Jesse Kline: Carney’s ‘sovereign wealth fund’ an admission of Liberal failures

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during an investment announcement at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa April 27, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable/Postmedia

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The Carney government’s recent announcement that it will be setting up a sovereign wealth fund to “invest in strategic Canadian projects” and ensure the returns “are shared with Canadians” lifts the veil on the prime minister’s apparent belief that there’s nothing the private sector does that Ottawa can’t do better.

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In case you’ve ever wondered why you’re relying on big banks and financial advisors with decades of proven experience to manage your investments instead of the accountants in Ottawa who couldn’t balance a chequebook if their lives depended on it, we’re getting the Canada Strong Fund to invest in infrastructure, such as ports and natural resource projects.

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The idea to create a sovereign wealth fund isn’t all that unique. As Prime Minister Mark Carney noted, “Many countries that are blessed with natural resources, like Norway, have them.”

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Norway’s Oil Fund, which was created in 1990, takes surplus revenue generated from the oil and gas industry — largely from taxes and exploratory licenses — and squirrels it away into what has become the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

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On the surface, it seems ironic that Carney would be pinning Canada’s economic future on an industry that his predecessor spent the better part of a decade trying to destroy. But it doesn’t appear as though the Canada Strong Fund will be financed with resource royalties (which are paid to the provinces, anyway).

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Although the plan is short on specifics — Carney said consultations will be held in the coming months to iron out the details — we know the government will fund it to the tune of $25 billion over three years. The hope, according to the Finance Department, is that it “will increase over time, both from the returns that it generates, and through other assets that the government may allocate to it.”

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But here’s the rub: this year’s budget predicts a $78.3-billion deficit, meaning the $8.3 billion a year Ottawa is planning to invest in the fund is all borrowed money. So when Carney says that it “will give all Canadians a direct stake in building Canada strong,” he doesn’t mean you’ll ever see any returns on your forced investment, but that your kids and grandkids might get a little help paying off the nearly $800-billion debt the Liberals have racked up since 2015.

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This contrasts sharply with Norway, where budgets are generally balanced and the country is, for all intents and purposes, debt-free. It also means that the fund’s rate of return will have to surpass the interest rate paid on the national debt — currently around three per cent — in order for it to be a net benefit to the country.

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And the Canada Strong Fund appears to overlap, in many ways, with the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB). Carney says the two will serve different purposes and will work together, but the one thing that is certain is that they’re both incredibly expensive: the CIB is being funded with $35 billion in borrowed money over 11 years.