Ottawa mayor says city has ‘strong case’ for defence bank headquarters

Ottawa’s mayor says the capital is the right location for the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank as Doug Ford puts his weight behind Toronto.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the city has a strong case to make as it seeks to host a multinational defence bank.

Canada was selected as the country that would headquarter the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), which will provide financing for defence projects by NATO members and allies. Ottawa is competing with other major cities, including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, to be the host city for the bank’s HQ.

On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford again put his support behind Toronto hosting the bank, saying the city has “everything the bank needs,” most notably proximity to Canada’s financial sector. His comments come days after politicians in Quebec said Montreal was the logical choice because of its strong financial and defence industries.

But at a news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sutcliffe said Ottawa and Gatineau also have a lot to offer.

“We’ve been making the case that the defense bank should be in Ottawa-Gatineau. It allows the federal government to situate the bank in our two largest provinces, to situate it near the headquarters of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, to situate it close to the 130 foreign missions that are in our city, and to situate it near Parliament Hill,” he said.

“So, we have a strong case to make. We have a bilingual workforce, an international workforce. We are Canada’s defense innovation hub, and we straddle the border between the two largest provinces in the country.”

Canada’s six biggest banks and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have put their backing behind the project but some groups, such as World Beyond War, the Council of Canadians, and the Canadian Federation of Students, are opposed to Canada hosting the bank, saying it would funnel public money to private arms manufacturers.

Sutcliffe said he respects the case for Toronto, and said no matter where the bank goes, the national capital region will benefit.

“No matter what happens with the bank, we are going to see historic levels of investment from the federal government in defence technology in the months and years ahead. And I think a huge portion of that is going to be invested in the Ottawa-Gatineau area because we have the expertise, the innovation and the companies and talent right here in the national capital region that are driving a lot of the economic activity in that area, and that’s going to continue,” he said.

Earlier this year, Sutcliffe and Gatineau Mayor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette launched a joint task force to advance a shared goal of turning the national capital region into “Canada’s defence innovation hub.”

With files from the Canadian Press.

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