BNN Bloomberg Sep 18, 2026
With John McKenzie, CEO of TMX Group
Canada's two public markets had already raised about $27 billion of new investment in Canadian companies before this week's investment summit opened, John McKenzie said, and about $8 billion of that went to junior companies.
The attention around the summit is on private capital: hundreds of billions pledged by pension funds and banks, four airports going to private owners, greenfield projects. McKenzie runs the exchanges, and his argument is that the money spent on those projects reaches the public market anyway, through the small and mid-size companies hired to do the work.
"even before this summit we'd already raised on the two markets about 27 billion of new investment in Canadian companies, of which 8 billion was in junior companies alone"
McKenzie is chief executive of TMX Group, which owns the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture, the market where Canada's junior companies raise money. John McKenzie of TMX Group on BNN Bloomberg.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 4 arguments that matter.
Key Takeaways
The mechanism matters more than the rate: he says the immediate deduction for investment made in Canada is what changes behavior
Permanence is the part he singles out, against a history of temporary measures that did not support long-term commitments
He calls the forgone revenue a timing difference, not a giveaway — the assets were already deductible
$27B was already raised on the two exchanges before the summit, $8B of it in junior companies
Government-led projects get built by companies, which is his route from a pension-funded project to the small-cap market
1. The Week in the Brief
The program opened with its own summary of the week, and it sets up the interview. Investors gathered in Toronto for a look at Canadian opportunities, and ahead of the summit hundreds of billions of dollars were pledged by Canadian institutions, from pension funds to banks, aimed without specifics at everything from critical minerals to infrastructure. The prime minister said Canada will privatize four airports to start, with more assets to follow.
On tax, the show reported that the effective rate for investment in Canada is now the most competitive in the G7 at 6%, less than half the US rate, as Canada widens the range of investments eligible for an immediate write-off and makes the change permanent. Putting the question to McKenzie a few minutes later, the host used a different figure, calling the rate "darn low at 6.4%."
2. Permanent, Not Temporary
Asked whether the new rate is enough to make investors look again, and whether it will change how Canadian companies themselves invest, McKenzie said yes to both and then moved the discussion off the headline number.
The rate is not what he is looking at
it's not even about that average rate — it's about how they did it
John McKenzie
What the government did, on his account, is let companies deduct immediately the money they spend investing in Canada, which is the thing business had been asking for.
What the deduction is meant to produce
make it easier and more cost-effective for companies to build here in Canada, deduct those costs immediately
John McKenzie
The detail he rated highest was not the size of the break.
Permanence is the part he singled out
And the best thing I liked about what they did in the announcement is they made it permanent.
John McKenzie
A lot of historical changes were temporary, he said, which is the wrong shape for a decision that commits capital for years.
Why that changes the calculation
This is a permanent change that very much incents that kind of long-term investing that we want here in the country.
John McKenzie
3. The $36B Question
The host put the cost of it to him: a permanent measure permanently gives up potential revenue, which the government estimated at $36 billion over five years, and asked whether that should worry anyone. McKenzie said no, on the grounds that the money is not actually forgone.
His objection to calling it a giveaway
I actually don't think we should, because I don't think it's a permanent give-up. This is actually about timing, because all these assets were deductible already — it's just about allowing them to deduct early.
John McKenzie
If earlier deductions mean more investment, he said, the growth pays for it — through higher corporate taxes eventually, through employment taxes as the workforce grows, through higher wages, and through the productivity gains Canada has been looking for. He also framed it as the government taking its own advice.
The symmetry he drew
they've been asking business to unlock your balance sheet, make investments, take risk to grow the economy
John McKenzie
That, he said, is what the government is now doing itself: taking a risk and making an investment that should grow the economy and pay back over time.
His summary of the trade
So, I don't think there's a lot of risk here. I think this has got a lot of upside potential.
John McKenzie
4. Downstream to Small Caps
The host's last question was the one closest to his business. The summit is largely about private money going into new projects, while TMX represents the public route — existing companies and new listings. Did he hear anything that grows his side of the ledger?
Who actually builds the projects
When you think about it, it's not governments that actually manage these projects. They may lead them, they may start them, but they are actually built by private companies and public companies.
John McKenzie
Even a project funded by a pension fund or a private equity firm, he said, spills work out to small and mid-size companies that form the ecosystem around it — and that is where his markets come in.
His claim for the exchanges he runs
And there's no better marketplace in the world other than TSX Venture and TSX to finance publicly small and mid-cap companies.
John McKenzie
And the figure he brought
even before this summit we'd already raised on the two markets about 27 billion of new investment in Canadian companies, of which 8 billion was in junior companies alone
John McKenzie
He called the prospect of adding the summit's tailwinds to that a fantastic opportunity.
Bonus Insights
The rest of the program's brief, all of it the show's own reporting rather than the guest's:
Headline inflation held at 3% in August, level with July, though the show noted that a jump in energy prices late in the month and into September points to a higher headline. The question for the Bank of Canada, on the show's framing, is whether higher oil and gas prices feed through to other prices, which has not happened so far.
US diesel hit a record $6 a gallon. Oil and gas stayed elevated with the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz continuing and supply constrained, and industry players warned they could not shield consumers from higher prices.
The US central bank raised rates on Wednesday, its first increase in three years, to bring inflation down there.
More than half of parents may be supporting adult children financially, according to a new RBC report: 51% of those surveyed said they had given money to children aged 18 to 40, for everything from groceries to an emergency expense.
Canada's largest AI company broke with the slowdown calls. Cohere's chief executive, Aidan Gomez, told the show he would welcome independent oversight rather than self-regulation by Silicon Valley.
McKenzie's bottom line is that the write-off is a timing change rather than a cost, that making it permanent is what will move long-dated capital spending, and that the public market gets paid whichever pocket funds the projects, because the companies doing the work are listed on his exchanges.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
TMX Group (McKenzie's company, which owns both Canadian public markets and had raised about $27B of new investment before the summit)
Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture (The two markets in that figure; he says $8B of the total went to junior companies)
RBC (Its new report, cited by the show, found 51% of parents surveyed had given money to children aged 18 to 40)
Cohere (Canada's largest AI company, whose chief executive told the show he would prefer independent oversight to Silicon Valley self-regulation)
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