The Niagara Falls Review

Invest in Canada seeks foreign investment­s

Agency’s chiefs says it faces tough competitio­n

- MIKE BLANCHFIEL­D

— The two top businesspe­ople named to lead Canada’s new foreign investment promotion agency say they’ve got their work cut out for them. That’s because Invest in Canada and its dedicated team of trade commission­ers are embarking on their work after the flow of foreign direct investment into Canada plunged to a seven-year low last year. Internatio­nal Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne unveiled the long-awaited agency on Monday — 16 months after the federal government first announced it would invest $218 million over five years to create it. “When you start something, you need to make sure you do that on a strong footing,” Champagne said, when asked to explain the delay between the agency’s conception and birth. The minister named Ian McKay, Vancouver-based business leader and a former political adviser to federal Liberal cabinet ministers, as CEO and Mitch Garber, a business executive and philanthro­pist who is a co-investor and chairperso­n of Cirque du Soleil, as board chair. All three touted Canada’s internatio­nal brand as having never been higher and emphasized the need to streamline the hunt for foreign investment. But neither McKay nor Garber shied away from the challenges that lie ahead, especially in light of some recent numbers that showed a stark decline in the flow of foreign capital into Canada. A report earlier this month by Statistics Canada said that the influx of foreign direct investment into Canada in 2017 amounted to $33.8 billion, the lowest level since 2010. That fell short of the record-setting flow of $126.1 billion in 2007. McKay suggested that Canada’s foreign investment numbers aren’t exactly lighting the 35-country Organizati­on for Economic Co-operation and Developmen­t on fire either. “Compared to our competitor­s in the OECD, we lag in terms of annual increase of investment attraction and we have a lot of work to do to shrink that gap,” McKay said in his acceptance speech. “We’ve just got to do a better job of seeking out where the investment­s are coming from.” McKay said it is critical that the new agency pursues “a cohesive data-driven approach to presenting our value propositio­ns to global investors” because “the status quo is not going to be good enough.” Garber said in an interview that Canada has “a bit of catching up to do” to attract investors.

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