Two of Canada’s wealthiest families have teamed up to make $18M bid for Hudson’s Bay

Two of Canada’s wealthiest families have teamed up to make an $18-million bid for the Hudson’s Bay Company Royal Charter, with the goal of donating the historic document to four public institutions under a shared custodianship model.

According to a release, holding companies controlled by the Weston family and media executive David Thomson submitted the joint offer in a court-supervised process late Friday.

If successful, the charter, signed in 1670 and often described as the document that formed the Hudson’s Bay Company, would be donated equally to the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.

The donation would be paired with a $5-million contribution to support conservation, public display, education and a national consult