Canada’s active exchange-traded fund industry is growing fast, supported by demand from investors and increased competition by ETF providers. Morningstar’s recently published 2025 Canadian Active ETF Landscape report shows significant changes in the active ETF industry since 2015.
BMO Global Asset Management, Global X, iShares, and CI Investments—dominant players a decade ago—have maintained strong positions. BMO established a foothold in derivative income and quantitative ETFs, and iShares offers a range of lower-cost target risk ETFs. Global X and CI attracted significant assets in convenient cash-focused ETFs.
Over the last decade, firms like Vanguard, National Bank Investments, and Fidelity have also emerged as leading active ETF providers. Vanguard’s 2018 entry, with its low-cost and simple lineup of funds, attracted significant attention. National Bank has emphasized traditional actively managed ETFs and thematic strategies like the C$2.9 billion NBI Sustainable Canadian Bond ETF. Fidelity’s growth was driven by a combination of low-cost target risk strategies and ETF series of its existing mutual fund range.
But competition in the industry is fierce. Other providers have grown massively, shifting from less than 1% of industry assets in 2015 to 21% as of March 2025. Other providers with more than C$2 billion in assets as of March 2025 include Harvest Portfolios, Mackenzie Investments, Hamilton Capital, PIMCO, CIBC Asset Management, Evolve Funds, Manulife, and Dynamic Funds.
Low-cost target risk strategies and cash-focused strategies were the most popular among Canadian investors, with iShares, Vanguard, and Global X receiving the top flows. Despite higher fees, active fixed-income ETFs like Pimco Monthly Income ETF and NBI Unconstrained Fixed Income ETF have also attracted large asset bases.
Several providers offer mutual funds that invest all their assets in active ETFs, which improves investor access for those who can’t trade ETFs directly and helps boost the ETFs’ assets.
Bank-owned providers—including 1832 Asset Management, TD Asset Management, RBC Global Asset Management, CIBC Asset Management, and BMO—were responsible for more than a third of new listings over the last year ended March 2025.
Over the last year, BMO, RBC, and TD all listed target maturity fixed-income active ETFs, while Mackenzie and Manulife introduced a mix of quantitative and traditional active strategies. There were two new entrants from the United States: Capital Group, which listed ETFs similar to its existing active mutual funds, and JP Morgan Asset Management, which listed active equity and derivative income strategies.
The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.
