{"id":353025,"date":"2025-12-18T10:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T10:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/353025\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T10:10:08","slug":"doug-ford-endorses-toronto-as-potential-headquarters-for-multinational-defence-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/353025\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Ford endorses Toronto as potential headquarters for multinational defence bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has already begun the process of looking for office space in Toronto for the bank if the city is chosen as its permanent home.Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> has endorsed Toronto as his pick for the headquarters of a new multinational bank dedicated to financing defence projects, if Canada is confirmed as host nation for the institution. <\/p>\n

Toronto<\/a> is one of a handful of Canadian cities, including Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, pitching itself as the ideal place to headquarter the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank being established by NATO members and their Indo-Pacific allies. <\/p>\n

If the bank lands in Canada, it\u2019s expected to create 3,500 jobs in defence<\/a> finance, according to Kevin Reed, president of the bank\u2019s development group. Participation in the bank would also be a sea change for Canada, where financial institutions have traditionally shunned the defence sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory will view 2025 as the year that our allied capital markets and banks swung full force supporting defence and security,\u201d Mr. Reed said at a news conference in Toronto, where Mr. Ford made his announcement Wednesday. <\/p>\n

A fighting chance: How Canada can beef up its defences and grow its economy at the same time<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the eagerness of some of Canada\u2019s largest cities, the federal government has yet to confirm the country\u2019s participation in the DSRB and whether it will take on a leadership role. <\/p>\n

The multilateral lending institution is expected to be established by as many as 40 member nations, 12 of which will be tasked with ratifying and governing the bank\u2019s founding charter and choosing the location of its headquarters. Those 12 countries, or anchor nations, are still unknown. <\/p>\n

Germany, however, has turned down the idea, with a finance ministry<\/a> spokesperson telling Reuters earlier this month that the government rejects creating more financing instruments for the arms sector.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ford said he had already begun the process of looking for office space in Toronto for the bank if the city is chosen as its permanent home.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Martin: 2025 will rank as one of Canada\u2019s great nation-building years<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf Toronto is selected as the host city, every part of the country will be better off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ford\u2019s endorsement of Toronto comes amid a heavy campaign by Ottawa-Gatineau, or the National Capital Region, to host the bank. Last week, retired general Rick Hillier was appointed honorary chair of the task force leading the region\u2019s bid for the bank\u2019s headquarters. <\/p>\n

Not to be left out of the bidding war, Vancouver<\/a> has also thrown its hat into the ring to headquarter the bank if it lands in Canada. British Columbia Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> on Tuesday expressing his support for the city, pointing to the area\u2019s fintech and cybersecurity sectors, temperate climate and ties to the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday expressing his support for Vancouver to headquarter the bank if it lands in Canada.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

If the decision were being made by Ottawa, Mr. Kahlon said he would be less optimistic about B.C.\u2019s chances of landing the headquarters. But since it\u2019s a multinational institution with more than one country involved in the decision-making process, he said the province won\u2019t shy away from the chance to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communication isn\u2019t necessarily only with the Prime Minister. We\u2019re in direct contact with the bank and the officials that are making decisions and what we\u2019ve heard from them is that they\u2019re looking for a jurisdiction that has strong contacts with Asia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kahlon and Mr. Ford confirmed that the federal government has yet to confirm Canada\u2019s leadership role in the bank. But the desire for it to happen is clear, Mr. Kahlon said, and that\u2019s why Canadian cities are already pitching themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are jurisdictions outside of Canada that will be vying for it, but it\u2019s better to be prepared,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In November, Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault confirmed Montreal\u2019s bid for the headquarters during their first news conference together.<\/p>\n

Landing the headquarters of the bank could position Canada as a global defence finance capital, Mr. Reed said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The country is already making some strides in defence financing, with the Business Development Bank of Canada \u2013 a federal Crown corporation \u2013 tasked with helping<\/a> smaller firms looking to contribute to Canadian defence access capital. On Wednesday, BDC announced it would deploy up to $4-billion in financing, advisory services and investments to support Canada\u2019s defence industry, particularly small to medium-sized businesses.<\/p>\n

The majority of the funds, $3.5-billion, will go toward helping Canadian businesses participate in and build capacity for major defence contracts. The other $500-million will be largely delivered through investments in the StrongNorth Fund, a new defence-technology-focused venture capital fund, and the Catalyst Innovation Fund, which is intended to support defence startups. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Canada should craft its own national-security policy<\/a><\/p>\n

BDC said this funding will count toward Canada\u2019s goal to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.<\/p>\n

Further details about the DSRB\u2019s anchor nations, headquarters and founding charter are expected to come out as early as January, in line with the goal of establishing the bank by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

The blueprint for the DSRB was laid out last year by Rob Murray, the chief executive officer of the bank\u2019s development group. Mr. Murray is also the founding architect of NATO\u2019s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, as well as its Innovation Fund.<\/p>\n

A handful of institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan Chase & Co., ING Group NV, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank AG and Landesbank Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, have already signed on to help establish the DSRB. Mr. Reed said he expects to be able to announce more banking partners soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has already begun the process of looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,6347,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-353025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-ne-i","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}