Foreign direct investment in Canada reached $93.6 billion in 2025, the highest level since 2007. However, nearly half came through mergers and acquisitions ($43.6 billion), which in most cases does not add new factories, equipment, or jobs. Reinvested earnings ($33.6 billion) are profits of foreign-owned Canadian businesses that were retained rather than paid out as dividends to foreign owners; the data does not show whether those funds finance new productive capacity.
For more on why headline FDI flows are a sideshow to the productivity-enhancing capital investment Canada actually needs, see this C.D. Howe Institute memo.
Source: Statistics Canada Table 36-10-0025-01.
