American-Controlled Firms Now Hold 56% of All Foreign-Owned Corporate Assets in Canada: StatCan

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Canada’s corporate economy is overwhelmingly Canadian-controlled, yet the foreign-owned portion has a distinctly American centre of gravity. Statistics Canada’s latest Corporations Returns Act data show that U.S.-controlled enterprises held $1.37 trillion in Canadian assets in 2023—more than every other foreign country combined. The finding matters because corporate assets represent more than balance-sheet entries: they include the factories, equipment, financial resources and intellectual property that help determine where investment, production and strategic decisions are made.

There is an important distinction, however. The latest all-industry U.S. share is 53.0%, not 56%. A figure near 56% applies to the narrower non-financial sector in 2022; that share rose to 57.8% in 2023. The correction changes the headline, but not the broader story: no foreign country comes close to matching the United States’ corporate footprint in Canada.

What the StatCan Data Actually Show

Statistics Canada counted $17.9 trillion in assets held by incorporated enterprises operating in Canada in 2023. Canadian-controlled enterprises held $15.3 trillion, or 85.6% of the total, while foreign-controlled enterprises held $2.58 trillion, or 14.4%. Within that foreign-controlled pool, U.S.-controlled firms accounted for $1.367 trillion and 53.0%. Put another way, American-controlled enterprises held roughly 7.6% of all corporate assets covered by the program—not 56% of Canada’s entire corporate economy.

That distinction is essential because percentages can sound much larger when their denominator is left unstated. The United Kingdom ranked a distant second with 11.1% of foreign-controlled assets, followed by Japan at 8.0%, Germany at 4.1%, and China and France at 3.6% each. Enterprises were ultimately controlled from 93 countries, yet just eight countries accounted for 87.4% of all foreign-controlled assets. The picture is therefore one of concentrated foreign ownership inside an economy that remains predominantly domestically controlled. That broader context is crucial to an accurate reading.

A Smaller Foreign Share, but a Bigger U.S. Lead

The overall foreign-controlled share of Canadian corporate assets has been moving downward for years. It fell from 19.6% in 2014 to 14.4% in 2023, continuing a decline that Statistics Canada says has persisted since 2007. In the latest year, assets held by Canadian-controlled enterprises grew 5.6%, almost twice the 2.9% growth recorded by foreign-controlled enterprises. That faster domestic expansion reduced the foreign share by 0.3 percentage points from 2022.

At the same time, the United States strengthened its position within the shrinking foreign-controlled segment. Its share rose from 52.3% in 2022 to 53.0% in 2023, while the value of U.S.-controlled assets increased by approximately $56.8 billion. This creates a seeming contradiction: Canada is becoming less foreign-controlled overall, but the foreign-controlled portion is becoming slightly more American. For policymakers and business leaders, those two trends require different responses—supporting Canadian capital formation on one hand, while reducing excessive reliance on a single foreign partner on the other.

Non-Financial Canada Is More Exposed

The American footprint becomes more pronounced once banks, insurers and other financial institutions are removed. Canada’s non-financial industries held $7.57 trillion in assets in 2023, and 22.9% of those assets were foreign-controlled. U.S.-controlled enterprises held $1.002 trillion, representing 57.8% of foreign-controlled non-financial assets. That was up from 56.4% in 2022—the likely source of the 56% figure in the original headline—and amounted to roughly 13.2% of all non-financial corporate assets.

This matters because non-financial assets are tied closely to the parts of the economy Canadians encounter every day: factories, mines, distribution networks, stores, transportation systems and business-service operations. A parent company’s location does not determine every local decision, but it can influence where new plants are built, which facilities receive upgrades, how supply chains are organized and where profits are reinvested. For a worker in an auto plant or a supplier dependent on one large customer, ownership can become highly tangible when a multinational restructures production across the border.

Manufacturing and Wholesale Sit at the Centre

Foreign control is especially visible in the goods supply chain. In 2023, foreign-controlled enterprises held 48.6% of assets in wholesale trade and 44.4% in manufacturing. Oil and gas extraction followed at 33.0%, while mining and quarrying stood at 31.9%. These are not small peripheral industries; they shape Canada’s exports, regional employment and access to essential equipment, vehicles, machinery and consumer goods.

