Prime Minister Mark Carney’s flagship investment agency has delivered a blunt message to United Arab Emirates officials looking to pour billions of dollars into Canada: we have nowhere to put your money.
Three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Calgary-based Major Projects Office in mid-June told an official UAE delegation it was too soon to inject capital into Canada.
“The PM keeps talking about the C$70bn [US$49bn] UAE commitment he secured on his first visit in November. None of that has been deployed,” said one Canadian official.
Carney landed a US$50bn commitment from UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who made the official announcement in November. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi manages almost $2tn in sovereign funds.
But after Carney hosted a UAE-Canada Business Council meeting in Ottawa in mid-June, the MPO turned away members from the Emirati delegation who were seeking investment opportunities, the officials said. The reason was a lack of projects at a stage where they could deploy the money.
Former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who is the co-chair of the council, said the MPO was “only one bucket of potential projects”.
“They [the MPO] gave them the only answer they could give them, at this point, we’re not ready. But that is the same answer for everyone,” he said.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the setback, Charest said Carney was changing the perception that Canada “was extremely difficult to get big projects done”.
Pressure is building for the prime minister to sell “shovel-ready” projects to showcase at the Toronto investor summit in September, which aims to generate $1tn in total investment over five years.
Since being sworn into office in March last year, Carney has pledged to double trade with non-US partners while also transforming Canada’s sluggish economy into the “strongest in the G7”.
Nearly a year ago, he established the MPO as a new government agency to fast-track more than 20 projects worth a total of $135bn.
While the UAE is an important focus for Carney’s investment diversification, the projects under discussion with the MPO are in pre-deployment phase awaiting the completion of regulatory, legal, consultation and financing considerations.
Carney has also ordered staff to finalise a UAE-Canada trade agreement expected to be signed this month.
While in the UAE in November, Carney boasted that a critical minerals agreement valued at “over $1bn” was “in the process of being finalised”. Nine months later, it has not materialised.
Canada’s Privy Council Office and the MPO did not respond to a request for comment.
In response to detailed questions, a spokesperson for international trade minister Maninder Sidhu said “we value our strong and growing relationship with the UAE”.
On Thursday Carney announced a series of projects that “will catalyse well over C$200bn [US$141bn] in new direct investments”, including a proposal for a 1mn-barrel-a-day oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s west coast.
When quizzed on the project’s lack of private-sector involvement, Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith said that because three previous proposals did not go ahead, investors remain wary.
“We have pipeline companies that have literally spent billions of dollars in recent years on failed regulatory approval processes. That’s the environment we’re finding ourselves in. And so it does take some work,” she said.
Charest said the UAE delegation had “raised interest” in partnering in the pipeline project and was broadly looking at Canada’s energy sector.
“These are things that they know, that they’re familiar with,” he said.
While US President Donald Trump’s trade hostilities have upended Canada’s economy, the country is also facing significant structural challenges, including red tape and intra-provincial trade barriers.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers recommended “targeted, timely policy changes” more aligned with the US as the best way to foster foreign investment.
Canada needs a “competitive and efficient tax system, streamlined and predictable regulatory processes, and expanded export infrastructure”, wrote CAPP president Lisa Baiton in a May pre-budget submission.
To bolster Canada’s exports the MPO is fast-tracking the Contrecoeur container terminal at the port of Montreal, which Dubai-based DP World aims to build by 2030.
Joel Werner, DP World’s chief operating officer in Canada, said the goal was to secure the investment by the first half of 2027.
“Contrecoeur is a global priority inside DP World,” he told the FT.
Royal Bank of Canada’s chief executive David McKay said at an event in June that after the country’s private sector was “rebuffed” for a decade it was now waiting for stakeholders, such as government and First Nations, to be better aligned.
“I see that progress from the inside and certainly we’re supporting it.”
How all of Canada’s priorities would be met by Ottawa was a “very good question”, Charest said.
