Toronto: facing challenges, grasping opportunities

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.