Carney announces creation of Canada's first sovereign wealth fund

The best time to plant a tree was thirty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today…

And there was another cbc article talking about a fertilizer factor that can't get built in Saskatchewan due to lack of funding. These 2 stories seem made for each other.

Twenty years ago industry was lobbying the Harper government to deconstruct federal oversight and limit the scope of public participation in major projects. Industry has been pissing and moaning and screaming that they can't get anything built, and it's usually the broke ass b**** companies that would never have the liquid cash to bankroll a major project. It's very cute to hear people saying in this year of our Lord 2026 that Canada should have done something 20 years ago when at that time they were voting for the government to strip us for parts and auction off to the highest bidder.

This isn't the Norway kind though. This is the national budget without interference or delays at a lower level.

Something about planting a tree yesterday or whatever.

They did 50 years ago but our politicians were spend happy with our resources; Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund was created in 1976, 30% of all revenues went into said fund but over time contributions slowed/stopped.

This isn't like Norway's sovereign wealth fund. We aren't using resource revenues and putting into a fund. This is something for people to invest into.

I love the concept but I do worry that over time it will be a fund to enable corruption or else a Conservative PM will come along and sell it all off for tax cuts or because "government is inefficient."

foolish Canadia! The US already has a sovereign wealth fund but for only for billionaires and implemented in the form of massive tax breaks/loopholes! Don’t you know that money trickles down! /s

It's ironic because Norway's sovereign wealth fund is based off of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund

The horse has left the stable on that. Canada operates a very *laissez faire* resource extraction model where foreign investment is welcomed and is not obligated to have government involvement. We presume that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and if foreign companies extract our resources they are employing locals and paying local taxes. That said, we're no chumps when it comes to resource extraction, and some of the world's largest oil, gas, and mining companies are Canadian. We have the local know-how and skillset.

We tried with the National Energy Program in the 70s, and it's the reason Pierre Trudeau is universally hated in the West today. American companies took out newspaper ads saying it was a bad idea (because they had a vested interest in doing so) and the Western half of the country believed them. Look at who Norway consulted to create their resource extraction plan. That's right, Alberta's own Peter Lougheed. Today, as of last week, conservatives are decrying not having a national energy plan, while simultaneously not realizing we used to have one, and they sold off 30% of it the moment they got into power under Mulroney.

Careful with that communism (Joking, natural resources and other things like, healthcare, should be considered a utility and owned by the citizens)

You can probably blame our ridiculous constitutional division of resource income, NAFTA developments that made us sell off our resource crown corps as to why we don't have one. But really almost all natural resource development should be heavily taxed and put into those funds to fund long term growth. Unfortunately we're letting private investors get most of the gains from these resources.

In my opinion not really, a sovereign wealth fund is used to invest surpluses in the budget. When's the last time we even broke even and had a balance budget? How are they going to fund this sovereign wealth fund when there's a massive deficit? It makes no sense.

90 something percent of all out mines, water, oil are already owned by foreign companies

It was originally supposed to be Petro-Canada as Canada's national oil company.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reportedly countered with a plan for a sovereign "Lifted Ford F-250" fund.

Just have to guard it well. The next Conservative government will probably pillage it.

Can't believe the US hasn't done it with their resources, especially oil. US is now the #1 producer of oil in the world and the citizens see jack shit of the benefits from it. We've allowed our natural resources to be monopolized by oligarchs, when it should belong to all citizens. 15% or so of natural resource exports should go into a fund to fund infrastructure, safety nets, college education, and investments in industries.

kevin 07 tried that shit here in australia and it was not just political suicide, it was backstabbing murder

\*\*\* If those countries know how to save. Canada, US etc don't and have been running on deficits and debt for almost all of their recent history. Australia created one \~20 years ago and it's now at $150 billion, that's maybe ONE 500 km highspeed railway line if they used all of it they won't. But it works for Norway and Saudi's with very high surplus and incomes.

Is a wealth fund really fiscally conservative? Direct government investment in the economy can be a great value when deployed competently, but it's the opposite of limited government intervention. Carney is fiscally conservative in some ways, but this isn't it. He is proof though that there's more appeal in simple economic competence than any kind of identify politics. Most people won't care about the gender balance of your cabinet as much as they care about paying their bills. It's still very good to do socially progressive things, mind you, but it's not as broadly appealing as a healthy economic engine.

100%

I think it's more his economic background than being fiscally conservative. Trudeau had a teaching background and implemented a lot of social policies especially when first getting into office. So I'd say both got a lot done just in different areas of their interest and expertise.

