The federal Liberals appear to still be well ahead in public opinion polls, but some problems are emerging among its troops. The CEO of Invest in Canada, Laurel Broten, recently announced her resignation from that agency, effective Sept. 1, 2026. This might not have seemed to be a big deal except for the fact that her term does not end until a year from now, and the big Canada Investment Summit that Prime Minister Mark Carney has been boasting about for the last few weeks is scheduled to take place next week. As it was likely that Broten would be closely involved in planning the Summit, the timing is strange to say the least. Broten had been in this position since 2022. Following her resignation, Dominic Barton was subsequently appointed to be Chair of the agency.
The Summit was deemed necessary to counter the enormous amount of investment that has fled Canada over the last decade or so, contributing greatly to our economic and productivity decline. A recent report from RBC estimated that between 2015 and 2024, Canada suffered a net capital outflow of one trillion dollars. This meant that for every dollar that came into Canada, two dollars left the country. RBC explained this result as a net capital outflow comprised of weak domestic business investment coupled with Canadian investment moving abroad. RBC estimates that over the next decade, Canada needs to attract $1.8 trillion in new investments. Although there will undoubtedly be much hoopla and positive PR around next week’s investment summit, the reality is that investment is not coming to Canada because of a lack of summits, but rather because the economic fundamentals are not currently conductive to attracting investment.
Another interesting event of the past week was a second resignation of a Carney appointee. This time it was Doug Guzman, former banker and Goldman Sachs colleague of Carney’s. Guzman resigned from his position as head of the Defence Investment Agency after less than one year in the position. The purpose of the Agency was to speed up the defence procurement process which is renowned as being especially moribund in the Canadian federal government. Even after such a short tenure in the position, Guzman was reportedly so frustrated with the amount of bureaucracy and its turgid pace of operations that he quit the CEO position.
Carney has always portrayed himself as a man in a hurry, aiming to accomplish things at “speeds not seen in generations.” His solution to doing that was to create new entities of one sort or another to layer on top of the existing government bureaucracies in an attempt to speed things up. He likely chose this route as it would take much longer to actually fix the existing bureaucracies – and be much more disruptive to antagonistic groups like the public sector unions. He has so far created Build Canada Homes, the Major Projects office, the Defence Investment Agency, Invest in Canada and most recently Digital Transformation Canada. As Trudeau greatly expanded the federal bureaucracy during his time in office, government became even more inefficient as a result.
Based on recent information, this strategy is not working at all. For instance, housing starts are currently in decline, not being boosted by the new agency. The major projects office has a number of projects under various stages of consideration, but not one has actually passed through their process completely. The fact that the new oversight agencies still have to work with the existing bureaucracy to get anything done has meant that, as usual, nothing is getting done and time marches on for Carney as his big promises increasingly look unrealistic.
Some recent public opinion polling has shown that, although Liberal numbers remain high and the Trump factor continues to be important, Canadians are starting to look for results that have not been forthcoming from the Carney government. Carney himself must be getting frustrated that his grand plan is clearly not working and he is seeing some of his hand-picked people give up on the project.
The prime minister was recently asked by media if he would be looking to serve a second term. Carney was evasive and did not answer the question. It is very likely that Carney’s haste to get his priorities accomplished quickly is because he does not intend to remain in office following this four-year term. Carney seems to favour Europe over Canada and is trying to move Canada closer to the EU – which would be an absolute disaster for Canada. If Canadians are worried about losing sovereignty because of our closeness to the US, they should be doubly concerned about losing it if we were to become a member of the EU. Carney also wants Canada closer to China – another threat to our sovereignty and economy.
As it becomes more and more clear that the “quick fix” approach is not working, it will be interesting to see if Carney tries to change his plans fundamentally or give up himself. Pierre Trudeau famously said that he was surprised at how easy it was for him to become the prime minister, but how difficult it was to get anything done once he was there. Seems Carney is facing the same situation. Time’s a wastin’.
Catherine Swift was President of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers & Businesses Canada from 2022 to 2026. She was previously President of Working Canadians from 2015-2021 & President & CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) from 1995-2014. She was Chief Economist of the CFIB from 1987-1995, Senior Economist with TD Bank from 1983-1987 & held several positions with the federal government from 1976-1983.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
