The FP500: Your guide to corporate Canada in 2026

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Welcome to the fold

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There were 35 newcomers to the FP500, 11 of which, unsurprisingly, were either precious metals mining companies or, in the case of Stracon Group Holding Inc. (No. 355), a mining infrastructure and solutions platform.

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In November 2025, Stracon completed a cross-border merger with Peru’s Stracon Holdings SA and debuted on the TSX the following month. It was also a significant year for No. 385 Discovery Mining Ltd. (formerly Discovery Silver), which acquired the Porcupine Complex located in and around Timmins, Ont., transforming the company into a major gold producer.  

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The newbies were led by Sysco Canada Inc., the Canadian branch of food distributor Sysco Corp., at No. 79, pharmaceutical giant Apotex Health Corp. at No. 161 and pork producer Canada Packers Inc. at No. 258.

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The latter, which has headquarters in Mississauga, Ont., was spun off from parent Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October.

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Another notable entrant is VIA Rail Canada Inc. (No. 486), which scooted up 35 places to return to the top 500. The Crown corporation boosted its revenue by 8.1 per cent to $489.4 million in 2025 despite no change in its ridership numbers.

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IMAX Corp., meanwhile, climbed 44 places to No. 460 after recording US$1.2 billion in revenue. 

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Money pit

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The top 10 real estate firms on the FP500 made about $231.5 million on total revenue of $33.4 billion last year, but three of the nine that reported profits lost money.

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Toronto-based H&R Real Estate Investment Trust (No. 397) lost the most, about $791.6 million, on revenue of $815.1 million, amid market uncertainty and massive writedowns of its real estate assets. Perhaps as a result of its lacklustre performance, H&R REIT recently agreed to sell all its assets to GO Residential Real Estate Investment Trust for around $6.7 billion in August.

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One real estate company that took an even worse drubbing was urban office space owner-operator Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (No. 454), which lost $1.3 billion, more than double its revenue of $592.4 million. The workspace REIT was in a world of pain last year due to the slower-than-anticipated post-pandemic recovery in the office market. 

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It wasn’t just real estate going through a rough patch. Canada Post Corp. (No. 75) continued its losing streak with a $1.1-billion loss last year on revenue of $9.2 billion. Plummeting demand for letter mail and stiff competition from private delivery giants have meant even financial bailouts from the feds aren’t enough to bail out the Crown corporation.

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Frontera Energy Corp. (No. 301) posted the largest loss of nearly $1.5 billion as the price of crude plunged amid a global surplus, coupled with a non-cash impairment related to the divestment of its Colombian exploration and production assets and a dispute with the Guyana government over rights to retain an offshore block. 

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Foreign control falling

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Eighteen of Canada’s largest 100 companies are foreign controlled, a ratio that rises to one in five when looking at the top 250 companies. An even 30 of the top 50 foreign companies have parent companies in the U.S., five of which are owned by companies in the United Kingdom and three by Japanese companies, with one, Iron Ore Co. of Canada (No. 204), owned by the U.K.’s Rio Tinto PLC and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. 

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The biggest foreign player on the FP500 is Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. Photo by Postmedia

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However, the share of Canadian assets owned by foreign-controlled enterprises has declined by 7.3 per cent since 2010, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent report in June. More than 86 per cent, or about $16.2 trillion, of the country’s assets were owned by Canadians in 2024, and they posted a higher year-over-year increase in asset value growth at 5.6 per cent than the foreign-controlled enterprises’ 1.5 per cent. Foreign-controlled assets were valued at $2.6 trillion in 2024, with the U.S. boasting the biggest share at 55.9 per cent, followed by Japan at 8.6 per cent and the U.K. at 6.6 per cent. However, assets controlled by enterprises from the Americas excluding Canada grew 6.9 per cent in 2024, at a faster pace than in 2023.