Family offices are becoming power players in Canada's investment space, according to the 2025 mid-year Canadian M&A update report published by PwC Canada.
The values of deals involving Canadian family offices soared by over 16 percent from 2023 to 2024; this follows a slump in 2021. The report pointed to club deals, impact investing, and direct investments as major factors into this uptick.
Twenty-three percent of investments by Canadian family offices were structured as club deals last year. In such deals, family offices are co-investors; thus, they gain access to greater opportunities and are able to divide risk. These types of deals are trending internationally.
At the same time, Canadian family offices exceeded the 50 percent threshold for allocating capital to investments that have a measurable social or environmental impact alongside financial returns - in line with national priorities like productivity, innovation, and affordable housing.
Worldwide, family offices are also directly investing in private equity, startups or M&A businesses; currently, such investments make up 70 percent of international activity. By contrast, 69 percent of Canadian family offices invested in real estate - the report suggested that this reflects possible opportunities for investment portfolio diversification.
US-Canada ties
Having lower tariffs than countries like China has been a boon for Canadian exporters, helping them to maintain or expand US market share.
"The current negotiations between Canada and the United States, which benefit from Canada's new vision, may further strengthen Canada's relative trade position with the United States," said Michael Dobner, national leader of economics and policy practice at PwC Canada, in a statement.
He noted that Canada's current policy "focuses on building a stronger, more self-reliant economy," which he said helps cultivate a "more constructive and complementary relationship with the US" that is centered on shared interests instead of dependency.
PwC Canada presented the policy priorities moulding Canada's new vision, including streamlining regulations, initiating large-scale infrastructure projects, increasing investment in defence and Arctic development, removing interprovincial trade barriers, fast-tracking the integration of artificial intelligence, and changing the immigration system to focus on attracting highly skilled individuals to Canada. These priorities focus on productivity and competition concerns; if addressed, the initiatives would help Canada be more active in North American supply chains and innovation ecosystems.
The country's economic outlook could get a significant boost if early policy actions are regarded by market players as "genuine, practical and decisive," as per PwC Canada. It said all levels of government play a key part in delivering such signals in the near future.
Canadian organizations reported making 996 deals with a total value of $134 billion from January 2025 to May 2025. The report highlighted a drop in inbound and locally sourced transactions in Canada.
PwC predicts a Canadian GDP growth baseline of under 1 percent for 2025.