Century Initiative

Last updated
Century Initiative
FormationMay 2014;10 years ago (May 2014) [1]
Founder Dominic Barton and Mark Wiseman
Type Lobby group
BN 843519638 RR0001 [2]
Legal statusFoundation
Focus Population growth, immigration
Headquarters2 St Clair Avenue East, Suite 300, Toronto, ON M4T 2T5
Area served
Canada
Key people
Website centuryinitiative.ca
Formerly called
Laurier Project Foundation (2009-2011)

The Century Initiative [a] [3] is a Canadian lobby group [4] [5] [6] that aims to increase Canada's population to 100 million by 2100. [7] This includes increasing the population of megaregions, which are interlocking areas with more than one city centre and a typical population of 5 million or more (e.g., the Greater Toronto Area, Greater Vancouver, and the National Capital Region). [7]

Contents

The Century Initiative was co-founded by Mark Wiseman and Dominic Barton, who also led the Advisory Council on Economic Growth under three-term Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. [8] [9] The Initiative was supported by former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, [10] and by influential Liberal Party advisors including advisors to former Minister of Finance Bill Morneau. [11] [12] The Century Initiative has been listed on Canada's lobbyist registry since 2021 and has organized meetings with the immigration minister's office, the minister's parliamentary secretary, and Conservative and NDP members of parliament. [13]

Mission

Century Initiative identifies five key "focus areas” to guide Canada’s long-term growth planning, with a goal of ensuring Canada remains a stable, prosperous, and democratic society: immigration, infrastructure & environment, support for children & families, economy, innovation & entrepreneurship, and education, skills, & employment. [14]

It releases an annual scorecard laying out how Canada is measuring up in each of these five areas.

The Century Initiative aims to increase Canada's population to 100 million by 2100; [7] its official mission statement reads:

Growing our population to 100 million by 2100 would reduce the burden on government revenues to fund health care, old age security, and other services. [15] [16]

This includes increasing the population of megaregions. It suggests a population increase for the Greater Toronto Area from 8.8 to 33.5 million, the Greater Montreal region from 4.4 to 12.2 million, the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor from 2.8 to 15.5 million, the Greater Vancouver region from 3.3 to 11.9 million, the National Capital Region from 1.4 to 4.8 million, the Southwestern Ontario region from 1.2 to 2 million, and the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region from 800,000 to 1.7 million. [7]

The organization intends to reach its population goal through a massive increase in immigration and by investing in economic development around megaregions. [7] [17]

Century Initiative forecasts predict that, without changes to Canadian immigration policy, the population of Canada will increase to 53 million people by the end of the century. [17]

Board Members

In 2024, the 9 official leaders of the Century Initiative group were: [18]

NamePositionProfile
Lisa LalandeChief Executive Officer
Mark D. WisemanChair of the Board of Directors
Thomas V. MilroyMember of the Board of Directors
  • International Financier
  • Former CEO of BMO Capital Markets
  • Heads the family office of one of Canada's wealthiest family
Goldy HyderMember of the Board of Directors
Tareq HadhadMember of the Board of Directors
  • CEO and Founder of Peace by Chocolate
  • EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021
  • RBC's Top Immigrant Award
Ratna Omidvar Member of the Board of Directors
Muraly SrinarayanathasMember of the Board of Directors
  • Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of 369 Global
  • Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Canada's 3 Magazine
  • EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021
  • RBC's Top Immigrant Award
Stuart SzaboMember of the Board of Directors
  • CEO and Co-Founder of Beacon
Marie-Lucie Morin Member of the Board of Directors
  • Former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and Associate Secretary to the Cabinet
  • Served as Deputy Minister for International Trade and Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
  • Member of the Order of Canada

History

Laurier Project

The Century Initiative was founded in late-2009 as the Laurier Project Foundation by Mark Wiseman and Dominic Barton, who was the head of McKinsey & Company at the time, along with other "prominent Canadians." [21] [3]

Initially, large-scale population expansion and immigration was not the stated goal of the project; rather, the project aimed to bring "Canada to a position of global leadership through the development and implementation of a major initiative that: [21]

The foundation based its aspiration on adapting the titular former Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier’s dream that, "The 20th Century will be the Century of Canada" (c. 1904) into the 21st century. Their goal was to define and drive impact through a project for the 21st Century, [21]

a project that would define the nation, like the national railway or Confederation itself had defined the country in the 19th Century. Success for this project would be measured by Canadians in the year 2100 saying that the project had helped define the country and had a positive impact on its development in the 21st Century.

