Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent the last year globe-trotting and selling investors on Canada. Now, he’s having a hard time finding places to put their money to use.
Driving the news: Ottawa’s new Major Projects Office (MPO) has been unable to deploy any of the $70 billion that the United Arab Emirates committed to invest in Canada back in November, according to a Financial Times report. The delay is reportedly due to a lack of shovel-ready infrastructure projects.
Federal officials said that the MPO has even turned away new investments from the UAE because none of its infrastructure projects, ranging from port expansions to oil pipelines, are at a stage where the money can be used.
Why it matters: After a decade that saw the largest exodus of foreign capital in Canadian history, the Carney government has made attracting foreign investment a pillar of its economic plan. That push has been largely successful, but it appears that the wheels of bureaucracy are still spinning too slowly to actually deploy that capital on major projects.
Industry groups have argued that Carney’s push to cut the red tape that has historically slowed down major infrastructure projects has come up empty. One report from this year found that red tape costs the Canadian economy $18 billion annually.
What’s next: Carney is hosting a summit in Toronto this fall for 100 of the world’s biggest investors, with a goal of attracting $1 trillion in capital to Canada. The pressure will be on the feds over the next few months to prove they can put the money they're asking for to work.—LA