U.S.-controlled manufacturing assets reached $333.8 billion in 2023, up from $237.4 billion in 2014. In wholesale trade, American-controlled assets nearly doubled over the same period to $195.7 billion and represented 59% of the industry’s foreign-controlled assets. American dominance was even higher within several service categories: U.S. firms held 89.2% of foreign-controlled assets in arts, entertainment and recreation, 84.3% in retail trade and 83.9% in information and cultural industries. Those figures do not mean Americans own those shares of each entire sector; they show how strongly the United States dominates the foreign-controlled portion.

Finance Remains Mostly Canadian-Controlled

Canada’s financial system substantially lowers the all-industry foreign-control figure. Finance and insurance enterprises held $10.33 trillion in assets in 2023, equal to 57.7% of all corporate assets measured by the program. Yet only 8.2% of financial-sector assets were foreign-controlled, down from 8.6% a year earlier. Canadian-controlled institutions held approximately $9.5 trillion, reflecting the central role of domestic banks, insurers and other financial firms.

The United States still ranked first among foreign controllers in finance, holding 43.1% of the sector’s foreign-controlled assets, or about $365.6 billion. However, that represented only approximately 3.5% of all financial-sector assets. The industry breakdown also varies sharply: foreign control accounted for just 4.9% of assets in depository credit intermediation, which includes major banking activities, but 44.0% in non-depository credit intermediation. A Canadian household may therefore bank with a domestically controlled institution while using credit cards, financing platforms, investment services or other financial products connected to foreign-controlled companies.

The Influence Reaches Jobs, Exports and Value Added

Assets show long-term economic capacity, but employment and production reveal how foreign multinationals affect daily life. In 2024, U.S. multinationals supported 1.71 million jobs in Canada, equal to 11.9% of corporate-sector employment. Retail trade accounted for 363,000 of those jobs and manufacturing for 320,200. In 2023, U.S. multinationals generated $265.8 billion in Canadian value added, or 14.5% of corporate-sector value added, with manufacturing contributing the largest amount.

The trade connection is equally significant. U.S. multinationals accounted for 29.3% of the value of Canada’s goods exports to the United States in 2024, led by crude oil, motor vehicles and refined petroleum products. Foreign multinationals as a whole were responsible for 56.4% of Canada’s total goods exports that year. These figures help explain why foreign ownership cannot be judged only as a loss of control. Multinationals also provide jobs, capital, export channels, technology and access to continental supply chains. The real policy challenge is preserving those benefits without allowing strategic dependence to become a vulnerability.

Control Is Not the Same as Every Foreign Investment

Statistics Canada’s corporate-control data are narrower than the everyday phrase “foreign ownership.” The program assigns an enterprise to its ultimate country of control and consolidates related corporations into enterprise groups. It excludes several categories, including federal and provincial government business enterprises, management companies, public administration and certain investment funds. Assets are measured at book value, which may differ substantially from market value, particularly for older resource properties or fast-growing technology businesses.

Foreign direct investment is a separate concept. It begins when an investor owns at least 10% of voting equity and therefore includes influential minority stakes that do not amount to corporate control. At the end of 2025, U.S. investors held $737.3 billion, or 46.1%, of Canada’s inward direct-investment stock on the standard immediate-investor basis. That differs from the 53.0% U.S. share of foreign-controlled corporate assets because the datasets measure different relationships, use different coverage and refer to different years. Treating the figures as interchangeable can produce headlines that are dramatic but statistically misleading.

The Policy Question Is Resilience, Not Isolation

Canada already reviews foreign investment through the Investment Canada Act. Significant acquisitions of control can face a net-benefit review, while all foreign investments are potentially subject to national-security review. During the 2024–25 fiscal year, the government conducted 30 extended national-security reviews. The framework reflects a balancing act: Canada wants outside capital, technology and employment, but it also needs safeguards around sensitive data, critical minerals, infrastructure and strategically important supply chains.

The relationship is not one-way. By the end of 2025, Canadian direct investment abroad stood at $2.43 trillion, well above the $1.60 trillion stock of foreign direct investment in Canada. Canadian investors held $1.20 trillion in direct investment in the United States, compared with $737.3 billion flowing the other way on the standard country basis. That does not erase concerns about who controls key Canadian industries, but it shows a deeply integrated two-way system rather than a simple economic takeover. The practical response is greater domestic investment, more diversified trade and financing partners, and clearer conditions ensuring that foreign-controlled firms continue to create jobs, innovate and reinvest in Canada.

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