$70 Billion in Investment Turned Away Because of Carney Government’s Failure to Approve Projects
Ottawa, ON – The Hon. Michael Chong, Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, released the following statement after the Financial Times reported the Major Project Office had no projects for United Arab Emirates investors to invest in:
“Mr. Carney has spent a lot of time travelling the world, making announcements about investments and promising that Canada is the place to do business. But now, we see that those announcements haven’t resulted in actual investments. In fact, investment is being turned away. Last month, the government’s Major Project Office told an official UAE delegation who came with $70 billion to invest that there were no projects ready for investment.
“Mr. Carney promised he would get Canada building ‘at speeds not seen in generations.’ Almost 11 months after creating the MPO, the Liberals have not used their new powers under Bill C-5 to approve a single new project despite having 500 projects awaiting federal approval.
“Instead of fast-tracking approvals, Canada has seen business capital investment decline. In the first quarter, investment fell 0.7 per cent – the fifth consecutive quarterly decline – as Canada lost a net cumulative $20 billion in direct investment since Mr. Carney took office. RBC reports that Canada ‘now ranks last among G7 nations in investment in both machinery and equipment (M&E) and intellectual property (IP).’
“Mr. Carney promised to ‘build the fastest growing economy in the G7’. The reality is that Canada’s economy has shrunk in three of the last four quarters, and projections for growth this year are being slashed. In a Bloomberg survey of 28 economists conducted between June 19 and 24, Canada’s projected growth has been cut from 1.2 to 0.7 per cent. This would be the weakest annual growth since 2015, outside the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s increasingly clear that Mr. Carney has yet to deliver on his promise of the ‘biggest transformation’ of Canada’s economy since the Second World War.
“Conservatives would attract investment, thereby increasing productivity and wages, to make life more affordable by taking action to repeal anti-development laws C-69 and C-48, get projects approved within six months and end the state-directed capitalism of the Carney government. That’s how we would get Canada’s economy moving to make life more affordable for Canadians.”