Invest in Canada: Creating opportunities
Canada’s global investment attraction and promotion agency
Since 2018, Invest in Canada has worked tirelessly to forge partnerships and connect investors to opportunities in Canada. We offer single-window access to the information, insights and services companies need to make informed business decisions.
Invest in Canada promotes Canada as a top investment destination – building our competitiveness on a global scale. Our role involves three focus areas:
Promote Canada: Invest in Canada increases Canada’s visibility as a premiere investment destination. We promote the full range of Canada’s highly skilled labour, technologies, resources and regions.
Facilitate connections: We provide a seamless, single point of contact that helps foreign investors navigate the Canadian landscape and put their investment projects into action.
Accelerate investment: Invest in Canada accelerates large-scale, transformative projects for Canada. We connect companies with contacts, programs and information to help them make informed investment decisions more quickly. We highlight opportunities, remove barriers, identify and visit sites, and help companies establish or grow their operations.
To do this, the Invest in Canada team works with a vast network of partners, including governments at all levels, investment agencies, associations and other organizations Canada-wide. The investors we work with represent international firms who want to set up operations in Canada, existing investors looking to expand or capitalize on new opportunities, and companies interested in merging with or acquiring a Canadian company to grow their capabilities.
Our team also collaborates with Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service. With offices in 160 cities worldwide, trade commissioners help identify new investors and work with us to find the right matches for Canadian opportunities.
By building relationships within Canada and with company decision-makers worldwide, Invest in Canada’s team is securing long-term foreign investment growth in Canada. Here’s how we work:
We become part of the team
Invest in Canada assigns an advisor to work closely with global investors. The advisor becomes the single point of contact for their investment journey. Their role is to build a relationship with the investor, determine their needs and priorities, and find the best opportunities and path forward. This involves:
Working with various levels of government to collect information, remove barriers and streamline efforts.
Helping companies refine their Canadian investment or expansion plan by providing insights and data on specific sectors and locations.
Identifying potential partnerships and connecting investors to R&D opportunities, government programs and key contacts.
We bring the right players to the table
To help investors put their plans into action, Invest in Canada assembles a task force for large investment projects. This team works with investors to efficiently navigate business requirements in Canada. Their approach helps accelerate a company’s plans to establish operations or expand into Canada. This involves:
Introducing investors to contacts across sectors, government and service industries, and coordinating meetings to make the project a reality.
Organizing custom site visits for company executives to tour facilities and meet industry partners, potential customers and government officials.
Connecting with governments at all levels to help the investor navigate requirements, troubleshoot challenges, identify programs and support the company’s investment plans.
We find opportunities to optimize investments
Once an agreement to invest in Canada has been reached, Invest in Canada helps investors move to the implementation phase. This involves:
Providing services and advice, from real estate referrals to preparing media advisories.
Championing the company’s success in Canada by sharing positive results and collecting feedback to share with governments to inform future decision-making.
Identifying new and emerging opportunities to maximize a company’s investment in Canada and ensure long-term engagement.
Invest in Canada builds relationships for the long term. We support an investor’s journey every step of the way and to forge long-lasting connections to ensure continued growth and opportunities for Canada and for Canadians.
Snapshot:
How Invest in Canada supports investment in the Port of Halifax
Company: PSA Halifax
Country of origin: Singapore
Investment location: Halifax, NS
Number of jobs: 250
Project: Acquisition of Halterm Container Terminal by PSA. Located in the south entry of the Port of Halifax, the only terminal on Canada’s east coast to serve mega container vessels. Subsequent expansion and upgrading of the facilities to increase port capacity.
Reinvestment amount: Over $50 million invested, shared between the Halifax Port Authority and PSA. Upgrading project to continue to 2022.
In their words:
“Invest in Canada is a very professional organization. They were able to follow our investment from start to finish. They kept us abreast of legislation, investment climate and specific opportunities in the port sector along the way.
During PSA’s investment process, Invest in Canada was very helpful, active and engaged in helping PSA complete our investment project. They were able to advise us on how decision-making works between municipal, provincial and federal levels of government. For a foreign company investing in Canada, the different levels can be confusing.
Once we had completed our transaction, we recruited new local staff into our Canadian subsidiary and have built up a team of specialists and local advisors, such as banks, lawyers and business partners, who now help us to develop and grow our footprint.
We will renew the dialogue with Invest in Canada once we have set our eyes on new investment projects.”
-Enno Koll, Head of Americas, PSA