By Erik Hertzberg<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) \u2014 National Bank Financial\u2019s chief economist sees Canada starting to take business investment seriously after a decade of what he calls \u201cstagnant\u201d growth, and is forecasting a surge in foreign capital.<\/p>\n
St\u00e9fane Marion \u2014 who even donned a baseball cap with a logo that stands for \u201cMake Canada Investable Again\u201d at one point \u2014 spoke at the Bloomberg Canadian Finance Conference on Tuesday in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marion was sanguine about the country\u2019s growth prospects, even amid slowing population growth and an escalating trade war with the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the most optimistic I\u2019ve been on growth prospects in over a decade because I think we\u2019re writing a new chapter on business investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Marion said Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government\u2019s plans to develop major projects, reduce regulations, cut taxes and boost competition are a major reassurance after a decade of sluggish business investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can now exploit our comparative advantages,\u201d Marion said, pointing to the country\u2019s relatively inexpensive natural resources, including natural gas and electricity. Amid the artificial intelligence boom, that makes Canada an attractive trade partner, which can also help contain costs in other countries.<\/p>\n
Marion also sees an eventual resolution of the trade tensions with the US, saying the trading relationship between the two countries isn\u2019t \u201cgoing away anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re part of the solution to allow the U.S. to enjoy lower inflation if we work in partnership with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foreign investors have already poured record amounts into Canadian government bonds as federal issuance has ramped up. But Marion says the bigger prize is attracting long-term capital directly into businesses and projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe holy grail of capturing durable investment in the country is foreign direct investment. And we haven\u2019t done so well on that front over the past decade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Carney recently hosted the world\u2019s biggest money managers in Toronto for the inaugural Canada Investment Summit, and soon after he unveiled marquee economic legislation to shorten federal permitting times to one year and curb the risk of labour disputes.<\/p>\n
Marion also sees the lack of investment in recent years as having worsened regional divides in Canada, and he\u2019s hopeful that Carney\u2019s recent actions \u2014 including supporting a new Alberta oil pipeline and expanding Quebec\u2019s electricity capacity \u2014 will keep separatism at bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the referendum fears right now are just resentment for the past 10 years,\u201d Marion said. \u201cOttawa got the message recently and by deploying these new policies, there\u2019ll be a lot less frustration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Bank of Canada next sets rates Oct. 28, and the current key policy rate is 2.25%. Traders in overnight swaps put the odds of a hike at about a coinflip for next month\u2019s meeting, but are pricing 100 basis points of hikes by June.<\/p>\n
Marion expects the central bank to raise rates next year, largely because of the fiscal push and a potential resolution of trade tensions with the U.S. He said the Canadian investment boom could create a different problem for monetary policymakers: stronger demand and inflation pressures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key reason why I see the Bank of Canada raising rates next year is not so much about the second round effects of the energy prices or the energy shock,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more about the deployment of fiscal policy that might be more inflationary than previously assumed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n
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bloomberg<\/a> Dashboard<\/a> economic news<\/a> National Bank<\/a> national bank of canada<\/a> nbc<\/a> St\u00e9fane Marion<\/a> Stefane Marion<\/a><\/p>\n Last modified: September 29, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Erik Hertzberg (Bloomberg) \u2014 National Bank Financial\u2019s chief economist sees Canada starting to take business investment seriously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-914986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914986","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=914986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}