TORONTO – Two of Canada’s wealthiest families have agreed to team up to open the bidding at $18 million for the royal charter that formed Hudson’s Bay.
New court documents filed late Friday say holding companies belonging to the Thomson and Weston families have joined forces to put an even higher price tag on the 1670 document that created the fur trading business-turned department store.
Media baron David Thomson and his firm DKRT Family Corp. had previously offered $15 million for the charter, after the Westons, of Loblaw Cos. Ltd. fame, offered $12.5 million through their company, Wittington Investments Limited.
The joint offer is aimed at buying the document so it can be shared among the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.
The proposed bid puts to rest speculation about who was behind a mystery offer HBC received in late September, when it was due to seek court approval for its plan to auction off the document.
HBC never said who had made the bid. The offer caused the company, which filed for creditor protection in March and then closed all of its stores, to put off asking the court for permission for the sale.
The court documents filed Friday say it will reattempt permission for the auction on Nov. 21.
If a court approves the auction to go ahead and the families win the sale, they records say they will donate the document to a consortium of four public institutions.
The institutions are the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.
Two of the organizations — the Archives of Manitoba and the Manitoba Museum — already house much of HBC’s artifacts.
In 1994, the retailer gave the Archives of Manitoba maps dating back to 1709, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear metres of shelf space.
Meanwhile, the Manitoba Museum has 27,000 items linked to the business, including furnishings from the company’s former head office in London, England and a birchbark canoe from the early 20th century.
The Thomsons’ and Westons’ new offer melds together several parts of their previous individual bids and offers $5 million to fund the conservation, education and tours for the charter.
The Westons’ original plan was to donate the charter to the Canadian Museum of History, a Crown corporation in Gatineau, Que. that traces Canada’s history from the dawn of human habitation to the present. It offered $1 million to help preserve and share the charter.
The Thomsons wanted the document to go to the Archives of Manitoba and were prepared to pony up $2 million to ensure the document’s safety and public access.
The court filings say the Desmarais Family and Power Corp. of Canada, along with The Hennick Family Foundation, have also committed additional support toward the museums’ work related to the charter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2025.
