Toronto Leads the Pack in Economy Assessment

Toronto has the best-performing economy among Canada’s major urban centres, according to a CIBC report.
Toronto Leads the Pack in Economy Assessment
Office workers walk by a stock ticker in downtown Toronto. CIBC has ranked Toronto as the best-performing city in Canada. (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)
7/20/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/TOR76906564.jpg" alt="Office workers walk by a stock ticker in downtown Toronto. CIBC has ranked Toronto as the best-performing city in Canada. (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Office workers walk by a stock ticker in downtown Toronto. CIBC has ranked Toronto as the best-performing city in Canada. (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1800577"/></a>
Office workers walk by a stock ticker in downtown Toronto. CIBC has ranked Toronto as the best-performing city in Canada. (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)
Toronto has the best-performing economy among Canada’s major urban centres, according to a CIBC report.

In the Canadian Metropolitan Economic Activity Index, CIBC ranked Toronto as number one for the first quarter of 2011.

The study looked at 25 cities across Canada, assessing their economies with nine performance measures. The measures include employment, population, consumer bankruptcy, and housing starts.

Toronto did not rank number one in any individual category, but the city did well in most aspects. This consistency across categories gave Toronto the best overall score at 25.0.

Toronto was also the only one of the top four cities to have its index score remain above the 25-city average since 1995.

The study cited Toronto’s varied economy as the reason for its top position. “Simply put, the multi-channel nature of Toronto’s economic engine is the secret not only behind its current top ranking, but also behind its ability to maintain a relatively high-ranking position over the past two years,” the study said.

Other cities that performed well include Kitchener (second place), Winnipeg (third), and Regina (fourth). Montreal, which held the top spot in the previous ranking, fell to fifth place.

The study praised Toronto’s job creation, which led to a fourth-place ranking for percentage change in employment. “During the first quarter of the year, overall employment in the city rose by just under 3 percent with many of these jobs being relatively high quality jobs.”

But the unemployment rate remained high, pushing Toronto to number 18 in that category. Its figure of around 8 percent was noticeably higher than Winnipeg, placed first with less than 6 percent.

However, over 80 percent of Toronto’s job increases were full-time positions, giving the city a sixth-place ranking in the category of full-time jobs as a share of employment.

Toronto also did well in population growth, with a fourth-place ranking and a nearly 2 percent increase.

The city boasts the fifth lowest consumer bankruptcy rate, and was ranked fourth in housing starts. However, it performed worse than most in business bankruptcy rates and Multiple Listing Service housing unit sales.