Just goes to show what we can do with a politician who doesnt focus on idpol. Both Trudeau and Trump are on opposite sides of the spectrum but the one thing they have in common is an obsessive focus on identity politics while ignoring economic or geopolitical issues.

100% agreed. This is finally the government I was looking for.

I voted for a conservative last election. I was wrong about Carney. He's better than Pierre for the situation we're in right now. He's the best guy to deal with the US and also unify the rest of the world (excellent job of doing so btw). I'd still like to see more of a drastic taper off of our immigration situation compared to his consistent 5 year targets per the last budget. But, the guy is extremely qualified for the economic stuff which I'm too stupid to understand so maybe there's good reason for that. Overall, Canada got lucky with Carney and I hope he stays long enough in the seat to reshape course because we need him.

Crazy there are people in Canada claiming he's a communist and he's ruining Canada.

I don’t really see how these policies are fiscally conservative

In what universe is a 90 billion dollar deficit considered fiscally conservative lol.

Fiscally conservative? No, the liberals run the largest debts, and the sovereign wealth fund comes from debt too, just debt we hope gets outpaced by growth.

He hasn't accomplished anything. Canadians are more broke than when he started. The country is running massive deficits and isn't a huge net debt position. It does not need to invest its way out of debt. He needs to perhaps look at how much it spends. Frivolously.

This is a great idea, but would require provincial buy in, which would not be likely. Administration of natural resources are a provincial jurisdiction, not federal.

A very reasonable idea that would materially benefit Canadians, and for that reason Smith would never stand for it

Agreed. There needs to be some value coming back to the investor behind the intrinsic value of investing in the country you live in.

Agreed, there has to be some hook that’s missing in this announcement. Is it a charity? A registered investment account? Or just a regular GIC type account?

Make it a supplemental TFSA amount reserved for the fund. And please, please have it financed another way than just retail and institutional investors, otherwise its just another disguised BDC, IQ, IO, name 'em.

Yes my guess is that there will be bonds issued at a fixed rate and the proceeds will be used to seed the fund. Some crown assets such as new or existing ports could also be added to the fund..

Apparently the government is giving it a $25 billion endowment to start. Where that money comes from, who knows.

Debt and investment aren’t mutually exclusive. The fund can de risk big projects, attract private capital, and generate long term returns that exceed government financing cost. If the investment outperforms the debt then you’ve got a home run.  Well played by Canada.

Can't believe this isn't higher up. If a country has debt, any "fund" isn't a wealth fund. It's fueled by debt

As it says, Canadians can directly contribute to it. And probably will if given incentives. More details to come later today.

It's being endowed with $25 billion to start.

Going to need more details. What’s been told so far doesn’t explain anything. He says we will be able to Invest and see a return so it sounds more like a stock or something. Nowhere near enough information.

Norway copied theirs from Alberta.

The information is a short search away. This fund is nothing like Norway’s. It’s for funding Canadian investment. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2026/04/canada-strong-fund.html

Care to explain? I mean. I'm not against it, and we do refine some oil and I would support refining more. But what's that have to do with creating a sovereign wealth fund? Are you infering that this is the only way we would have the money to create one?

And probably pay off our massive debt

No, it doesn't. What it does is appoint a Minister or Ministry to be the single point of contact for all federal authorizations required for a major project that meets the economic, reconciliation, and climate criteria to be dedicated a Project of National Interest. The Act specifically notes that it does not supersede the technical or safety authority of governing legislation. The exemption under the Impact Assessment Act is the Initiation Phase. This phase is a 90-day period where a proponent presents an initial project description, there is a 30-day public and Indigenous consultation period, and then the proponent submits a detailed project description that incorporates the feedback received during the consultation period. This period is the "offramp" period for projects that may trigger impact assessment, but can also receive a determination of "impact assessment not required" if they can demonstrate adequate mitigation of adverse effects. The assumption built into the BCA is that the PONI review and designation process would confirm the need for an IA, so the project would proceed directly to the Planning phase, rather than Initiation. Really the BCA is putting pressure on federal departments to better coordinate their reviews. The process right now sucks. I can spend several years working through an impact assessment just to emerge on the other end with a big list of approval conditions and not a single statutory authorization that lets us break ground. The intent is to get proponents and ministries working together to obtain authorization packages. BC also passed similar legislation last year, except they snuck in an environmental assessment exemption clause.

Our pension plan isn't his to risk though.

Same. If it all looks good at launch then I'll start sending like 5% of my RRSP contributions to this instead.