Prime Minister Mark Carney unveils $18 billion Canadian investment fund

TORONTO (AP) — Canada is developing a government-owned investment fund, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Monday.

Carney said the fund will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology. It will begin at 25 billion Canadian dollars ($18 billion).

The prime minister said the federal government will put up funds alongside private investors. The money will help fund projects Carney's government is focused on building as Canada seeks to diversify away from the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most offensively by claiming Canada could be “the 51st state.”

Carney is former two-time central banker in England and Canada as well as chair of the board of directors for Bloomberg.

“We take a lesson from other jurisdictions that had the foresight many decades ago to start sovereign wealth funds,” Carney said, “In some cases they began with a domestic focus then outgrew the scale of the domestic focus.”

Sovereign wealth funds invest in assets such as stocks, bonds and real estate. They are typically funded by a country’s budgetary surplus, which Canada currently does not have. The announcement comes a day before the Carney government announces its spring economic update.

There are over 90 sovereign wealth funds around the world that manage over $8 trillion in assets, according to The International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, a London-based organization made up of roughly 50 of these entities.

Trump ordered the creation of U.S. sovereign wealth fund last year. In the U.S., more than 20 sovereign wealth funds exist at the state level, according to an analysis by the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank.

Prime Minister Mark Carney responds to a question during an event in Ottawa on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Fans will be allowed to attend the remaining games of the Pakistan Super League after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday approved spectators for three playoff matches.

It comes two days after Sharif approved a request from franchise owners to allow fans for the PSL’s May 3 final in Lahore.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also interior minister in the government, announced the decision on social media after his meeting with Sharif in Islamabad.

He wrote on X that Sharif wanted the fans to “use public transport or minimize fuel consumption while attending the matches, in line with the ongoing national austerity efforts.”

Pakistan’s biggest sports spectacle of the year started behind closed doors late last month with fans asked to stay home because of soaring fuel prices related to the Iran war.

Pakistan’s government had urged people to restrict travel and to work from home and Naqvi had said it wouldn’t be right to have 30,000 fans attending cricket matches every day while the government is asking the public to stay home.

The PCB also reduced the number of PSL venues from six to two as part of austerity measures, but barred spectators from PSL games at Lahore and Karachi.

Peshawar Zalmi, led by Babar Azam, will take on three-time champions Islamabad United in the qualifier at Karachi on Tuesday with the winner advancing to the final.

The loser faces the winner of Wednesday's eliminator between first-timers Hyderabad Kingsmen and Multan Sultans on May 1 for the second spot in the finale, with all three of those matches in Lahore.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

FILE - A view of the Gaddafi Stadium, where opening cricket match of the Pakistan Super League between Lahore Qalandars and Hyderabad Kingsmen, is taking place without spectators, in Lahore, Pakistan, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)