Ottawa signs commercial pacts worth over $1 billion as it rebuilds ties frozen since 2018
Canadian pension funds will send a delegation to Saudi Arabia within months to scout investment opportunities, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, as Ottawa moves to rebuild commercial ties after years of diplomatic estrangement.
The pledge came during the first visit by a Canadian prime minister to the kingdom in 26 years.
Carney met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and, in the Red Sea port of Jeddah, business leaders, according to The Canadian Press.
The Prime Minister's Office said the 13 new commercial agreements and memorandums of understanding signed during the trip are worth more than $1bn.
Carney said the pension fund delegation would travel to Saudi Arabia "in a few months," building on recent ministerial visits.
The two countries have "barely scratched the potential" of their relationship, Carney said at a signing ceremony at the Saudi Arabia-Canada Investment Forum.
He said the private sector had kept the commercial ties alive and that the event marked the start of the next phase.
The renewed push follows a 2018 diplomatic rupture.
The government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau criticized the kingdom's justice system and treatment of women, prompting Riyadh to shutter trade talks and both countries to withdraw ambassadors.
The two sides restored ambassadors only in 2023, the wire service reported.
For institutional investors, Saudi officials pitched long-horizon capital.
Saudi Investment Minister Fahad Al-Saif said his country is open for long-term investment and that Canada can contribute expertise in infrastructure, aviation and critical minerals mining.
"Canada offers capital, technology and (a) trusted long term partner," Al-Saif said. "For Canada, Saudi long-term investors bring patient capital, anchored by (a) competitive national policy framework."
Jeff Steiner, chair of the Canada-Saudi Arabia Business Council, told reporters in Jeddah the visit marked a "high-water mark" for relations.
He said opportunities now extend well beyond oil into health care, energy, tourism, education and mining, noting the kingdom is "making mining their second pillar."
Steiner flagged tax and investor-protection barriers as central to whether capital actually flows.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is working to resolve double-taxation and foreign-investment-protection issues between the two countries, he said.
"Those frictions coming down are just as important as the interest of investors in business to come to the different markets. If it's too difficult, they'll go elsewhere," Steiner said.
Not everyone was convinced the agreements would deliver.
Business capital investment has fallen for five straight months, Conservative foreign affairs critic Eric Duncan said, dismissing the deals as "non-binding aspirational documents," according to The Canadian Press.
He said Canadians are looking for "more results" than another council or memorandum.
Human rights framed part of the visit.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she raised human rights and consular cases in her meetings.
"Engagement doesn't mean endorsement," she told reporters.
Carney echoed the line, saying "engagement is not endorsement" and that lecturing countries from afar is "satisfying, but it's ineffective."
The Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights has urged Ottawa to press Riyadh to lift a travel ban on blogger Raif Badawi, whose wife and children live in Quebec.
Asked about the case, Carney called it a "very difficult situation" and declined to detail his private discussions, though he argued that deeper engagement gives Canada more influence.
