# Century Initiative

The Century Initiative is a Canadian lobby group that aims to increase Canada's population to 100 million by 2100. 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).
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. The Initiative was supported by former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and by influential Liberal Party advisors including advisors to former Minister of Finance Bill Morneau. 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.

## 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.
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; 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.
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.
The organization intends to reach its population goal through a massive increase in immigration and by investing in economic development around megaregions.
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.

## Board Members

In 2024, the 9 official leaders of the Century Initiative group were:
| Name | Position | Profile |
| Lisa Lalande | Chief Executive Officer | Former Director of the Mowat NFP Centre at the University of Toronto |
| Mark D. Wiseman | Chair of the Board of Directors | Co-founder of the Century Initiative One of BlackRock's most senior executives Member of the World Economic Forum |
| Thomas V. Milroy | Member 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 Hyder | Member of the Board of Directors | Has led the Business Council of Canada since 2018. The organization, formerly known as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, says it is composed of representatives from over 170 leading Canadian companies. Former Conservative Party strategist who has been a close associate of Stephen Harper. |
| Tareq Hadhad | Member 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 | Senator from Ontario since 2016 - Nominated by Justin Trudeau. Originally from India, she lived in Iran until the Islamic Revolution. |
| Muraly Srinarayanathas | Member 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 Szabo | Member 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."
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:
* "Successfully convenes Canadian leaders in the public, social, and private sectors to work collaboratively in its achievement;"
* "Catalyzes action to nurture and advance Canada’s strengths as a nation by leveraging best practices, scholarly research, and building on the work of active partners on the ground;" and
* "Develops a roadmap for success to drive transformative impact over the long-term."
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,
   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."
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, 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.
The Century Initiative has also been written about by columnists including Andrew Coyne, Terence Corcoran, and Doug Saunders, who subsequently authored the book Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough.

## Controversies and critiques
### McKinsey & Company involvement

Multiple founders and affiliates of the organization have been employed by McKinsey & Company, a multinational consulting firm. 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.
Dominic Barton, co-founded Century Initiative when he was the head of McKinsey & Company. 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.
Aleema Jamal, the inaugural executive director of the foundation, was also previously employed by McKinsey.
In 2016, four of the organization's five volunteers were employed by McKinsey. Also that year, one third of the initiative's manpower was employed or formerly employed by McKinsey & Company.

### 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. BlackRock owns $35 billion in real estate and thus will benefit from a real-estate bubble.
BlackRock's Alternative Investment division includes the firm's international real estate investment portfolio and is reported to be actively purchasing single family homes. 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.

### 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. 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. Quebec's premier François Legault is officially opposed to this plan and stated that "it constitutes a threat to Quebec." The Parti Québécois party is opposed to the plan as well.

## 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.
| Mega-region | 2016 population (million) | 2100 population goal (million) | Population change |
| Greater Vancouver | 3.3 | 11.9 | +261% |
| Calgary–Edmonton | 2.8 | 15.5 | +454% |
| Winnipeg Metro | 0.8 | 1.7 | +113% |
| SW Ontario | 1.2 | 2.0 | +67% |
| Greater Toronto | 8.8 | 33.5 | +281% |
| Greater Montreal | 4.4 | 12.2 | +177% |
| National Capital | 1.4 | 4.8 | +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.