Mark Carney in Davos. Photo courtesy the World Economic Forum/Flickr.
As Mark Carney prepares to welcome the world’s most powerful investors to Toronto, opposition to the prime minister’s CEO summit is beginning to coalesce.
On September 14-15, a who’s who of global finance will meet at a luxury hotel in downtown Toronto for an invitation-only event.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Blackstone CEO Jonathan Gray, and Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan have confirmed their attendance at the first-ever Canada Investment Summit.
Representatives from the trillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also expected. The government will summon “the world’s largest investors” to Toronto in September to discuss, among other things, “the government’s capital investments and incentives in support of third parties, totalling about $280 billion.” Reportedly, top officials at firms managing over $120 trillion will be on hand—a remarkable concentration of economic power for one hotel ballroom.
The summit is part of a government push to attract $1 trillion in new investment over the next five years, while reversing what the Royal Bank of Canada has called the “most significant capital exodus in modern Canadian history.”
Some of Canada’s most influential business leaders are also expected. According to a Toronto Star report, “the buzz” on Bay Street “mostly seems positive” about the summit.
That reaction is hardly surprising.
Reports indicate airport privatization could be among the summit’s headline announcements. The selloff of other public assets, such as ports, toll roads, power grids, and water systems, may also be on the agenda. Bloomberg reports that Canadian officials are preparing an extensive “deal book” for attendees, including government-backed initiatives open to investors as well as projects from private and public companies.
The summit’s focus will be major infrastructure projects and creating a setting in which investors can assess opportunities, with the Prime Minister’s Office encouraging invited firms to announce investments or commitments. The CEOs in attendance will also discuss arms contracts, critical minerals, and AI data centres. Manitoba, meanwhile, will be promoting the expansion of the Port of Churchill, which is largely designed to boost extractivist exports.
The summit showcases and will consolidate Carney’s broader agenda, one that favours corporate power, military expansion, and weakened environmental protections.
Immediately upon taking office, Carney cancelled a scheduled increase in capital gains taxes, scrapped the digital services tax, and introduced other tax policies benefiting the wealthy. The government’s review of the Canada Labour Code looks set to weaken union rights and possibly further impede workers’ right to strike.
Carney has added tens of billions of dollars in new military spending. His Defence Industrial Strategy is a half-trillion-dollar plan to further militarize the economy. Two weeks ago, Defence Minister David McGuinty met with an undisclosed group of war industry leaders and financial firms. While his department refused The Maple’s request for details of the discussion, a government release suggests the CEO summit was among the topics discussed. The September summit is seen by the government as part of its effort to further marry the arms industry with big finance.
At a time of record-breaking heat across much of the country, Carney continues to champion new fossil fuel infrastructure. As forest fires burned over the early August long weekend, the prime minister announced he would fast-track a pipeline capable of carrying one million barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the British Columbia coast. Under his year-old Building Canada Act, projects labelled “of national interest” can bypass existing environmental laws.
Carney is expected to put a whopping $40 billion in public resources into the new tar sands pipeline. The fossil fuel interests that have reportedly lobbied Carney’s government 1,318 times over the past year are no doubt pleased.
While subverting environmental oversight, Carney’s Major Projects Office also tramples on Indigenous rights. The office, set up as part of the Building Canada Act, threatens First Nations’ constitutionally protected right to free, prior, and informed consent.
Led by a former CEO of Trans Mountain Corporation, Carney’s Major Projects Office is one of numerous important positions in his administration he has staffed with top corporate officials. Former Goldman Sachs Canada CEO Tim Hodgson was made energy minister, while Carney’s ambassador to the US is former Canada Pension Plan and BlackRock executive Mark Wiseman. According to the Globe and Mail, Carney also reintroduced former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s custom of holding informal meetings with Bay Street CEOs when in Hogtown.
It is little wonder Bay Street is “buzzing” about Carney’s investment summit. Elsewhere, however, the mood is markedly different. Anger is growing at Carney’s billionaire-enabling, anti-Indigenous, and anti-ecological agenda, and opposition to the summit is gathering momentum.
A public letter was recently released calling to “Confront Carney’s CEO Summit.” Signed by broadcaster David Suzuki, author Yann Martel, rock legend Roger Waters, author Cory Doctorow, and Indigenous activist Ellen Gabriel, the letter notes, “the summit showcases and will consolidate Carney’s pro-corporate, militarist and anti-ecological agenda.” More than 1,000 other authors, artists, academics, and activists have now signed the letter, which concludes that “Carney’s wealth-concentrating agenda must be resisted.”
The letter is one of several signs that opposition to the summit is growing. Naomi Klein is scheduled to speak at a public forum before the September 13 “The Many versus the Money” conference. A “Carnival Against Capitalism” forum is also planned, while a demonstration is scheduled for the summit’s opening day.
The protesters’ message is simple: Canada’s future should not be shaped through an invite-only gathering of the ultra-wealthy. It should be determined democratically by the people who live here, with the public good and long-term sustainability taking precedence over private profit.
To support the Confront Carney’s CEO Summit mobilization, sign up here or email [email protected].
Bianca Mugyenyi is an author, activist, and co-founder of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. She is based in Montréal.
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