How does Toronto stack up? Board of Trade releases its Scorecard on Prosperity 2010

• Posted on: March 29, 2010
• Submitted by: votetoronto2010 staff

Toronto stacks up well against other great city-regions of the world – from Montreal and Vancouver to New York, Tokyo and Paris – but its middling economic performance could put its competitive advantages at risk, according to Toronto as a Global City: Scorecard on Prosperity – 2010, the Toronto Board of Trade’s second annual benchmarking report, released this morning.

This year’s edition of the Scorecard on Prosperity, produced with the research support of the Conference Board of Canada and sponsored by the Certified Management Accountants of Ontario, ranked the Toronto region against 23 other great metropolitan regions on 34 different statistical indicators, from GDP per capita and productivity growth to commuting times and homicide rates.

Toronto’s overall result has changed little from the 2009 edition of the Scorecard on Prosperity. Toronto remains solidly in fourth place. But Toronto’s results, while strong, are uneven. The indicators are grouped into two domains, Labour Attractiveness and The Economy. And while Toronto is a world-beater in the former, it ranks only in the middle of the pack on the latter.

Coming in the midst of a municipal election campaign, this year’s Scorecard report – released as part of the Board’s VoteToronto2010.com campaign – identifies a key issue for the mayoral candidates to address: the need to shore up Toronto’s economic performance by attracting jobs and investment.

Even more than last year, Toronto shows itself to be a strong magnet for talent, scoring better than all metro regions in the study except Barcelona. Our strength comes from our diverse and multicultural society. Nearly half of Toronto’s residents are foreign born, six points higher than second place Vancouver and 11 points higher than third ranked Sydney. Toronto also boasts the highest share of professional employment of North American metros and Sydney, the highest share of high-tech employment in Canada and access to the largest market of all North American metros.

But while the Toronto region has made great strides in becoming one of the world’s most desirable places to live and work, a stronger economic performance has not followed suit.

To a certain degree, Toronto’s challenges mirror those of other Canadian CMAs. Our most serious failings tend to cluster in the area of attracting capital investment, a problem which is tied to the city’s low productivity growth.

Toronto faces both low productivity and low productivity growth, below one per cent. At 0.6 per cent productivity growth, Toronto is leagues away from first placed Hong Kong at 6.6 per cent and still far behind Boston at 3.9 per cent. Toronto’s high unemployment rate is also cause for concern. In 21^st place, Toronto ranks just slightly higher than Montreal and last-place Paris.

“This fundamental gap between our labour attractiveness and economic performance is seriously troubling and threatens our liveability,” says Wilding. “A high quality of life comes at a price and that price can only be paid through Torontonians’ incomes. If we cannot raise our performance in the economic domain, our labour attractiveness will suffer.”

Despite our strong livability rankings, we also face some challenges in this area. Torontonians’ 80-minute average round-trip daily commute is the worst of the 19 CMAs in the study. Putting that in perspective, Halifax, Canada’s highest ranked city, has an average daily commute of 65 minutes earning it a 10^th place finish. Barcelona, over half an hour shorter at 48 minutes, ranked first.

Torontonians’ long commute should be cause for concern to all levels of government due to its direct impact on the city’s productivity. The provincial government’s deferral of $4 billion in funding for public transit announced in the 2010 Ontario budget should be of particular concern to Torontonians.

As part of the Board’s VoteToronto2010.com campaign, Scorecard on Prosperity 2010 is more than just a report. It is a tool that can help drive solutions by flagging that Toronto’s high quality of life will be in jeopardy without a stronger regional economic platform. It offers case studies detailing successes in other cities that have faced challenges similar to those plaguing our region today.

Scorecard on Prosperity 2010 will better inform our elected offices of our cities challenges, and triumphs, and will act as a jumping off point to begin the discussions our region must have to grow and prosper in the future. Especially now, in an election year, when our city is on the cusp of realizing its potential as a world-leading jurisdiction, the Scorecard on Prosperity 2010 provides us with an instrument to call on our mayoral candidates to clearly articulate their vision for Toronto and how they will meet the challenges that lie ahead.

You can learn more by downloading Toronto as a Global City: Scorecard on Prosperity – 2010.

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