in the sector.
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