With this, the foundation's four areas of exploration were: The Arctic, Smart Nation, Virtuous Energy, and "A Genius for Getting Along." [21]

Many prominent Canadians served on the Laurier Project's board or were advisors to the project, such as Chrystia Freeland, David Naylor, and Nadir Mohamed.

Century Initiative

In 2011, the project shifted to population expansion, [22] and was later rebranded and reorganized as the Century Initiative.

In March 2021, The Globe and Mail hosted a virtual event in partnership with the Century Initiative examining key indicators of the Century Initiative’s progress towards growing Canada’s population to 100 million by the year 2100. [23] [24]

The Century Initiative has also been written about by columnists including Andrew Coyne, [25] Terence Corcoran, [26] and Doug Saunders, who subsequently authored the book Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough. [27]

Controversies and critiques

McKinsey & Company involvement

Multiple founders and affiliates of the organization have been employed by McKinsey & Company, a multinational consulting firm. [21] Due to this, the Century Initiative has been connected to a scandal over McKinsey consulting expenses by Justin Trudeau's government, in which whistleblowers have highlighted McKinsey's large and growing influence over Canadian immigration policy. [13] [28] [29] [30] [31]

Dominic Barton, co-founded Century Initiative when he was the head of McKinsey & Company. [21] Barton also served as the Trudeau government’s ambassador to China from 2019 to 2021, and left the position during the embroiling national security issue. [32]

Aleema Jamal, the inaugural executive director of the foundation, was also previously employed by McKinsey. [21]

In 2016, four of the organization's five volunteers were employed by McKinsey. [21] Also that year, one third of the initiative's manpower was employed or formerly employed by McKinsey & Company. [21]

Connections to BlackRock

The Century Initiative Board of Directors is chaired by co-founder Mark Wiseman, who was the Global Head of Active Equities of BlackRock and ran Blackrock's Alternative Investment division at the time that the Initiative was founded. [33] [34] BlackRock owns $35 billion in real estate and thus will benefit from a real-estate bubble. [35]

BlackRock's Alternative Investment division includes the firm's international real estate investment portfolio [36] and is reported to be actively purchasing single family homes. [37] The Century Initiative's other co-founder, Dominic Barton, is married to Geraldine Buckingham, BlackRock's Asia Pacific chief, which has previously generated conflict-of-interest concerns. [38]

Rejection by French Canada

The idea of expanding the population through immigration is mostly rejected in French Canada, due to concerns that large amounts of immigration could cause the disappearance of the French language in North America and the assimilation of its Francophones. [39] Some critics argue that the Century Initiative is pushing to permanently get rid of Francophones, as Quebec's separate language and culture is thought to be "problematic" for the federal government and English Canada. [40] Quebec's premier François Legault is officially opposed to this plan and stated that "it constitutes a threat to Quebec." [41] The Parti Québécois party is opposed to the plan as well. [42] [43]

Mega-regions

The Century Initiative envisioned Canada in the year 2100 as a nation of "mega-regions," which it defines as interlocking areas with more than one city centre and a typical population of 5 million or more. [7]

Mega-region2016 population (million)2100 population goal (million)Population change
Greater Vancouver 3.311.9+261%
Calgary–Edmonton 2.815.5+454%
Winnipeg Metro 0.81.7+113%
SW Ontario 1.22.0+67%
Greater Toronto 8.833.5+281%
Greater Montreal 4.412.2+177%
National Capital 1.44.8+242%

National Scorecard

Century Initiative annually publishes a “National Scorecard" assessing Canada's growth and prosperity.  

Century Initiative’s 2024 scorecard identified that Canada’s path to a prosperous future was threatened by poor performance on critical indicators like housing affordability, investment in infrastructure and climate change.

