The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

Executive Summary

Creativity has replaced raw materials or natural harbours as the crucial wellspring of economic growth. To be successful in this emerging creative age, regions must develop, attract and retain talented and creative people who generate innovations, develop technology-intensive industries and power economic growth. Such talented people are not spread equally across nations or places, but tend to concentrate within particular city-regions. The most successful city-regions are the ones that have a social environment that is open to creativity and diversity of all sorts. The ability to attract creative people in arts and culture fields and to be open to diverse groups of people of different ethnic, racial and lifestyle groups provides distinct advantages to regions in generating innovations, growing and attracting high-technology industries, and spurring economic growth.

This report examines the relationship between talent, technology, creativity and diversity in city-regions in Ontario—and Canada more generally—and compares these to the relationships found to exist in American metropolitan regions.

Our findings strongly indicate that the relationships first captured for US city-regions in the work of Florida and colleagues are also evident in Canadian city-regions. If anything, the relationships in Canada are stronger than those found in the United States. In particular, we find that a vibrant local creative class and openness to diversity attract knowledge workers in Ontario and Canada. We also find that, in general, Ontario city-regions have a solid foundation in these areas to compete against US city-regions. In summary, there appears to be a strong set of linkages between creativity, diversity, talent and technology-intensive activity that are driving the economies of Ontario's—and Canada's—city-regions.

For policy makers, this work confirms the importance of urban centres in the knowledge economy and the need to investigate further the importance of higher education in this knowledge economy. At the municipal level, this work points to the importance of collaborative efforts between local governments, firms, and individuals to reinforce and strengthen the unique urban character of their city-regions. For all Ontarians, this work underscores the importance of immigration and settlement, as well as the nurturing of arts and creativity.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

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