According to Pitcher Partners, Canadian investment in Australia rose by nearly 13.8% to just under A$50 billion in 2017, above the average annual growth in investment of 10% a year over the past five years.
Mining is by far the biggest Canadian business investment in Australia, with the most recent figures in 2014-15 showing Australia was home to 46 Canadian-owned mines.
Western Australia was particularly in the sights for Canadian miners, according to Bryan Hughes, Pitcher Partners Perth executive chairman and International Natural Resources Group chairman for global accountancy and advisory network Baker Tilly.
"Superior Gold has one of WA's biggest gold mines in Plutonic, Novo Resources has attracted a lot of attention with its gold play in the Pilbara, and Macarthur Minerals has iron ore, gold and nickel operations in the State as well — all listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange," he said.
Two of Canada's market darlings - Kirkland Lake Gold and RNC Minerals - owe their success to Australian gold mines.
In the case of RNC, it made global headlines after recovering 30,000-35,000 ounces of gold from the Beta Hunt mine in Kambalda in just three weeks - more than a third of the mine's preciously forecast 2018 production.
Toronto-listed RNC is now considering an ASX listing.
Hughes said the find had further highlighted the growing mining ties between Australia and Canada, but called on the ASX and TSX to do more to support juniors.
While the two exchanges have been the traditional hunt grounds for juniors seeking funding, Hughes said small explorers no longer felt as welcome as they once did.
"My concern with both the ASX and TSX is that resources are not their main game, and junior resource companies need to understand how to compete in the capital markets," he said.
"TSX capital flows for juniors has been scarcer and we have seen capital diverted to tech and medical marijuana, while the ASX seems to be trying to regulate the small-end miners out of existence."
Hughes said both exchanges needed to nurture juniors for the longer-term strength of their markets.
"They need to give them access to capital as the miners either grow into larger and stronger companies or do the groundwork on projects that feed into the big end of town," he said.
"The junior end of the market is more speculative, and this can and should attract a different pool of capital. Both exchanges need to be constantly working on their sources of capital, and how they expand those sources to match the growing number of companies listed on their exchanges."
Following the success of Pitcher Partners' annual resources lunch in Perth every August, Baker Tilly will be discussing the drivers of the international resources sector during a panel discussion to be held at the TSX on October 25.
The event, which will include a number of international speakers, will look at the challenge of navigating the global waters — including how to find a port to call home.
Hughes said the appeal of one exchange over another was often based on the perception of how easy it would be to access capital or how well the market might support the listed company.
"It can also depend on where the company and its key personnel are based and where they have relationships," he said.
"The location of a project may also have some impact, for example, a South American project may be better received and understood on the TSX, and easier to operate given time zones.
"But the resources sector is now global, the world is becoming much smaller, so I think we will see the exchanges competing more and more."
