By Roberta Brzezinski and John Seddon, Control Risks

As geopolitical uncertainty and trade tensions intensify the global competition for capital, Canada is emerging as a compelling risk-adjusted destination: stable, resource-rich and deeply integrated with its North American neighbors. Under a government keen to have the world take a fresh look, the case for "Canada Inc" is strong, and the array of investment opportunities wide.

While sometimes fractious in the past, the Canadian federation of provinces is increasingly united in the face of international uncertainty. Prime Minister Mark Carney, former Governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and previously a senior renewables investor at Brookfield Asset Management, brings a unique combination of international stature, fiscal credibility and investment experience to the task of attracting global capital. Few leaders would be better placed to make the case for Canada to the world's corporate and financial capital allocators.

The fundamentals support that case. In the 2025 Kearney FDI Confidence Index, Canada ranked second globally behind the United States, reflecting sustained investor confidence in its political stability, rule of law, skilled workforce and access to North American markets. Canada is well regulated and, increasingly, strategically focused: its openness to capital is now shaped by clear national security priorities in critical minerals, advanced technologies and large-scale infrastructure.

Why the appeal is real

Canada’s fundamental strengths underpin the country’s stature as a leading global economy. The country enjoys:

• A wealth of natural resources. One of the world's largest holdings of critical minerals, oil and gas, uranium, forestry and agricultural land, increasingly valuable as governments and corporations seek secure supply chains for the energy transition and advanced manufacturing.
• Investment-grade institutions. A highly educated workforce, strong public institutions and a predictable regulatory environment.
• Market access beyond the border. Preferential access to nearly 1.5 billion consumers through an extensive network of trade agreements, notwithstanding current uncertainty around Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

These advantages are a consistent draw for capital. The energy sector remains a cornerstone: capital expenditure held steady at roughly C$89bn in 2025, with 205 major projects worth C$378bn in planning, 113 worth C$132bn under construction, and 186 clean-technology projects valued at C$240bn. Manufacturing grew by C$14bn to C$470.8bn, concentrated in EV supply chains, battery production and clean technology, reinforcing Canada's role in North American industrial networks.¹ Beyond these, life sciences, agribusiness, clean technology and digital industries are also attractive.

The picture for long-term investors

Canada's strengths are accompanied by nuance:

• A more deliberate market. Value addition in Canada tends to take longer than in its southern neighbor, but the more regulation-driven, safety net-oriented approach to capital deployment can reduce risk. Investors who understand and plan for the tempo of the regulatory and delivery landscape will be best placed to realize long-term returns.
• Transparency is increasingly key. National-security reviews¹ examine ownership, capital sources and geopolitical alignment. These bring focus to sensitive sectors such as critical minerals, advanced technologies, and large-scale infrastructure. Aligned investors should not find this to be a problem.
• A competitiveness gap. Canada leads on stability and institutional quality, but has historically trailed peers on labor productivity, business scaling and domestic market size. Its outward investment has exceeded inward investment for the past 15 years, precisely the imbalance the current government is determined to correct.

How Canada is responding

Ottawa is employing industrial policy to improve the country’s investment attractiveness, and successive Liberal governments have assembled a C$50bn-plus suite of sovereign investment vehicles to crowd in both foreign and domestic private capital:

• Canada Strong Fund — a C$25bn sovereign-wealth vehicle (announced April 2026 and still under development) for domestic energy, mining, agriculture and manufacturing. The Canada Strong Fund can operate independently, but will also be able to invest alongside foreign investors. Going forward, the government is considering selling off large state-owned assets to external investors in order to further capitalize the Fund.
• Canada Growth Fund — a C$15bn pool of capital managed by a leading pension fund that deploys direct investment capital and investment guarantees to support and attract inbound projects in clean technology, emissions reduction, and low-carbon supply chains.
• Canada Infrastructure Bank — ~C$18.1bn committed across 108 projects in clean power, public transit, broadband, green infrastructure, and trade-enabling assets. The institution focuses on structuring complex transactions and mobilizing private capital at scale.
• Legacy mechanisms — the Strategic Innovation Fund, which provides targeted support for large-scale industrial and research projects particularly in advanced manufacturing and technology sectors, and the SR&ED tax credit program, which serves to incentivize business research and development.

International experience suggests the decisive factors are scale, tax incentives and execution, areas for which the US IRA and CHIPS Acts, the EU's Green Deal Industrial Plan and Japan's GX program offer instructive comparisons. Canada's challenge is less one of policy intent than of execution: timelines, coordination across levels of government, and clarity of eligibility remain the factors that most shape investor decisions, and the areas where sharpened delivery could unlock the most capital.

The bottom line

Investors should test Canada’s national opportunity at the provincial, sector and asset level. That means validating the regulatory pathway, identifying the stakeholders who can affect approval and delivery, assessing the integrity and capabilities of critical partners, and stress-testing the investment case against delays, political change and potential reduced support by future governments. Three practical steps ahead of the conversation:

1. Run regional-level, sector-specific analyses. Regulation, incentives and execution risk varies significantly across provinces, municipalities, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders. A national view is not enough.
2. Map the incentive landscape early. Understand which of Canada's vehicles fit a given project, and where eligibility and timeline risks lie, before committing.
3. Engage in the strategic-review process early. For inbound investors, keeping regulatory scrutiny top of mind when aligning ownership structures, capital sources and geopolitical positioning will build credibility and speed delivery.

¹ https://energy-information.canada.ca/sites/default/files/2025-11/energy-fact-book-2025-2026.pdf

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