Blog Post
Canadian sovereignty starts on Main Street
Trying to pinpoint the source of discontent and insecurity in Canada today is tricky. It’s both intensely personal to individuals and shared as communities at the same time.
You might be a restaurant owner forced to put your business up for sale, a young graduate feeling the rent squeeze while trying to find full time employment, or getting older and realizing decades of work doesn’t add up to a secure retirement. Added to your personal burden, a walk around your small town or city reminds you of housing and food insecurity, and mental health challenges for so many.
Economic anxiety is high and nation building policy announcements feel dislocated from your every day. Part of the solution is closer than you think. There is a growing network of financial actors working across Canada that are helping relieve these stresses and meet needs with real and meaningful outcomes. The network of activity is called community finance and we have considerable evidence to demonstrate its critical role in a safer and more resilient country.
The federal government is meeting this time of geopolitical volatility with a sovereignty agenda, but its agenda is incomplete. A strong Canada is built through thousands of projects in neighbourhoods, towns, cities, and regions with the capital tools to build, own, adapt, and thrive.
Sovereignty is found in communities where workers are housed, where food and energy systems hold up under stress, and where wealth generated in Canadian communities stays in Canadian hands.
Community finance is investment and lending that is locally grounded and identity based, mission-driven, and designed to generate both financial returns and positive community outcomes. It is a major economic force, representing $771.3 billion in total assets and $7.3 billion in assets under management, excluding credit unions.
Canada has a diverse network of 768 community finance institutions including community loan funds, Indigenous Financial Institutions, Community Futures organizations, credit unions, investment co-operatives, and community bond issuers; all investing where the big banks will not.
Community finance shows up in institutions like Thrive Impact Fund in BC providing financing to non-profits, co-operatives, and social enterprises. It comes alive in the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, helping Black business owners access capital investments, working capital, or additional business resources. It looks like the Sinew Impact Fund: a non-profit $10 million impact fund designed to deploy capital to Indigenous entrepreneurs from the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.
Our deep economic analysis confirms that every $10 million deployed into the community sector produces an average of 158 full-time-equivalent jobs. This is a vital sector of the Canadian economy, which is often unable to access capital through traditional lenders, and the sector most served by community finance. Every $1 deployed generates approximately $1.20 in GDP and $0.85 in Canadian wages with jobs rooted in local economies and connected to housing, food, childcare, climate solutions, and small business.
A federal community investment tax incentive of roughly $50 million annually could mobilize close to $900 million in community investment, or $17.50 to $19.30 per federal dollar.
Canada has a long and uneven history with community finance. For decades, there has been a recurring recognition that communities need access to specialized, patient, and accessible capital to solve local problems, and that community finance institutions are effective at doing so.
This recognition, however, has not been matched by the creation of the enabling laws, institutions, funding mechanisms, and policy infrastructure that make such systems work in peer jurisdictions.
To scale the work of community finance intermediaries, there are tools available today like tax incentives, loan guarantees, accreditation, and the participation of Crown corporations, pensions, and banks to expand local investment and build resilient economies.
A $250 million Community Finance Institution capitalization fund could generate approximately $523 million in total economic output, $301 million in GDP, $213 million in labour income, and 3,939 full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs across the Canadian economy.
Strengthening the Canadian economy is more fundamental now than ever before, and doing so requires strong and resilient local economies.
A comprehensive Community Finance Strategy, as outlined by Catalyst Community Finance for the federal government, would move Canada from isolated success stories to a connected national system that is capable of mobilizing billions in private and community investment, creating jobs, accelerating housing solutions, supporting entrepreneurs, advancing reconciliation, and strengthening local economies.
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This Op-Ed was originally featured in The Hill Times on September 7th, 2026.
Co-authored by: Simon Marmura Brown, PhD Strategic Director, Research and Knowledge Mobilization at the University of New Brunswick’s Pond-Deshpande Centre and lead author of Unlocking Capital: The Economic Case for Canadian Community Finance; Jo Reynolds – Co-Manager, Catalyst Community Finance, and Michelle Baldwin – Co-Executive Director of Impact United Academy.
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