Neil Malik
The battle for NATO’s new bank HQ, part 2
The battle for NATO’s new bank HQ, part 2
Image: Alejandro Luengo, Unsplash, Asif Ali, Unsplash
The Topline
- Canada was chosen over 40 other countries as the future location for the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB)
- The DSRB will be an international financial institution that loans money to NATO countries needing financing to boost their defence capabilities
- For example, if a NATO country needs a multibillion-dollar loan to purchase new fighter jets, it could borrow from the DSRB at a lower interest rate than other lenders
- The federal government will decide the Canadian city for the bank’s headquarters, with plans for it to open before the end of this year
- Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa-Gatineau are actively campaigning to be the home of the DSRB and its 3,500 jobs
Part 2 highlights Vancouver and Ottawa-Gatineau’s case to be the DSRB’s home city. Earlier this week, in part 1 , we profiled Montreal and Toronto, the two other cities that have submitted bids.
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Switch sides,
back and forth
North America’s most livable city
Everything the DSRB wants, we’ve got it.
I paraphrased a bit, but that was essentially B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon’s message to reporters at Web Summit Vancouver yesterday.
Looking at Vancouver’s pitch book , “it” means location, location, location.
Yes, Vancouver is farther from Europe — but closer to the Indo-Pacific and Asia.
With overlapping trading hours and foreign exchange operations, Vancouver “offers the most balanced and globally synchronized operating window of any major Canadian city.”
It’s the only city where you can do same-day business with Europe, North America, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
The DSRB might just want that. Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, and South Korea make up “the fastest-growing theatre for allied defence, security, and resilience cooperation.”
The key takeaway: it’s better for the DSRB to be closer to the factories and supply chains in Asia where its funds might actually be spent, rather than near other financial markets.
If you know you’re competing against Bay Street or Parliament Hill, that’s a smart argument to make.
The Skytrax World Airport Awards have named Vancouver International Airport the best airport in North America, 15 out of the last 17 years. That’s more times than any other airport.
We’ve all seen the photos . Vancouver’s mild climate and proximity to nature is good for employee recruitment and retention.
Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Vancouver the most livable city in North America when looking at factors like health care, education, stability, infrastructure, and environment.
That could be why Vancouver’s pitch says nearly 90% of graduates remain in the province, reducing churn and execution risk for the DSRB.
There’s also an “unspoken” advantage to Vancouver, not mentioned in the book. Workers in Vancouver earn less on average than those in Toronto and Ottawa, according to Statistics Canada.
While that’s admittedly not great for employees, it’s good for the DSRB.
Unlike the other cities, Vancouver’s pitch names two downtown towers with office space ready and available.
Both towers are modern, located in the heart of downtown, and easily connected to several forms of transit. Meanwhile, the airport is only 20 minutes away by rapid transit.
If the DSRB wants a city that puts livability for its 3,500 employees at the top of the list, Vancouver’s the clear winner.
Where the policymakers are
If Toronto is Canada’s financial hub, and Montreal is Canada’s international organization hub, what’s left for Ottawa to claim?
Canada’s national defence hub. Boom.
Ottawa is taking a more holistic approach than the other three cities. This isn’t just about attracting the DSRB. It’s about attracting everything in Canada related to defence and security.
There couldn’t be a better time for that. The Carney government is making investments in national defence. Canada recently met its NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP for the first time since the late 1980s.
Invest Ottawa calls the Ottawa-Gatineau region “the most concentrated defence innovation and industrial base in Canada,” with more than 330 defence and security companies based there.
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said , “We have Canada’s only defence-focused venture capital platform, the only cluster of six NATO DIANA Test Centres in the country, and the highest concentration of tech talent in North America.”
Many of Canada’s financial regulators are also based in Ottawa. The Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, Finance Canada, and the Treasury Board Secretariat are all headquartered there.
So are Canada’s national defence and security establishments: the Department of National Defence, Communications Security Establishment, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Defence Research and Development Canada, and Public Safety Canada.
Sutcliffe adds, “Every serious allied nation locates its defence coordination infrastructure in its capital. Washington anchors U.S. defence finance. London anchors the U.K.’s. Brussels anchors NATO’s. This is not an accident, nor is it unique to defence.”
Think about it this way. If any leader from a NATO country were visiting the DSRB headquarters, Ottawa is the natural place for that to happen.
It’s worth noting at the time of publication, Invest Ottawa hadn’t created a pitch deck similar to the other three cities.
When asked why, a spokesperson said it’s because neither the government nor the DSRB has formalized its exact criteria for making the decision.
So, rather than charging ahead based on assumptions, Invest Ottawa is taking a calculated wait-and-see approach to learn exactly what the DSRB is after before creating a pitch.
Makes sense.
That said, Ottawa’s strategy for attracting the DSRB is still just as easy to see.
Happen to be a multilateral defence-related organization operating on a global scale? Then you should be located where the political decision-makers and policymakers are.
Part 2 highlights Vancouver and Ottawa-Gatineau’s case to be the DSRB’s home city. Earlier this week, in part 1 , we profiled Montreal and Toronto, the two other cities that have submitted bids.
