EDITORIAL: Canada tells investors ‘we’re not ready’

Potential investments from the UAE sit on the sidelines.

Published Jul 07, 2026  •  Last updated 10 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Photo by Osmancan Gürdoan /Getty Images

The difficulty in turning around our economy after a decade of neglect by the Justin Trudeau Liberals should surprise no one because it’s like trying to turn around the Titanic before it hit the iceberg.

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For example, the Mark Carney government told the United Arab Emirates last month that it isn’t ready to move forward on $70 billion in investments from the UAE into the Canadian economy because its major projects office, set up in August, hasn’t approved any shovel-ready projects to invest in.

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According to a report in Tuesday’s Financial Times, this lack of ready-to-go projects is holding back Carney’s plan to double trade with non U.S partners in a decade.

A Canadian official granted anonymity in the story said:

“The PM keeps talking about the $70 billion UAE commitment he secured on his first visit (to Abu Dhabi) in November. None of that has been deployed.”

Carney’s deal is with UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which the PM has announced at least four times, part of a new Canada-UAE Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, with a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement now being negotiated.

Former Quebec premier Jean Charest, co-chair of the UAE-Canada Business Council, told the Financial Times that while the major projects office is “only one bucket of potential projects” for investors, it “gave them the only answer they could give them, at this point we’re not ready. But that is the same answer for everyone.”

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The UAE doesn’t seem particularly phased by the delay, with one of its officials telling the Financial Times these deals normally take time to develop and that the UAE will continue to work on deals with Canada, describing their relationship as “as one of the most important partnerships globally.”

But what this episode demonstrates is that it’s one thing to announce new investment agreements with foreign countries and quite another to deliver them, with Carney claiming he will catalyze $1 trillion in new investments in Canada in five years and double non-U.S. exports in 10.

That’s because there are still numerous federal and provincial laws and regulations that hamper Canada’s ability to build infrastructure “at speeds not seen in generations,” as the prime minister likes to put it.

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