Economy:
Toronto is at the centre of the country's economy, with approximately 40 per cent of Canadian companies on Fortune's Global 500 located in the city. It has thriving manufacturing and service industries and is one of the country's largest employment centres. According to the Toronto Employment Survey 2003, the city provides more than 1.25 million jobs, nearly 46 per cent of which are in the office sector. Manufacturing accounts for 13.6 per cent of employment in the city while institutional, retail and service sectors are responsible for 15.2 per cent, 11.4 per cent and 11.4 per cent respectively.

The Finance industry is of particular importance, with 90 per cent of Canada's foreign banks located there, as well as numerous accounting and insurance firms, while the Toronto Stock Exchange is the third largest in North America by dollar value traded. The city is also Canada's main centre for traditional media and is successfully developing its new media industry. It also has a thriving IT sector, with one of the highest concentrations of commercial software companies anywhere in the world, and is home to the Canadian headquarters and research centres of Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.

Although the service sector dominates the city's economy, Toronto still maintains a thriving manufacturing industry and is the second largest automotive centre in North America after Detroit.

Local Infrastructure:
Toronto benefits from an excellent transport infrastructure, with extensive road and rail networks providing good connections to other Canadian and US cities. There are several 4 and 6 lane highways passing through Toronto and approximately 5 million Canadians live within a one hour drive of the city.

Toronto Pearson International Airport is located just 27 kilometres to the west of the city centre and is the busiest airport in Canada, handling approximately 26 million passengers in 2002. It is home to over 65 airlines offering flights to destinations throughout Canada, the US and the rest of the world and cities such as Boston, Chicago, Hartford, New York and Philadelphia can all be reached in about 90 minutes. London, Frankfurt and Paris can be reached in about 7 hours.

The city is also served by Toronto City Centre Airport, which is owned and operated by the Toronto Port Authority. The airport is located close to the city's business and financial centre and operates regional flights to destinations such as Montreal, Ottawa and London, Ontario. The airport currently caters for about 100,000 passengers a year.
The Port of Toronto is an important port on the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes System, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to Duluth, Minnesota on Lake Superior and directly serves Ontario and Quebec, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania.

Local Workforce:
Toronto is home to three universities; the University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson University and, according to the Toronto city website, more than 50 per cent of the city's labour force has a university degree or college diploma. The city's large multi-cultural population, which includes over 100 ethnic groups, also provides companies access to a large pool of language skills.

Standard of Living:
Toronto offers a good quality of life with everything you would expect from a large and modern city; a clean and efficient public transport system, good schools and healthcare facilities, numerous restaurants, theatres, museums, shops, parks, and great sporting venues. In addition, just a short distance from the city is some beautiful countryside and wine growing regions, not to mention Niagara Falls.

In the Quality of Life Survey published by consultants William M. Mercer in March 2004, Toronto is ranked 15th out of 215 cities from around the world. The analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 quality of life criteria which include political, social, economic and environmental factors. Toronto scores particularly well on factors such as crime, health and sanitation.

Business Costs:
In the KPMG report "Competitive Alternatives: A Comparison of Business Costs in North America, Europe and Japan", published in 2002, Toronto was found to be at least 12.1 per cent more cost-effective than any of the US cities in the study, such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

Office occupancy costs in the city are slightly above those of other major Canadian cities. According to a report published in January 2002 by the real estate advisory company DTZ, office occupancy costs in Toronto were 27.30 USD per square foot per annum, while in Calgary, Montreal and
Vancouver the costs were 18.60 USD, 20.00 USD and 23.50 USD respectively.