OECD (2025), OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Canada 2025, OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/fcd70ea1-en.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members’ development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements.

How can Canada’s integrated approach to development co-operation evolve to meet its commitments to development effectiveness, gender equality and innovative finance? This is the central question the 2025 DAC peer review of Canada aims to answer. A champion of gender equality, Canada is recognised for the quality of its support to local women’s rights organisations. While Canada is committed to development effectiveness, the review emphasises the need to better incorporate local perspectives. It also examines options for maintaining development expertise and strengthening policy coherence, drawing on the unique strengths of a Ministry that combines trade, development and foreign affairs. Additionally, it offers actionable recommendations to accelerate the mobilisation of private finance.

OECD (2023), Open Government Scan of Canada: Designing and Implementing an Open Government Strategy, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1290a7ef-en.

The Open Government Scan of Canada provides an evidence-based assessment of the governance of Canada’s efforts to foster transparency, accountability and citizen participation against key provisions of the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Open Government. The Scan seeks to support Canada in its ambition to design the country’s first holistic and integrated Open Government Strategy. It includes recommendations for strengthening the governance of Canada's open government agenda in the short, medium and long term. OECD Open Government Scans are short, tailored policy reviews that focus on specific key priorities of the commissioning government.

OECD (2025), OECD Economic Surveys: Canada 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/28f9e02c-en.

Canada's macroeconomic framework is robust, supported by strong public finances and a well-capitalised banking sector. However, the economy faces significant headwinds from tariffs with the United States. High household mortgage debt remains another vulnerability, and high debt service costs weigh on household finances. There is also room to improve the efficiency of the tax structure. Housing affordability has been declining over recent years. Policies to boost housing supply, such as allowing higher density housing and expediting the permitting process, should be strengthened. Additional support should focus on social and affordable housing. While Canada has a comprehensive carbon pricing system that should be preserved, including the fuel charge for consumers, additional policies are needed to adapt to climate risks.
These include improving risk disclosure, preventing land development in risk-prone areas, enhancing infrastructure resilience, and strengthening insurance coverage. Canada's labour productivity performance lags its peers. Boosting productivity requires a combination of policies, including rebalancing R&D support, reducing regulatory barriers in internal markets, enhancing competition and digitalisation of the economy, and fully utilising women's skills.

OECD (2024), FDI Qualities Review of Canada: Accelerating Inclusive and Sustainable Growth, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/273d99ec-en.

This report provides an assessment of how foreign direct investment (FDI) contributes to Canada’s sustainable development, particularly in the areas of trade, productivity and innovation employment, job quality and skills, diversity and inclusion, and the low-carbon transition. It provides initial policy considerations on how investment promotion and facilitation can improve such impacts.

“International Finance Corporation. 2024. IFC and Canada, Partners in Private Sector Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41198 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO .”

Canada has been an active member of the World Bank Group for over six decades through its thought leadership and financial support. Over the last ten years (2013-2023), IFC’s total financing in projects globally with Canadian clients and project sponsors totaled over 5.1 billion, of which 1.7 billion was IFC’s own account and 3.4 billion was in mobilization with other financing partners. The majority of funding was in oil, gas and mining, followed by electric power. Canada is one of IFC’s largest donors, supporting IFC’s investments and advisory services in all regions and across many sectors with a focus on climate, gender, agribusiness, and improving investment climate. Canada is a significant contributor to IFC's blended finance programs across all sectors and themes, in particular climate finance, with cumulative signed contributions of 702 million. Canada has also been actively supporting IFC Advisory Services with cumulative signed contributions 294 million as of June 30, 2023.

Alexander Amundsen, Amélie Lafrance-Cooke, and Danny Leung. "Firm Performance, Business Supports and Zombification over the Pandemic", IMF Working Papers 2025, 029 (2025), accessed June 16, 2025, https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400298776.001

Did the COVID-19 pandemic zombify the economy? Commentators have pointed to the pandemic and related business support measures potentially fueling zombification. Using administrative data covering the universe of Canadian firms, we find a broad-based decline in the share of zombie firms across industries relative to pre-pandemic levels. Whereas business support measures kept firms alive and operating as non-zombie firms, the decline in the zombie firm share was caused by would-be zombie firms exiting, indicative of the pandemic’s cleansing effects. As a consequence, while aggregate labour productivity worsened in Canada over the pandemic, it was not driven by zombie firms.