Toronto’s competitiveness is important for the whole of Canada. With more than 5 million inhabitants, Toronto is Canada’s largest urban centre, and one of its chief economic powerhouses. The Toronto region is widely estimated to generate almost a fifth of Canada’s GDP and 45% of Ontario’s GDP, and is home to 40% of the nation’s business headquarters. The Toronto region is also Canada’s main immigration node, with an intake of around 40% of all the immigrants to Canada during 2001-2006. The region hosts a number of clusters with national and world-wide relevance, including in finance, automobile production and life sciences, as well as other prosperous and dynamic sectors in entertainment and communication technologies. As such, the Toronto region creates economic spillovers that benefit other parts of the Province and the country through interprovincial trade, labour market mobility and business links.

With more than 5 million inhabitants, Toronto is Canada’s largest urban centre, and one of its chief economic powerhouses. Based on its share of the Province’s economic activity, the Toronto region is widely estimated to generate almost a fifth of Canada’s GDP (i.e. 17%, higher than the average for OECD metropolitan regions) and 45% of Ontario’s GDP. It is also home to 40% of the nation’s business headquarters. The region creates spillovers that benefit other parts of the Province and the country through inter-provincial trade, labour market mobility and business links.

Over recent decades, the Toronto region has experienced one of the highest rates of population growth among OECD metropolitan regions, making it one of the economic engines of Canada. With more than 5 million inhabitants, the region generates almost a fifth of the GDP of Canada as a whole, and concentrates 40% of the nation’s business headquarters. This accelerated expansion has not come at the expense of quality of life: Toronto retains its reputation as a good place in which to live. With the implementation of the Canada-US Free Trade agreement in 1989, and thanks to its strategic geographical location only a 24-hour drive from 40% of the US population, Toronto firms have successfully penetrated US markets, boosting its exports and integrating into the North American automobile production system. Toronto’s diversified regional economy, which includes a number of globally competitive clusters in finance, automobile and life sciences, as well as other prosperous and dynamic sectors in entertainment and communication technologies, has benefitted from a well-educated workforce constantly refreshed by new immigrants. While the government of Canada has set in place a pro-active immigration policy, it is the Toronto region that welcomed 40.4% of the immigrants who arrived in the country from 2001-2006. Unlike immigrants in many other large cities in the world, most newcomers to the Toronto region are highly skilled.

The Toronto region has the largest metropolitan economy in Canada, as noted in Chapter 1. It is home to a variety of economic sectors with strong export performance, both in manufacturing (the automobile industry, food industry, information and communication technologies, or ICT, and aerospace) and services (particularly financial and professional services), and it is the headquarters for by far the largest number of large companies in Canada. It houses a range of renowned universities and research institutes, and it attracts around 40% of the immigrants who arrive in the country every year.

The formulation and implementation of an economic competitiveness agenda for the Toronto region would require some changes to current governance practices and frameworks. Co-ordination, both within a single order of government and vertically between orders of government, must be maximised in order to articulate a series of commonly defined policy objectives based on a common understanding of the policy challenges, and a competitiveness agenda is needed to pursue these objectives.