Reports of funding being paused fake news, says Jean Charest, co-chair of Canada-U.A.E. Business Council
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When Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the United Arab Emirates last November, he was looking to expand trade. What he didn’t expect was an offer by the U.A.E. to invest $70 billion in Canada over the coming years.
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Jean Charest, the former Quebec premier and current co-chair of the Canada-U.A.E. Business Council, was there when the Emiratis made the offer.
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“It wasn’t expected, they hadn’t given us a heads up,” Charest said in a phone interview from Montreal on Tuesday.
He also said there were no specifics in terms of what they would invest in, just a discussion of general areas such as energy, strategic minerals and infrastructure.
“Canada is diversifying our trade and finding new investors to fuel our plans to build Canada strong,” Carney said in November at the end of his trip.
Ready or not, here comes the cash?
A headline in the Financial Times out of London made it seem like that investment was walking away.
“Canada tells U.A.E. it is not ready for its C$70bn investment,” the headline said.
Many believed this meant the $70-billion investment was paused — or worse yet, packing up and going home.
Not so, said Charest.
At a meeting in June when Emirati officials were visiting Canada, the Major Projects Office told U.A.E. officials that they had no shovel-ready projects that needed an investment. The things that the Major Projects Office are looking at are in early stages, but Charest said they are looking at plenty of other projects.
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“No one was phased by that,” Charest said of the meeting with Major Projects Office officials.
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Other projects in need of funding
He described the office as just one potential avenue.
“There’s a number of projects in other areas: Energy projects in Alberta, strategic minerals,” Charest said.
He also pointed to the expansion of the port in Contrecoeur, Que., halfway between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres, as a possible investment spot. There is currently a $2.3-billion expansion project underway for the port that is expected to create thousands of jobs.
Dubai-based DP World, a company that handles roughly 10% of global container ship traffic, has already signed onto a deal to manage container traffic at the port. The company already has facilities offering similar services in Vancouver, Saint John, N.B., Nanaimo, B.C., and Prince Rupert, B.C.
“From my experience, they are very determined, very professional, very eager to invest,” Charest said.
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U.A.E. already invested in Canadian firms
Sovereign wealth funds from the U.A.E., such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala Investment Company, already have significant investments in Canada. Mubadala spent $4.7 billion to take C.I. Financial private last year and they bought logistics firm Canada Cartage in 2022.
Since 2009, Calgary-based Nova Chemicals has been controlled by Mubadala or its predecessors.
It’s in Alberta where these funds from the U.A.E. are most likely to find fertile ground for investment. Between LNG operations and pipelines, AI data centres and critical mineral mining, Alberta is considered front and centre to the U.A.E. approach, especially given their ties due to the oil industry.
Charest said that come September, U.A.E. investment officials will be back in Canada when Carney hosts an investment summit. Carney has invited top pension funds, private investment companies and sovereign wealth funds, the U.A.E. investment vehicles, to Toronto on Sept. 14 and 15 with an “ambitious plan to catalyze $1 trillion in total investment in Canada over the next five years.”
Whether he can do that or not remains to be seen, but when it comes to the idea that the U.A.E. is walking away from its plans to invest, Charest said that is fake news.
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