SPECIAL REPORT - PART TWO OF TWO • WHY CARNEY PICKED A MAN WHO SPENT A DECADE PROVING PENSION FUNDS CAN BE PATRIOTIC

NOTE FROM GEORGE

This is Part Two of our series on Michael Sabia. If you missed Part One - who he is, and why Carney chose him - catch up here first. Today: what he’s actually been brought in to execute, and how it’s already unfolding.

The pension policy details below are drawn from public government announcements, industry reporting, and think-tank analysis. The connection between Sabia’s specific Caisse experience and Carney’s current strategy is our own analysis, built from the public record of both men’s actions, not a claim either has stated directly.

Carney’s government isn’t just asking Canada’s pension giants to invest more at home. It’s applying real, sustained pressure to make them do it - and the one fund already built around that exact principle, for over four decades, is the one Michael Sabia used to run.

WHAT CARNEY IS ACTUALLY DOING

This isn’t background noise anymore - it’s an active campaign, on multiple fronts at once. In April, Carney announced the Canada Strong Fund, the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, aimed at putting $25 billion into domestic projects. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has told pension funds directly that a new era of “economic nationalism” means they should “think about Canada first” and “put capital where our mouth is.” Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has been holding quarterly meetings with the major public pension funds specifically to push them toward domestic investment. And in September, Carney will host Canada’s first-ever Investment Summit in Toronto, featuring CPP Investments and PSP Investments alongside 100 of the world’s largest investors, chasing $1 trillion in commitments over five years.

The reception from the pension funds themselves has been polite but pointed. CPP Investments’ CEO John Graham called himself “super encouraged” by Carney’s efforts - while also flagging an “opportunity deficit,” a diplomatic way of saying there isn’t yet enough investable Canadian infrastructure to justify redirecting the capital. Conservative Senator Claude Carignan has gone further, arguing Ottawa should simply mandate domestic investment levels for CPP and public-sector pensions rather than build a separate sovereign fund at all - and he pointed to one specific existing example as proof it already works.

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Here’s what’s behind the wall:

- The “dual mandate” structure that already exists in Canada, why it’s controversial, and why Sabia’s fund is the one everyone points to

- What Sabia specifically learned running that model that no other candidate for his current job would have

- Why this connects directly to Carney’s push to align Canada’s economy with Europe, not just with domestic projects