{"id":633286,"date":"2026-04-28T03:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633286\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:35:08","slug":"mark-carneys-biggest-economic-challenge-canadas-catastrophic-investment-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633286\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Carney\u2019s biggest economic challenge: Canada\u2019s catastrophic investment deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during an announcement on the Canada Strong Fund in Ottawa on April 27.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> never stops talking about boosting investment in Canada. He waxes lyrical about how much capital once flowed into the country. He reminisces about all that it built. He blue-skies about a future where we repeat the performance.<\/p>\n

From the start of 2015 to the end of 2024, the level of business investment per Canadian worker declined. It\u2019s an ominous development. The last time that happened was The Great Depression. <\/p>\n

Over the decade, Canada\u2019s gross domestic product per capita rose by just 0.5 per cent a year \u2013 also the worst performance since the Great Depression. <\/p>\n

Canada to host September summit in Toronto to help draw billions in foreign investment, Carney says<\/a><\/p>\n

These disappointing outcomes are intimately connected. Business investment is a key driver of economic growth. More and newer tools in the hands of Canadian workers, from machines to information technology, generally leads to more output per hour worked, and higher living standards. <\/p>\n

Just as more investment tends to lift GDP, less investment tends to sap it.<\/p>\n

A recent report from RBC<\/a> looked at the past century of Canadian business investment and economic growth, broken down by decade.<\/p>\n

The Great Depression led to an investment collapse, and economic growth went sharply negative. But the Second World War set off a virtuous cycle that lasted more than 30 years. <\/p>\n

There was an unprecedented jump in investment, which helped to power a long period of high GDP growth. Between 1955 and 1974, economic output per Canadian nearly doubled.<\/p>\n

The decade after 2015 was the opposite story. The RBC report calls it \u201ca ten-year capital recession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: To make the Canada Strong Fund work, look to Quebec\u2019s example, not Norway\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what that looked like:<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past decade, Canada\u2019s net outflow of investment exceeded $1 trillion, the most significant capital exodus in modern Canadian history. For every dollar invested in Canada from abroad, two dollars exited. <\/p>\n

\u201cCanada accounted for nearly 10 per cent of global outward foreign direct investment over the past decade, having exported more capital than any country on Earth, save the U.S. and China. Canada now ranks last among G7 nations in investment in both machinery and equipment and intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the problem was that investment in Canadian oil and gas fell off a cliff after 2014, because of a drop in global prices. But outside of Canada, the post-2014 price slump was a temporary speed bump for investors, not a brick wall.<\/p>\n

For example, the U.S. exported almost no liquid natural gas a decade ago. Today, after massive private investments in new pipelines and liquid natural gas facilities, the U.S. is the world\u2019s largest LNG exporter<\/a>, with more big projects under construction and more big increases to export capacity<\/a> on the way. Canada is far behind.<\/p>\n

Oil and gas isn\u2019t the only sector where it should be possible to attract far more private investment, but RBC identifies it as the biggest. <\/p>\n

The report estimates that even with no significant attempt to grow oil or LNG production, there will be $430-billion invested in Canadian oil and gas over the next decade. However, if Canada is ambitious \u2013 enabling a one-third increase in oil production, two new pipelines, three new LNG terminals and a major expansion of carbon capture \u2013 investment in the sector would hit $705-billion.<\/p>\n

Opinion: A sovereign wealth fund with more questions than answers<\/a><\/p>\n

There are also opportunities to draw in new investments in electricity generation, mining, space and defence, though the last two are relatively small. RBC estimates that the stretch goal for the defence sector, even with big military spending increases, is just $19-billion in total investment, along with $12-billion in space.<\/p>\n

There is, however, a lot of opportunity in agriculture and food processing \u2013 capital intensive, productive and high-tech sectors. Consider The Netherlands. The country is half the size of New Brunswick, yet is one of the world\u2019s largest exporters<\/a> of agricultural products.<\/p>\n

In a status quo scenario, RBC estimates $155-billion will be invested in Canadian agriculture over a decade. With ambition, that could rise to $205-billion.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside the real challenge for Mr. Carney, which is moving from jawing about investment to actually unlocking it, give him this much: He\u2019s aiming at the right target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during an announcement on the Canada Strong Fund…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-633286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}