The federal government is backing the global payment firm’s plans for a Vancouver-based research and innovation centre with a $49-million subsidy from its Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF). Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains told reporters in a conference call from Davos, Switzerland Thursday that the centre will create “good-quality jobs that will enable Canadians to be able to navigate more safely and securely”; it’s expected to create 270 jobs by 2029. (The Logic, The Globe and Mail)

Talking point: Ottawa has been trying to close the gap in foreign direct investment levels—which have recovered from 2017, which saw significant divestment from oil and gas, but remain below the early 2010s—by courting global companies to establish themselves in Canada. The Logic’s analysis from February found that over 50 per cent of the initial $951 million awarded by the SIF went to foreign subsidiaries, despite the fund being advertised as a way for Canadian companies to scale and grow globally. In June 2019, the government launched a fifth stream of the $2.51-billion fund with no industry or subject-area restrictions. Currently, the centre is home to NuData Security, a small biometric- identification business Mastercard purchased in 2017.