TORONTO — Prime Minister Mark Carney closed the Canada Investment Summit Tuesday by claiming nearly $500 billion in new capital commitments, opening Calgary, Toronto Pearson, Vancouver and Montreal airports to private operators, and pitching a “potential” million-barrel-a-day line for Alberta crude — the same morning Washington’s latest 50% duties took effect.Ottawa will keep the land and assets at the four airports and sell long-term operating concessions. Carney said that would raise “tens of billions” to be spent on regional airports, local transit and a sovereign broadband backbone. He later told reporters the new Canada Strong Fund would keep a public stake in those concessions. A Transport Canada memo obtained by CBC shows lease-extension talks with the existing authorities were already months behind.The tax change is branded the “productivity mega-deduction.” Businesses can now write off most new capital in the year an asset is ready for use. Finance Canada says two-thirds of assets qualify — machinery, software, patents, fibre, rail and pipelines — and that the marginal effective tax rate on new investment falls from about 13% to 6.4%, less than half the U.S. rate. The five-year revenue cost is put at $36 billion..Carney also set a new rule under a Build Canada Strong Act: “one project, one review, one year.” He said 27 files already sit with the Major Projects Office and represent $500 billion in “private investment opportunities.” In the same breath he listed a pipeline that would carry “at least 1 million barrels of low-emission Alberta oil per day” to Asia, a doubling of LNG exports to 50 million tonnes by 2030 and then another doubling.Premier Danielle Smith and Carney signed a separate May agreement that targets a national-interest designation on a West Coast line by October and a construction decision before September 2027. The federal deal book still lists that $35-billion corridor as a proposal, not a sanctioned project.On the books, Carney said the public service will shrink 10%, consultant spending 20%, and operating-expenditure growth will fall from more than 8% a year to under 2%. He said the operating budget is “on track” to balance next year, a year early. Defence is provisioned to 4% of GDP by 2030.The West Coast pipeline remains a proposal in the 66-page deal book — Smith and Carney set dates in May, and no final investment decision is on the calendar — while Calgary’s terminal now sits on the same concession list as Pearson, Vancouver and Montreal.
