What is the role of Canada in global economic institutions?

Canada participates actively in the major global economic institutions, contributing to and influencing rules that shape trade, finance, and development worldwide. Canada is a founding member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF, established 1945), the World Bank (1944), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1947) and its successor the World Trade Organization (WTO, 1995), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 1961), and the Group of Seven major industrialised nations (G7, founded 1976 with Canada's accession in 1976).

The G7 is Canada's most influential economic forum, bringing together leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Canada has hosted the G7 summit six times, most recently in Kananaskis, Alberta in 2002 and in Charlevoix, Quebec in June 2018. The next Canadian-hosted G7 summit is scheduled for 2025 in Kananaskis. The G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meet several times a year, with the Canadian Finance Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Canada representing Canada.

The G20, founded as a finance-ministers forum in 1999 and elevated to a leaders' forum in 2008, brings together 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union (admitted 2023) representing about 80 per cent of global GDP. Canada participated in the founding of the G20 leaders' summit as part of the response to the 2008 financial crisis. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the World Economic Forum at Davos, and the Boao Forum for Asia round out Canada's regular high-level economic engagement.

Canada's voting share at the IMF is 2.31 per cent and at the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2.78 per cent, reflecting Canada's economic size. Canadians have led both institutions: Donald Macdonald chaired the IMF Interim Committee in the 1980s, and Christine Lagarde was at the IMF when Canadian David Lipton served as First Deputy Managing Director. Canada hosts the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration's Forum on Tax Administration. Mark Carney, the Canadian former Bank of Canada Governor and Bank of England Governor, served as the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance from 2019 to 2024 before entering Canadian federal politics.