[7] 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.
[13] 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.
[23][24] The Century Initiative has also been written about by columnists including Andrew Coyne,[25] Terence Corcoran,[26] and Doug Saunders, who subsequently authored the book Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough.
[37] 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.
[39] 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.
[42][43] 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.
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.