Today Canada is the seventh-largest economy. Many companies are owned by private entities, however, the government participate in the health-care system as well as supervises some services, such as public transportation and utility industries. The Canadian economy is quite diverse and quite well-developed.

The biggest part of the Canadian economy is international trade and export. Currently the U.S.A. is Canada’s biggest trade partner. In Canada international trade accounts for nearly 45% of the GDP, considering the fact that free trade agreements between Canada and the U.S. have dramatically increased trade by eliminating custom duties. Despite quite small size of its population, the Canadian economy is currently one of the most blossoming in the world.

Every of the country’s strategic industries are extremely well-developed. Even though the agricultural sector is small, it utilizes advantage of the Canada’s numerous natural resources scattered all around the country. Considering all that Canada is an attractive destination for global businessmen and corporations. Canadian flexible tax legislation provides room for utilization of the holding structures: the country hosts several big holdings.

ATCO group
ATCO group is a one of the biggest Canadian holding companies, having big net turnover and assets. Today this corporation employs almost 7 000 specialists of different professions. Holding’s subsidiary companies are diverse, but most of them are in either the gas / electricity or construction industries.

ATCO was founded in 1947, by S. Don Southern who gave a minority stake to his son Ron Southern, under the name Alberta Trailer Hire, renting fifteen utility trailers in the Calgary area.[3] As the company’s operations grew, they also began to sell trailers, first becoming the Alberta Trailer Company, then ATCO. By the early 1960s, the company had operations across North America and in Australia.

In 2004, with the deregulation of the retail energy industry in Alberta, ATCO sold the retail operations of ATCO Gas and ATCO Electric to Direct Energy Marketing Ltd.; ATCO Gas and ATCO Electric still operate as distributors (owning and operating the infrastructure that delivers natural gas or electricity in its service territories) but are no longer in the retail market. As part of the sale to DEML, DEML contracted call center and billing services from ATCO I-Tek.

DRI Capital
DRI Capital Inc. is a local Toronto-based Canadian healthcare royalty fund manager, a kind of private fund. Holding company’s scope of duties includes purchasing robust and predictable royalty streams from already existing pharmaceutical medicine, thus, providing constant profit to the investors.

The holding was established back in year 1992. During first year of conducting business activity it quickly went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange and acquired a royalty interest in the innovative British biotechnology development company.

Great-West Lifeco
Great-West Lifeco is mostly an insurance oriented Canadian holding company, operating on the territory of North America, Europe and Asia using 5 local subsidiaries around the world. Most of the businesses Great-West Lifeco has indirect control over are part of its largest subsidiary: The Great-West Life Assurance Company; the rest are supervised by the located in the United States subsidiary branch.

Onex Corporation
Onex Corporation is a private owned equity investment company and holding structure located not far from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In year 2016, the company had estimated $22 billion worth of net assets under its management. The company is headquartered in the Brookfield Place, Toronto, with several branches in New York City, New Jersey, and London.

The firm invests in a wide array of industries. Onex Corporation previously has demonstrated a specific interest in acquiring equity shares of the high-cost manufacturing industry companies and subsequently turning them into cheap, low cost suppliers.