{"id":656338,"date":"2026-05-08T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656338\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:41:20","slug":"montreal-ramps-up-push-for-nato-bank-as-toronto-battle-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656338\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal ramps up push for NATO bank as Toronto battle heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montreal is rallying its economic forces as its battle with Toronto intensifies over a major new international defence bank.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada announced more than $6 million in new funding for Montr\u00e9al International, the agency tasked with attracting foreign investment and international organizations to the city. It\u2019s also the agency leading the city\u2019s bid for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, backed by an undisclosed group of NATO allies.<\/p>\n

Canada in April learned it would host the institution, which is intended to improve access to financing for companies operating in defence and security sectors often considered too risky by traditional lenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There remains more work to get the multinational bank over the line.<\/p>\n

Four Canadian cities are under consideration: Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and a joint Ottawa-Gatineau bid. In March, Montr\u00e9al International unveiled the city\u2019s bid.<\/p>\n

In recent days, the race between Montreal and Toronto has become more contentious after it was reported that promoters from Toronto, which is pitching itself as Canada\u2019s leading financial hub, had warned federal officials that the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois\u2019 promise to hold a referendum on Quebec independence during a first mandate should count against Montreal\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

That prompted denunciations<\/a> from Quebec political figures.<\/p>\n

Alongside Martinez Ferrada on Friday were the Quebec minister of economy, innovation and energy, Bernard Drainville, Quebec International Relations Minister Christopher Skeete and senior figures from Montreal\u2019s economic development sector, including St\u00e9phane Paquet of Montr\u00e9al International and Isabelle Dessureault, chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.<\/p>\n

The $6-million investment in Montr\u00e9al International will be spread over four years, according to the city, and will largely go toward attracting more artificial intelligence investment, foreign companies and skilled international workers to Montreal.<\/p>\n

The city also confirmed the renewal of a separate recurring annual contribution of $515,000 to Montr\u00e9al International to support efforts to attract and retain international organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMontreal is a bold metropolis, open to the world and looking to the future,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said ahead of the event.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story tip? Write to me at hnorth@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Profile<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tI\u2019ve been writing for the Montreal Gazette since 2023, chasing the biggest stories I can find and always looking for new ways to tell them. I studied economics and computer science at McGill. Now I live in the city\u2019s Plateau, where I wear Doc Martens to blend in among the hipsters. It doesn\u2019t work. Seen something interesting? Email me: hnorth@postmedia.com\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal is rallying its economic forces as its battle with Toronto intensifies over a major new international defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-656338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656338","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=656338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}