Business can lead a unified vision for the whole GTA

When is the Greater Toronto region going to get its economic act together?

If we wait for the tumbleweed of local GTA governments to start acting and planning as one economic region, we could wait forever.

So the time has come for the private sector — particularly business — to take charge and help foster those economic clusters that offer the best prospects for growth.

That was the clarion message this week from a regional Economic Summit hosted by the Toronto Board of Trade. Ne’er a regional or provincial politician was to be seen among the hundreds who attended.

This was in sharp contrast to a similar board of trade summit three years ago, when a bevy of attending GTA politicians was urged to put aside parochial thinking and work as if the GTA was one economic unit. That effort, like many before, fell largely on deaf ears.

So the message now, reinforced by Harvard business guru Michael Porter, is that business must lead the way.

No one doubts that regions are the engine for economic growth. Nor did anyone in the room dispute that the GTA is one highly interdependent economic region.

The tone was set early by board president Carol Wilding, who declared, “Toronto needs to get its swagger back.” Wilding, Porter and Conference Board of Canada head Anne Golden all pointed to the huge success of Toronto’s financial services sector in showing how one business cluster can successfully take charge. That sector formed an association, the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, headed ably by former provincial treasurer Janet Ecker. Its sole purpose is to promote Toronto’s financial and banking services cluster. And the figures tell a mighty impressive tale. More than 233,000 in the GTA are now employed in this sector. It contributes $49 billion annually to the local economy. Four of the five largest banks are now in the top 35 banks of the world. And when you add all the lawyers, accountants and consultants who rely on this sector, the total employment number rises to 360,000. Following the worldwide economic collapse in 2009, this sector corralled all its forces to take advantage of Canada’s reputation for sound banking. Its success, many argued, sets a template for others. Harvard’s Porter was most emphatic, saying the board of trade’s approach means “Toronto is now on the right track.” “Before, the conversation was — what does government need to do?” he said. “Now the conversation must be — what can business do to promote growth and competitiveness?” At the summit, a global scorecard on pros- perity showed that Boston, Seattle and San Francisco were the three most successful North American cities in pursuing a cluster approach.

“You must build on your strengths,” Porter argued. “What is distinctive and unique?”

He said it is often counterintuitive for businesses to want to encourage growth and competition in their particular clusters. Yet he says the evidence is overwhelming that business startups are more likely to succeed in clusters; they will be more profitable, and also last longer.

Successes would make it ‘irresistibly uncomfortable’ for local governments to stay mired in parochialism

Porter captured the mood of the summit when he declared that intraregional bickering among local governments is one of the major barriers to competitiveness and growth.

If business started to act as if the GTA were one economic unit, then various examples of success would make it “irresistibly uncomfortable” for local governments to stay mired in their parochialism, he said.

As the GTA looks for ways to grow and prosper, this summit and the message it produced seemed a welcome and needed shot in the arm.

Whether business will take up the call to arms remains to be seen.

This approach, however, appears far better than the status quo. John Honderich is chair of the board of Torstar.