Ottawa, ON – Adam Chambers, Conservative Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, issued the following statement after a report from the Montreal Economic Institute on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Canada Strong Fund:
“After a year and a half of Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada is facing a stalled economy with declining business investment and higher debt than ever before. Instead of getting out of the way, his government’s solution is to repeat the same tired Liberal playbook by creating a Sovereign Debt Fund.
“Despite dressing it up as a vehicle for building wealth, a new report confirms that Prime Minister Carney’s debt fund is nothing more than ‘a state lending bank wearing the branding of a wealth fund,’ and that he’s not the first to try to dress up state lending as a sovereign wealth fund. No wonder 58 per cent of Canadians oppose $25 billion in tax dollars funding the project, with just 20 per cent supporting.
“Nor is this Mr. Carney’s first time creating a sovereign debt fund. Two years before announcing one for Canada, Carney sat on the task force that advised Britain’s Chancellor to announce a National Wealth Fund that promised to unlock ‘three pounds of private money for every public pound committed.’ Instead of a sovereign wealth fund, the UK Infrastructure Bank was renamed as the National Wealth Fund, and instead of building sovereign wealth, the taxpayer lost out.
“The fund posted ‘losses in three out of its four years of trading: £85.6 million before tax in 2023-24 and £152.2 million in 2024-25,’ a dismal cumulative return -24.9 per cent over two years. In fact, the auditor found that ‘the majority of the portfolio is sub-investment grade.’ Despite numerous identified failures in governance, risk management and early signs of default, the Fund was a massive upside for those earning bonuses, with the chief executive receiving over half a million pounds in total compensation.
“If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because it is: in 2017, the Liberals established the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) with $35 billion in taxpayer dollars and promises of catalyzing private investment from Michael Sabia, now Prime Minister Carney’s hand-picked Clerk of the Privy Council. At the time, he promised that ‘every dollar of federal commitment triggers, say, four or five dollars from people like us.’
“But that level of private sector investment never materialized, with the Parliament Budget Officer finding that two out of every three dollars for projects that the CIB funds come from the public sector, including 11 percent from other federal ‘partners.’ In fact, the Infrastructure Bank has cumulatively lost almost a quarter billion – $288 million – on its loans since inception, with the Bank failing to cover its own operating costs in its first seven years of operation.
“This is the result we’ve seen again and again: ordinary Canadians are stuck losing money, while well-connected members of the Liberal club get rich. In 2024/25, the CIB paid out $600,000 in compensation for the CEO and over $8 million in bonuses. After spending over $300 million on operating costs for a bank that lost money, Carney is going to spend millions more on a transition office for a fund that creates sovereign debt, not wealth.
“As MEI found, ‘Money is committed with great fanfare, losses go unstated and unpublished, and audits reveal financial indiscretions, all without the awareness of the general public, who ultimately need to pay for it all.’
“Canada desperately needs economic growth, not a repeat of the same failed economic playbook that benefits the Liberal club, while leaving taxpayers stuck with the losses and costs. Only Conservatives will end the carve-outs, handouts and bail-outs and instead unleash our resources, rebuild our industrial base and attract investment to build sovereign wealth for Canadians.”