Greater Toronto Summit 2011 Breakout Session
The Challenge: Municipal economies in the Toronto region are highly interconnected and interdependent. Regional economic strengths and challenges cut across municipal boundaries, but economic development efforts are generally localized, fragmented, and often competing. The region lacks a unifying vision, cross-sectoral alignment on economic development strategies and a coherent brand and marketing effort. In a world with fierce competition for talent and investment from other global city regions, our lack of cooperation puts us at a disadvantage.
Find the backgrounder for Towards A New Model for Economic Cooperation Across the Toronto Region here.
Moderator: Carol Wilding, President & CEO, Toronto Board of Trade
Speakers
- Warren Jestin, Chief Economist, Scotiabank
- Nan DasGupta, Partner, The Boston Consulting Group
- Alan Broadbent, Chairman & CEO, Avana Capital Corporation
- John Davidson, Chair, Greater Toronto Area Economic Development Partnership and Director, Halton Region Economic Development
Questions for Discussion:
- Do we have the shared will and momentum to agree in principle on the need for a new regional economic development model? What could be some basic principles to which all stakeholders could sign up?
- How do we minimize barriers that have held back previous efforts?
- If we favour the idea of a regional economic cooperation council, how could we begin to form it?
