Carney Hosts Canada's First Investment Summit in Toronto
Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting the first-ever Canada Investment Summit in Toronto on September 14-15, 2026, with business leaders from around the world in attendance. The Globe and Mail The event was announced in April as a federal effort to make a direct case to international investors. Prime Minister's Office
Tuesday's program on September 15 includes an opening keynote from Carney, followed by a fireside chat with Carney and Deborah Orida.
Ahead of the summit, Carney held separate meetings with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake, Blackstone president and COO Jonathan Gray, and Kuwait Investment Authority managing director Sheikh Saoud Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to speak at the summit and close the proceedings. PBS NewsHour His speech is titled "Capturing Canada's Moment." In 2007, then-prime minister Harper appointed Carney as governor of the Bank of Canada.
Carney told the summit audience the world had come to Canada that week "to see what Canada can do, what it can build and to partner with Canada."
The first project announcement linked to the summit week came from the provinces. BCE Inc. plans to quadruple the capacity of its artificial-intelligence data centre operations in Saskatchewan. The company aims to provide as much as 1.2 gigawatts of computing power, a measure of large-scale electrical capacity, across three new facilities, with investment that could top $5-billion.
The expansion was announced at the Invest in Saskatchewan Forum in Toronto with BCE CEO Mirko Bibic, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Carney on stage together. Under Canada's division of powers, energy, land use and permitting rest with the province, while trade promotion, foreign investment review and national infrastructure funding rest with Ottawa.
Carney had earlier said he looked forward to welcoming Saudi investors to the investment summit in Toronto in September 2026. That commitment was made in a July joint statement with the Crown Prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia.
The broader context here is how Ottawa has arranged the week. Private meetings came before the public program. The pitch is centred in Toronto, while announcements are shared through provincial forums such as the Saskatchewan event. Having both orders of government on stage shows joint backing for the same build. Other provinces will expect similar visibility for their own resource and industrial priorities.
In my view, the Harper booking is also about political management. It points to continuity across changes of government for investors who plan decades ahead, and it presents the summit as bipartisan at home and steady abroad. The test now is whether early interest turns into signed deals and final investment decisions, the formal point at which a company commits the money to build.
