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The Canada Investment Summit in Toronto was a good idea. It was an overdue one, frankly.

CHARLEBOIS: Ottawa wants $1 trillion in investment, but agri-food is starving for capital Back to video

At a time when global capital is becoming more selective and the country’s economic relationship with the United States is increasingly unpredictable, Ottawa is right to bring major investors, Canadian executives and public-sector leaders into the same room. Canada cannot diversify its trade without first expanding its productive capacity.

The federal government wants to catalyze $1 trillion in investment over the next five years. The summit highlighted opportunities in energy, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, defence, transportation and other major infrastructure projects. These are all important sectors, and Canada urgently needs more capital deployed into productive assets. According to Ottawa, 27 nation-building initiatives already represent more than $192 billion in potential investment.

But amid all the talk about what Canada has that the world wants, one strategic sector received remarkably little attention: agri-food. That omission is difficult to justify.

Food and beverage manufacturing is Canada’s largest manufacturing employer, supporting roughly 318,000 jobs. It connects our farms to domestic consumers and global markets. It is also central to food security, regional development, trade diversification and affordability.

Yet Canada continues to treat agri-food as a social or agricultural file rather than as a major industrial investment opportunity.

Foreign ownership increasing

The numbers reveal an uncomfortable paradox.........

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