The scorecard focuses on three key areas of insight: planning to grow well, the urgent need for an economic recharge, and creating a world-class future-ready labour and talent pool. Referring to the scorecard as a “wake-up call” for Canadian governments and business leaders, Century Initiative highlighted a range of national challenges, including low productivity, insufficient business spending on R&D, lack of access to affordable housing, and a credentials mismatch for newcomers. [44]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/bscSrch.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ "Who We Are". www.centuryinitiative.ca.
  3. 1 2 "Century Initiative / Initiative du Siecle | Canada Corporation Directory". www.canadacompanyregistry.com. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
  4. ↑ "Canada on track for 100 million population but public support can't be taken for granted: Century Initiative CEO". The Globe and Mail. 29 May 2023.
  5. ↑ Maher, Stephen. "How We Got to 41 Million". Macleans. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  6. ↑ Sá, Creso. "Canada must be more audacious with efforts to attract global talent". Policy Options.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "CI report" (PDF). uploads-ssl.webflow.com. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  8. ↑ "Dominic Barton - Co-Founder & Former Board Member". Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  9. ↑ "Advisory Council on Economic Growth". Archived from the original on 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  10. ↑ Ibbitson, John (31 March 2021). "It's time for Canada to focus on expanding our population". The Globe and Mail.
  11. ↑ "Influential Liberal advisers want Canadian population to triple by 2100". Global News.
  12. ↑ "Finance Minister's key advisers want 100M Canadians by 2100". Toronto Star . 23 October 2016.
  13. 1 2 "The value of one consulting firm's federal contracts has skyrocketed under the Trudeau government" . Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  14. ↑ "Century Initiative's 100 million population goal by year 2100 was meant to be provocative – and isn't a target – CEO says". The Globe and Mail. 2024-06-07. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  15. ↑ Hopper, Tristin (2023-01-06). "Is an 'opaque' U.S. consultancy behind Canada's dramatic spike in immigration?". National Post .
  16. ↑ "Why 100M". www.centuryinitiative.ca. Retrieved 2023-02-25.
  17. 1 2 ""UNMASKING THE FUTURE 2021 Environmental Scan"" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  18. ↑ "Our Team". www.centuryinitiative.ca. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
  19. ↑ "Our Members". Business Council of Canada. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  20. ↑ "Canada's political leaders". Financial Times.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Brief History of the Laurier Project". The Century Iniatitive. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  22. ↑ Blatchford, Andy. "Influential Liberal advisers want Canadian population to triple by 2100". The Canadian Press. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  23. ↑ "Supporting a growing Canadian population". The Globe and Mail. 8 April 2021.
  24. ↑ "Century Initiative and The Globe and Mail present People and Prosperity: Planning for Canadian Growth". www.centuryinitiative.ca.
  25. ↑ "Andrew Coyne: Increased immigration is good for Canada — and the reasons aren't only economic | National Post".
  26. ↑ "Terence Corcoran: 100 million Canadians? We could only hope | Financial Post".
  27. ↑ "Maximum Canada by Doug Saunders: 9780735273108 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
  28. ↑ "Influence de la firme McKinsey : l'opposition à Ottawa veut une enquête". 4 January 2023. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  29. ↑ "Poilievre calls for parliamentary probe of Liberals' relationship with McKinsey consulting firm" . Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  30. ↑ "Conservative leader calls for probe into federal contracts awarded to McKinsey". Toronto Star . 10 January 2023. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  31. ↑ "Conservative leader calls for probe into federal contracts awarded to McKinsey" . Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  32. ↑ "Canadian ambassador to China Dominic Barton resigns after two contentious years". National Post . 2021-12-06.
  33. ↑ "Canada needs to get to 100 million people by 2100: BlackRock's Wiseman". 21 August 2022.
  34. ↑ "Mark Wiseman leaving BlackRock after failing to disclose 'consensual relationship' with colleague".
  35. ↑ Lee, Evelyn (13 January 2023). "BlackRock Real Estate makes more senior leadership changes". PERE. PEI Group. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  36. ↑ "Alternative Investments".
  37. ↑ "If You Sell a House These Days, the Buyer Might be a Pension Fund". Wall Street Journal. 4 April 2021.
  38. ↑ "Canada's new ambassador to China was already facing questions for his business ties. His marriage is raising more". Toronto Star . 18 September 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  39. ↑ St-Pierre, Guillaume. "Le Québec pris au piège par Ottawa". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  40. ↑ Bombardier, Denise (6 May 2023). "100 millions de Canadiens: on achève bien les Québécois..." Le Journal de Québec. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  41. ↑ Bergeron, Patrice (9 May 2023). "100 millions d'habitants en 2100: L'Initiative du siècle est une menace pour le Québec, dit Legault". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  42. ↑ "Quebec alone will determine immigration levels, Premier Legault says | Montreal Gazette".
  43. ↑ "Plan to boost Canada's population through immigration threatens Quebec, premier says". Montreal. May 9, 2023.
  44. ↑ "Measuring progress towards a bolder Canadian future". www.centuryinitiative.ca. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  1. ↑ originally the Laurier Project Foundation
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