Canada Has A $1.8 Trillion Investment Opportunity—Will We Seize It?

April 14, 2026

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This blog was provided by Jordan Brennan, Managing Director and Farhad Panahov, Economist at RBC Thought Leadership.

Picture this: Canada emerges from a decade-long capital drought to become the G7’s growth leader. Foreign investment pours into Canada, hitting record highs. Energy and agri-food exports soar, providing food and energy security to friendly nations. Our mining industry becomes a critical supplier to NATO allies, hedging against Chinese dominance. Our space industry doubles its global market share.

Sound fanciful? It’s not—it’s entirely achievable.

For the first time in a decade, more capital flowed into Canada last year than left. Global investors are actively looking to diversify away from geopolitical risk, and Canada is back on their radar. Between pension funds and asset managers, we’re sitting on nearly US$10 trillion in domestic capital, and the global capital pool sits somewhere between US$150 trillion to US$200 trillion.

Every expert we consulted as part of our analysis in RBC Thought Leadership’s new report Capital Gains: How Canada can unlock the $1.8 trillion it needs for growth confirmed the same insight: Canada doesn’t have a capital shortage. We have an execution problem.

The opportunity is within reach

The moonshot is ambitious, but it’s within reach – $1.8 trillion of untapped potential investment in six R&D-intensive, export-oriented, strategically significant industries: oil and gas, electricity, agriculture and food processing, mining, defense, and space. Unleashing these industries could transform Canada’s economic trajectory and competitive place in the world.

Development of Canada’s critical mineral supply chains could power the West’s energy transition while strengthening the defence industrial ecosystem. Power grid modernization would build a clean, affordable and reliable power system, enhancing our international competitiveness in heavy industry. R&D investments in space would advance our satellite and robotics excellence into new frontiers

The opportunity is there, but the world isn’t waiting for us to figure this out. Every country is competing for the same pools of capital. The U.S. is deploying massive industrial policy. China continues its strategic resource grab. Europe is mobilizing for collective security and energy independence.

But Canada has a suite of strategic advantages that others lack: abundant natural resources, deep technical talent, political stability, the rule of law, and momentum building at exactly the right moment.

Four shifts to unlock growth

The money and opportunity are there. So, what’s holding us back?

The global economic landscape has changed drastically, but Canada’s capital strategy hasn’t kept up. Permitting delays, regulatory uncertainty, fragmented procurement, and risk-averse culture have led to a decade-long capital recession.

These barriers aren’t insurmountable, but Canada needs a new capital framework to overcome them. Investment is not flowing to where it is needed at the speed or scale required. We see four potential policy shifts to change the game:

• Free up capital trapped in mature public assets througha brownfield-to-greenfield asset recycling program
• Update Canada’s procurement processes to create revenue certainty for scaling companies
• Tax and foreign investment reforms to compete globally for capital 
• Strategic state investment to de-risk early-stage projects and crowd in private capital

None of these ideas are radical. Australia, for example, used asset recycling to catalyze $15 billion in infrastructure investment. The US is using NASA to transform its space playbook from ‘build and own’ to ‘buy and use’, becoming an anchor customer that purchases services from private companies that design and own multi-customer assets. Estonia’s tax reforms attracted waves of foreign investment.

The countries that will thrive in the next decade are those that understand this moment of global capital reallocation and position themselves accordingly.

The window to act is closing.  Delay carries a cost far greater than $1.8 trillion. Opportunity won’t wait forever. Let’s seize it.