Alberta makes pitch to land NATO regional office in downtown Calgary

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So far as chasing blue-sky concepts and desires, that will be huge.

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Alberta has nice aspirations to turn into a rising aviation hub in Canada. Calgary has large aspirations to repair its downtown.

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Now the provincial authorities is setting its sights on making downtown Calgary the house of a brand new regional workplace of the North Atlantic Treaty Group.

“Sure, that NATO,” Jobs and Economic system Minister Brian Jean informed a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday.

“They’re in search of a Canadian headquarters for a protection innovation accelerator, which might have tons of of protection officers working with business on technological issues within the protection sector.

“We wrote a protracted and detailed letter about why that mission needs to be based mostly in downtown Calgary — a number of buildings, tons of of staff.”

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Earlier this month, Premier Danielle Smith, Know-how and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish and Jean despatched the letter to a senior official at NATO in Brussels.

They’re proposing that Calgary turn into the regional headquarters for NATO’s new Protection Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) workplaces in North America.

In 2021, NATO members agreed to determine the accelerator, which goals to advertise larger cooperation between know-how companies, army operators and tutorial researchers.

Final June, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated that Canada wished to host the North American workplace for this system. Protection Minister Anita Anand introduced in November that the federal government had proposed Halifax as the situation.

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The Canadian authorities describes the accelerator as a physique that can create a “community of innovation websites” in North America and Europe, coordinated by an workplace in Canada and an workplace based mostly collectively in Estonia and the UK.

The accelerator is anticipated to deal with work round disruptive applied sciences, corresponding to synthetic intelligence, biotechnology, large knowledge processing and quantum-enabled know-how.

Federal officers stated Thursday they count on an affirmative resolution on Halifax from NATO within the coming months.

Nonetheless, Ottawa’s ruling did not cease the province from throwing Calgary’s hat within the ring.

The town has an rising aviation sector and is already residence to plane producer De Havilland Plane of Canada.

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Alberta has nonstop flights connecting main European cities, is residence to 4 army bases and has about 16,000 folks employed by greater than 500 firms within the aerospace and protection industries, the letter stated.

Whereas the province is conscious that the federal authorities has nominated Halifax for the regional workplace, “we notice that NATO has but to simply accept this proposal,” it stated, indicating that Calgary may additionally turn into a secondary headquarters in North America.

“The Authorities of Alberta is keen to interact with NATO and the Canadian Armed Forces to assist the situation of the DIANA campus in downtown Calgary,” the letter stated.

“The west finish of downtown Calgary at the moment has tens of millions of sq. ft of workplace area accessible to us. It’s ideally positioned, linked to present succesful infrastructure, and can permit NATO to hit the bottom working as soon as a choice is made.”

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With the rise of town’s know-how business and a strengthening presence of the aerospace sector, Brad Parry, CEO of Calgary Financial Growth, is inspired by the outreach to NATO.

The town has aerospace and protection firms that work with native workplaces – corresponding to Arcfield Canada, Basic Dynamics, Raytheon Applied sciences and Lockheed Martin CDL Programs – and there are post-secondary aerospace coaching applications in Calgary.

“It is a pure match, to be sincere with you, while you have a look at the varieties of firms which might be being constructed right here and grown right here,” he stated.

“Having that accelerator right here would make excellent sense.”

Nonetheless, provided that Ottawa has made its alternative, it appears unlikely that one other Canadian middle might be chosen by the worldwide group.

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“It is a very good thought. However I believe there is no likelihood of that occuring,” stated David Bercuson, director emeritus of the Heart for Army, Safety and Strategic Research on the College of Calgary, referring to politics and town’s distance from army bases in Chilly Lake and Wainwright.

“I simply do not see any motive why folks within the federal authorities would wish to put it right here. . . They (NATO) will put it the place the Fed needs it to go.”

If the province needs to rejuvenate downtown, there are extra fast methods to assist, corresponding to offering funding to post-secondary establishments that wish to relocate school to the realm.

Jean, a former Conservative MP, acknowledged Ottawa’s vote will play an enormous position in Nato’s resolution, however believes Calgary’s strengths may even be thought-about.

He does not quit.

“They recognized Calgary as a possibility and that is why we despatched out the letter. And we consider that NATO at the moment sees Calgary as a greater alternative than Halifax,” he informed reporters after the speech.

“They have not began constructing in Halifax but, so I do not suppose it is too late.”

Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.

cvarcoe@postmedia.com