Doug Ford just threw Ottawa under the bus | Opinion

Ontario's Premier Doug Ford attends a First Ministers Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario January 29, 2026. Photo by BLAIR GABLE /POSTMEDIA

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Premier Doug Ford’s unqualified support for Toronto’s bid to host a multinational defence bank is a slap in the face of the City of Ottawa, which also wants the new bank in the capital to secure new jobs and alleviate the effects of federal job cuts.

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Even knowing that Ottawa is also in the running, the premier said recently that Toronto “is the only city” in Canada capable of hosting the multinational bank. What is Ottawa, chopped liver?

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The comments clearly undermine Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s efforts to bring the bank and associated jobs to Ottawa. The federal government is planning to shed some 30,000 jobs in the public service, and Ottawa is expected to bear the brunt of the cuts. And as part of his plan to cushion the impact, Sutcliffe is hoping to draw the bank and its projected 3,500 new jobs to the city.

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The international defence bank — formally called the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) — is being set up to provide long-term, low-cost financing for defence and security projects for NATO members and partners. Canadian cities, including Montreal and Vancouver, are also chasing the bank.

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In such a big competition with so much at stake — and two Ontario cities chasing the same prize — Ford should not be taking sides. He should have sat this one out and left it to the mayors to make their case. Ford may believe that as the centre of Canada’s financial industry, Toronto is the best place for the bank. But that argument is for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to make, not the premier — just as Sutcliffe could also argue that Ottawa, the seat of the federal government, embassies and the national defence establishment, is uniquely suited for the bank.

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Ford is the premier of Ontario — all of Ontario — and he should be even-handed in dealing with every part of the province. The premier’s intervention in favour of Toronto reinforces the belief, particularly among Ottawa residents, that the capital is often an afterthought at Queen’s Park. Whether it is funding for transit, homelessness and housing, Ottawa often gets shortchanged compared to Toronto. In 2023, Sutcliffe questioned why Toronto was getting 60 times more funding for homelessness than Ottawa.

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“We recently learned that Ottawa will receive $845,100 of this (homelessness) funding while Toronto will receive $48 million. That’s almost 60 times as much, despite Toronto’s population being approximately three times larger than Ottawa,” Sutcliffe said in a letter to Ford at the time. Then a report from the provincial financial watchdog, the Financial Accountability Office, revealed that Toronto gets more money per capita for transit than Ottawa. In 2022/23, Toronto received $191 per resident in transit funding, while Ottawa got $59.61. That gap was projected to grow in 2024/25, with Toronto getting $196.49, while Ottawa’s share decreased to $31.91.