What do Toronto and Ontario bring to innovation?
Real pre-eminence.
The capital city of the Province of Ontario, Toronto is also Canada’s largest city, the fourth-largest urban region in North America and the third-largest ICT cluster on the continent.
The city is Canada’s largest research and education hub, by far, and one of the largest medical-hospital complexes in Canada and the United States. Toronto is home to 60 hospitals, 1,200 life sciences firms and $8 billion in pharmaceutical revenues.
More than $1.3 billion in federal research funding flows here annually, representing 20% of the government’s total investment. Perhaps this is why there are 79,000 science and technology workplaces spread throughout the city, and why Toronto has more highly cited scientists per capita than the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany or Japan.
Indeed, for investors and new businesses, Toronto is one of the easiest places in the world to do business. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, Toronto is ranked Number 1 for the soundness of its banking system; and according to the MasterCard Worldwide Center of Commerce Index, Toronto is ranked Number 3 in the top Cities in North America.
The Province of Ontario is located in the heart of the North American Free trade area, which has more than 400 million people and generates a GDP of $14 trillion annually. Every single day, more than $750 million in goods and services crosses the Ontario-U.S. border.
Where is MaRS Innovation in all this?
Right in the heart of Toronto, at the epicenter of Canada’s research complex and within the MaRS Discovery District – just steps from some of Canada’s and the world’s most distinguished teaching hospitals, research institutes and universities.
