The Milken Institute was planning to hold its first-ever Toronto conference even before Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled the government’s own investment summit as part of his push for more foreign investment in Canada.

The California-based think tank will bring together Canadian business leaders and global investors on Sept. 14, before the kickoff of the Canada Investment Summit the federal government is organizing with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

Laura Deal Lacey, Milken’s executive vice-president of international and lead organizer of the event, said the push into Canada followed two to three years of growing demand from its investor network. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, large investors have increasingly sought to diversify into stable markets such as Canada.

“We pretty much go wherever our stakeholder community wants to go,” Lacey said in an interview. 

Milken later aligned its conference with the Canada Investment Summit through what she described as a “nice coincidence,” hoping to give global investors another reason to visit Canada in a week that features several major business and investment events.

The Milken conference, called Global Dialogues Toronto, will overlap with other industry gatherings, including the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s forum and the Canada Fintech Forum in Montreal. The half-day event will wrap ahead of the evening kickoff of the Canada Investment Summit, which continues the following day. Milken’s sessions will be public and recorded, Deal Lacey said.

TD CEO Raymond Chun—whose bank is sponsoring the Milken event—RBC CEO Dave McKay, TMX Group CEO John McKenzie and AGF Management CEO Judy Goldring are among the confirmed speakers, with more names still to be announced.

The institute anticipates between 125 and 150 attendees, including representatives of Canada’s Maple 8 pension funds, major limited partners, family offices and the CEOs and chief investment officers of leading financial institutions. While the speakers announced so far are largely from Canada and the U.S., Deal Lacey said organizers are working to bring investors from Europe and Southeast Asia.

The Milken conference and the federal summit come as the government pitches Canada to the world as a prime investment destination. The goal is to unlock $1 trillion in new capital, with $500 billion targeted from private investment over the next five years.

Milken’s conferences attract prominent figures from finance and investing, alongside leaders in technology and politics. Backed by financier and former “junk bond king” turned philanthropist Michael Milken, the institute hosts its yearly flagship gathering in Beverly Hills, Calif., and runs international summits in hubs like Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

Mary Ng, who stepped down as economic development minister in February 2025 and became a Milken senior fellow earlier this year, called the Canadian government’s target “big and bold,” but said the real measure of success will be whether investor interest translates into capital deployed in Canada.

“A year or two from now, we should be able to point to Canadian projects or businesses that actually got financed, where actual capital was deployed in Canada, and that international investors are actually making those allocations here,” Ng said in an interview.

Ng will advise on the event’s panels and discussions, recommending speakers and attendees. She said attending Milken’s Asia Summit in Singapore last year, after leaving government, reinforced her belief in the need to connect Canadian companies with its global investor network.

The Toronto conference will focus on mobilizing large pools of capital into Canada, as well as opportunities in infrastructure, energy, emerging industries and artificial intelligence. Deal Lacey said Milken also wants investors to hear about the challenges of investing in the country, including regulatory barriers, rather than simply making the case for Canada.

Ng said that during her time in government, Canadian businesses consistently raised the challenges they had getting access to growth capital. And she acknowledged there is more work to do to make sure capital that does get raised gets put to work domestically.

Ng said Canada has investable opportunities beyond the major infrastructure projects which the government is championing, particularly among mid-market companies that need growth capital to expand or make acquisitions. She pointed to companies working in artificial intelligence, energy services, clean technology, carbon capture and health technology.

Since taking office amid a trade war with the Trump administration, Carney has travelled extensively abroad to seek partnerships to diversify trade, mirroring efforts by other nations also seeking to reduce their reliance on the U.S. He highlighted this widening rift in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he warned smaller nations to build alliances as a safeguard against coercion by larger powers.

Despite those geopolitical shifts, Deal Lacey noted that U.S. investors continue to prioritize deal making. Whatever tensions exist between governments, she said, she believes U.S. investors are still welcome in Canada, where they remain focused on opportunity and “making money.”

Deal Lacey said Canada’s efforts to attract capital from new markets does not mean it needs to pull away from American investors.

Milken’s Toronto event could also be more than a one-off. Deal Lacey said the institute hopes it marks “the beginning of a long, long relationship.”