The Investability Hump
The Atlantic Economic Panel has heard Atlantic Canada has talent and ambition, but inconsistent regulation, outdated perceptions, and weak social license frameworks could keep capital at bay
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Investors look at Atlantic Canada in much the same way people view Alexander Keith’s namesake brew – those who like it, like it a lot.
However, even knowledgeable investors still have questions about whether the region is truly investable.
That word, investability, is what’s on Cathy Bennett’s mind as she and her fellow members of the Atlantic Economic Panel conclude consultations and begin to consider how to increase the fortunes of a region chronically at the back of the provincial pack.
Bennett has sat on all sides of the economic table, first as owner of the Bennett Group of Companies, then as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Finance Minister, and now as the co-founder and managing partner of Sandpiper Ventures.
“Investors who have experience in investing in Atlantic Canada know the value of the incredibly hard-working entrepreneurs that are in the region,” Bennett said. “They know the opportunities to scale, but they also have questions around what I would call the investability of companies from Atlantic Canada.”
The Atlantic Economic Panel’s mandate is to consider how to increase the region’s economic output as part of the country’s larger move to diversify its trading relationships and reduce dependence on the United States.
Joining Bennett are: social scientist, podcaster and business leader Don Mills, who chairs the panel; Halifax International Airport Authority President and CEO Joyce Carter; Cassidy Group (Coach Atlantic; Maritime Bus) CEO Mike Cassidy; McCain Foods chairman, former Maple Leaf Foods senior executive and investor, J. Scott McCain; former Canadian Armed Forces member and Pabineau First Nations Chief Terry Richardson; and Bank of Canada lead director and CEO and principal shareholder of Seafair Capital, Anne Whelan.
A part of the panel’s mandate is to examine the region’s ‘culture and scalability.’ In other words, whether Atlantic Canada provides businesses with the regulatory stability, access to capital and growth mindset required to scale.
She describes a spectrum that runs across the region’s business landscape. On one end are early‑stage companies whose founders are long on sweat equity and ideas, but short on the structural support and financing they need to grow. On the other are century‑old firms that have already figured out how to operate at scale and sell into markets far beyond Atlantic Canada.
“We, as a region, have had companies that Sandpiper invests in, for example, that really struggle from the region to attract capital because of their place and the biases around the place,” Bennett said.
The problem, she suggests, lies in the space between where the less glamorous parts of investability reside, in issues such as regulatory predictability and social license.
Canada’s high regulatory standards, particularly around the environment, are often cast as a burden. Investors, Bennett says, frequently see them differently.
“Canada has some of the highest standards in the world when it comes to regulatory expectations, particularly around environment, etcetera,” she said. “And I think we lose sight of how valuable that is when we think about investability, because global money coming to Canada is coming for a reason.”
Social License Questions
The real threat to investability isn’t the standards we set, rather it’s in how we enforce and interpret them.
“When we have inconsistencies, that’s where we actually lose the interest of investors,” Bennett said. “Inconsistencies could come from political cycles. It could come from different governments changing. It could come from different interpretations of how community wants regulations reflected in their community.”
Another layer of investability is social license, which Bennett sees as a hard precondition for major projects, not a soft, last‑minute add‑on. Large institutional investors are examining Atlantic Canada through that lens as closely as they study financials.
“Large scale institutional investors, who may not know the region, are also doing their homework about the region as to whether or not the social license to operate is actually in place at the level that they need,” she said, “and how much work will companies need to do to make sure that they have the social license from Indigenous communities, from friends and neighbours, and where a project might be proposed.”
In that context, Indigenous participation and equity are becoming structural, not symbolic. Asked whether Indigenous equity, or at least participation that leads to equity, should be seen as a baseline for projects, Bennett was unequivocal.
“One thousand percent, absolutely,” she said.
She argues that part of the panel’s work is surfacing how much the ground has already shifted, and how slowly perceptions have caught up.
“What is being revealed through the work that we’ve been doing is the evolution of what may have been historical biases towards what had happened in community over [time],” she said.
For instance, legislative constraints, including aspects of the Indian Act, meant that the ambition for Indigenous equity and the ability to finance that equity were out of alignment.
“There was a period of time… where ambition to have equity and the ability to finance that equity weren’t aligned,” Bennett said. “The [Indian] Act, certainly in some provinces in Atlantic Canada where it’s applicable, the Maritimes in particular, prevents Indigenous communities from actually having full economic participation from an equity perspective.”
That is changing, she said, pointing to new partnership models across the country.
“It’s clear that there have been a lot of changes at the federal and national level,” she said. “We’re seeing projects in Ontario with large-scale energy producers in partnership with Indigenous communities. You’re seeing it from coast to coast to coast in Canada. That’s the norm now, not the abstract.”
For Bennett, the ultimate test of whether the region has become more investable isn’t just how much money flows in, but whether that money changes people’s lives. That’s why she is focused on GDP per capita, not just GDP.
“Lots of people around the panel are talking about GDP,” she said. “Our internal work and how I position it is, we need to talk about GDP per capita, because at the end of the day, if you want more productivity, inevitably you’re going to see wage growth.”
The Atlantic Economic Panel will issue its final report in September 2026.
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AI Summary: Atlantic Canada’s ability to attract investment is under renewed scrutiny as the Atlantic Economic Panel examines whether the region is truly “investable.” Business leader and panel member Cathy Bennett explains that, despite strong entrepreneurs and high Canadian regulatory standards, investors still encounter inconsistent rules, political swings, and outdated perceptions that undermine confidence. Bennett argues that regulatory predictability, social license, and Indigenous equity participation are now essential conditions for large‑scale capital, not optional add‑ons. As new partnership models emerge across Canada, she says Atlantic Canada must catch up – because the real measure of progress isn’t total GDP, but GDP per capita and whether investment improves people’s lives.