Ottawa shares Defence Hub Strategy with diplomatic community

The City of Ottawa continues to show that the National Capital Region is Canada's Defence Innovation Hub. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe convened allied ambassadors and diplomats along with the city’s economic development agency, Invest Ottawa, for a briefing at Ottawa City Hall this morning.

Representatives from 17 foreign missions were in attendance and received presentation on Ottawa-Gatineau’s Defence Innovation Hub Strategy. The briefing highlighted the region’s position as the country's centre of gravity for defence investment, capability development, and allied partnership.

The strategy, created in collaboration between the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, leverages the region’s unparalleled defence assets, talent, and technology expertise to support Canada's sovereignty and the federal government’s $150 billion defence spending commitment by 2035. The strategy builds on the area’s existing strengths to support new homegrown defence and security capabilities, expand global market opportunities, attract investment and create local jobs.

The Government of Canada has committed to spending $150 billion more on defence by 2030 to maintain its standing in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Ottawa-Gatineau is uniquely positioned as a region that bridges Canada’s two largest provinces. As a bilingual community, the region is ideally positioned to serve international markets, including the 327 million global members of La Francophonie. Canada’s capital region is at the heart of defence innovation, with over 330 defence companies employing more than 10,000 highly-skilled workers, six NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) Test Centres including Invest Ottawa’s Area X.O, the Department of National Defence and related agencies, as well as more than 130 embassies and foreign missions.

Quotes

"Ottawa-Gatineau already has the talent, technology, research capacity and partnerships that countries are looking for as they strengthen their defence and security capabilities. What makes our region unique is that those relationships with our allies already exist here in our city through the diplomatic community, alongside the companies, researchers and institutions driving innovation every day. This strategy is about bringing those strengths together in a deliberate and coordinated way so we can accelerate collaboration, support investment and help build the next generation of defence technologies right here in Canada’s capital region."

Mark Sutcliffe, Mayor of Ottawa

“The future of security will belong to nations and Allies that can innovate together faster, more securely, and with greater trust. Canada’s Capital Region is uniquely positioned to help create this future. Nowhere else in our country do sovereign authority, Allied engagement, defence leadership, and mission-ready innovation converge at this scale and depth. At a moment of growing global uncertainty, Ottawa–Gatineau is helping Canada and its Allies turn shared values into resilience, security, and collaborative impact.”

Sonya Shorey, President and CEO, Invest Ottawa