PM Carney announces creation of Canadian sovereign wealth fund

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Monday the Canadian government is developing a government-owned investment fund. Carney said the fund will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology. It will begin at 25 billion Canadian dollars ($18 billion). The prime minister said the federal government will put up funds alongside private investors. The money will help fund major projects Carney's government is focused on building as Canada seeks diversify away from the United States. US President Donald Trump has been threatening Canada's economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most offensively by claiming Canada could be ''the 51st state''. Carney is former two-time central banker in England and Canada as well as as chair of the board of directors for Bloomberg. ''We take a lesson other jurisdictions that had the foresight many decades ago to start sovereign wealth funds,'' Carney said, ''In some cases they began with a domestic focus then outgrew the scale of the domestic focus.'' Sovereign wealth funds invest in assets, such as stocks, bonds and real estate. They are typically funded by a country's budgetary surpluses, which Canada currently does not have. The announcement comes just a day before the Carney government announces its spring economic update. There are over 90 sovereign wealth funds around the world that mange over $8 trillion in assets, according to The International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, a London-based organisation made up of roughly 50 of these entities. Trump ordered the creation of US sovereign wealth fund earlier last year. In the US, more than 20 sovereign wealth funds exist at the state level, according to analysis from the Centre for Global Development, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank.

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