Civic Action - Greater Toronto Summit

The G.T.A. economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis and resulting downturn that began in September 2008. In 2009, the G.T.A. economy's had the worst showing since the recession of the early 1990's. The job market was sideswiped by the global recession. Employment fell by 1% in 2009.

Fortunately the economy began to recover and to some a lot quicker than first thought. The Municipal economies in the GTA region are highly interconnected and dependent. Regional strengths and challenges do cut across munipal boundaries. The problem is economic efforts are generally localized, fragmented and often competing. This is a serious issue.

A week a go I attended the two day Civic Action Summit held in Toronto and was chaired by CFRB radio host John Tory. It was very interesting as this was not the usual conference or summit attended by politicians. It was actually attended by few politicians but really a cross section of various business entrepreneurs, executives etc. There were many workshops on opportunities for action. There were over 600 delegates at this conference.

All of the material from the workshops will be sent out. I was pleased to have attended as this one was really business driven not politically driven. It was worthwhile and I hope to attend next year.