How to Retire All Canadians

Canada is rich but feels poor. We have land, forests, oil, water, and smart people. But our wealth is locked up. Projects take decades to approve. Power is expensive. The best people leave.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The way out is not complicated. It’s about removing bottlenecks so compounding can start.

Singapore did this. In the 1960s, Singapore was no richer than Ghana. Today it’s richer than the U.S. The secret was not luck. It was precision. Their leaders picked the leverage points and pulled them hard.

Canada has the same chance. We can be the first country where every person can retire securely. Not because the government promises it, but because we build engines that compound for decades.

1. Power is the foundation

Everything starts with energy. AI and robots are just machines that eat electricity.

Ontario is building the first small modular reactor in the West at Darlington. It costs about $3 billion. First unit comes online in 2029. There’s a plan for four. The obvious move is to build the same design again and again. Not redesign. Not stall. Just replicate.

Cheap, abundant energy is the bedrock of retirement. It lowers costs for households, pulls in data centers and factories, and creates reliable cash flows. Those cash flows can be owned by Canadians. A slice goes into the national retirement fund.

Think of nuclear the way Norway thought about oil. The difference is nuclear doesn’t run out.

2. Compute is the new oil

If energy is the foundation, compute is the export.

AI models are trained on GPUs. Whoever owns the GPUs, owns the future. Right now, that’s the U.S.

Canada should build two giant GPU clusters. They’re like sovereign AI brains. Startups and schools rent them at cost. Global firms can use them too, but only if they pay more and base teams here. The rent and royalties go straight into the fund.

If you want to anchor talent and investment, don’t beg. Own the scarce resource and price it wisely. That’s what Saudi Arabia did with oil. That’s what Canada can do with compute.

3. Talent is the multiplier

The best companies come from the best people. Right now Canada makes them wait years for visas. That’s insane.

Fix it with one rule: two-week visas for AI, robotics, and energy experts. Six-month permanent residency if they join or start a company here. If they start a company, let them keep the first $10 million in equity tax-free.

This flips the flow of talent. Instead of leaving, the best come here. And when they build, the wealth compounds in Canada.

4. Robots in the wild

Robots don’t get good in labs. They get good in real life.

Canada should be the first country to deploy humanoid robots at scale. Buy 100,000 units for hospitals, elder care, and logistics. Pick two cities—Winnipeg and Halifax—and make them robot sandboxes.

Government should act as the first buyer, but take warrants in return. If these companies succeed globally, citizens share the upside.

This does two things. It lowers costs at home and seeds a robotics industry Canada can export.

5. Kids are the compounding bet

The long game is education. By 2027, every 12-year-old should know how to code, how to use AI, and the basics of energy.

Parents get tax credits for AI tutors. Teachers who upskill get permanent raises. Over one generation, you raise the baseline. A country where everyone can build doesn’t stay poor.

The Fund

The profits from these engines (nuclear, compute, robotics) flow into one national fund.

The rule is simple: never spend more than 4% a year. Let the rest grow.

Seed it with $100 billion over the first few years. Grow it with royalties and warrants. In 25 years, it could be worth a couple trillion. That’s enough to pay every Canadian a few thousand dollars a year, forever.

This is what Norway did with oil. We can do it with power and compute.

Overflow

The goal is not just to retire Canadians. It’s to fill the cup until it spills over. When everyone here is secure, we can help others. We can welcome builders from struggling countries. We can export cheap energy and compute. We can show other nations how to do the same.

Abundance at home creates generosity abroad.