Building the bridge: Canada Company marks 20 years of connecting Canadians with those who serve

In 2006, more than 2000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) were deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, facing the dangers of an intense counterinsurgency campaign.

“This was when Canadians began seeing casualties on a regular basis,” says Anthony Robb, managing director of Canada Company and former Canadian Army Lieutenant-Colonel and Afghanistan veteran. “CAF members were losing their lives in theatre and being returned home to Canada to be laid to rest.”

Across the country, Canadians watched the news and gathered along Ontario’s Highway of Heroes to honour the fallen as they made their final journey home. But behind those very public displays of remembrance, some military families were confronting a crisis few Canadians knew existed.

At the time, many mortgage insurance policies contained war exclusion clauses. For the families of Canadian service members killed in Afghanistan, the consequences could be devastating: grieving spouses and children could face the possibility of losing their homes just as they were mourning the loss of a partner or parent. For two such families, foreclosures were imminent.

When Blake Goldring, executive chairman of AGF Management, learned of the issue, he was determined to act. Under his leadership, Canada’s major mortgage providers came together and ultimately amended their policies, helping ensure that the families of fallen service members would not also face the loss of their homes. The changes extended protections to police and other first responders as well.

This experience raised a larger question — one that would ultimately lead to the creation of Canada Company: What can Canadian business leaders and citizens do to better support those who serve, and the families who stand behind them?

“Military members are our neighbours, our friends, our relatives — people from our communities,” says Goldring. “When they’re asked to serve on dangerous missions on behalf of our country, we need to support them and their families.”

That conviction became the foundation of Canada Company: Many Ways to Serve.

Building the bridge

Goldring, along with a few other like-minded Canadian business leaders, founded Canada Company in 2006 to help strengthen the connection between the Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian society while supporting CAF members, veterans and their families.

Twenty years later, the non-partisan charity has grown into a national organization with chapters from coast to coast. Its work is centred on three pillars: championing education, raising awareness and prioritizing well-being.

One of its earliest initiatives demonstrated what that commitment could mean in practice.

In 2007, Canada Company launched the Children of the Fallen Scholarship Program, providing financial support to children who had lost a parent in active service and helping them pursue post-secondary and postgraduate education. The scholarship provides qualifying recipients with up to $5,000 per year toward their education, recognizing the sacrifice made by their parents while helping the next generation build its own future.

Since 2007, Canada Company has awarded 293 scholarships worth more than $1.3 million to 102 recipients across Canada.

The organization also administered Project HERO, which helped facilitate additional educational benefits and support for children of the fallen at colleges and universities across the country.

Twenty years of impact

What began with a specific challenge facing military families has since grown into a much broader mission.

“We do everything we can to support the Canadian Armed Forces,” says Robb. “Whether that means developing Canadian military history resources, supporting cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers, providing scholarships to military families or raising awareness of the challenges facing the Canadian Armed Forces, we look for areas where Canada Company can make a meaningful impact.”

Over two decades, that approach has produced a diverse portfolio of programs supporting military members, veterans, young Canadians and military families.

Today, Canada Company initiatives include scholarships and bursaries for children of the fallen, Canadian Rangers, cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers; programs supporting Indigenous participants in CAF summer training programs; development of Canadian military history materials for both children and adults; CAF Experience Days and Speaker Series events; strategic knowledge exchanges; support programs for military families; and other initiatives designed to strengthen Canadians’ understanding of the people and institutions that serve the country.

Previous Canada Company initiatives have delivered measurable impact across the country. Through its military employment transition efforts, the organization facilitated more than 3,000 job placements for veterans and military spouses, while working with government to advance job protections for reservists. Canada Company also facilitated the establishment of 33 LAV III monuments in communities across Canada, creating lasting places of remembrance that honour the service and sacrifice of those who served in Afghanistan.

For 20 years, these diverse campaigns, programs and initiatives have all been connected by a guiding mission to identify gaps, bring people and organizations together and find practical ways for Canadians to support those who serve.

The next chapter

Canada Company’s 20th anniversary comes at a consequential moment for Canada and its Armed Forces.

Questions of defence, sovereignty, national resilience and military readiness have returned to the forefront of the national conversation. At the same time, strengthening the connection between the Canadian Armed Forces and the society it serves remains essential.

For Canada Company, that environment makes its founding mission as relevant today as it was in 2006.

The organization is entering its third decade determined not to simply celebrate what it has accomplished, but to build upon it — expanding awareness of the CAF, championing education and continuing to find meaningful ways to support serving members, veterans and military families.

“We are the trusted and enduring bridge between Canadian society and the Canadian Armed Forces,” says Robb. “Our 20-year history is something we are immensely proud of, but we are firmly focused on what comes next. Canada Company is built for the future — and we intend to be here for decades to come, strengthening that connection and making an even greater impact for those who serve, veterans and their families.”

Canada Company will be hosting its 20-year anniversary gala on May 27, 2027, at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto. To learn more about Canada Company’s 20th anniversary events and to stay updated on opportunities to purchase tickets for the gala, visit https://www.canadacompany.ca/en/20th-anniversary/.

This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Canada Company.