City Age 2014 presentation - Mike Murray - Region of Waterloo
1. Building an Innovation Supercluster
Waterloo Region's Role
Mike Murray
Chief Administrative Officer
Region of Waterloo 1
2. Innovation Supercluster
Toronto
1,600+ start-ups
Waterloo Region
1,000+ start-ups
1,000 high-tech firms
11,500 high-tech firms
3. Employment growth is among the top in Canada
Employment Growth in All Sectors 2004-2013 for Canadian CMAs
1%
3%
2%
4%
10%
10%
13%
13%
12%
12%
16%
16%
15%
14%
18%
22%
28%
27%
32%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Saskatoon
Calgary
Edmonton
Regina
Waterloo
Toronto
Québec
Vancouver
Ottawa-Gatineau
Victoria
Kingston
Halifax
Montréal
Winnipeg
Brantford
Saint John
St. Catharines-Niagara
Hamilton
Guelph
4. Building a Strong Node
"…the area’s economy is expected to expand faster than Ontario’s
in 2014–2016, continuing a 12-year streak."
-Conference Board of Canada, 2014
"…in terms of shareholder value creation, Waterloo Region
outperforms other more famous innovation regions, including
California (Silicon Valley) and Massachusetts. Comparisons within
Canadian boarders reveal that the region has also outperformed
the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in job growth and education
attainment."
- Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, 2013
6. Building the Waterloo Region Node
Key Success Factors
• Strong Universities/College
• Partnerships/Collaboration
"• Great Business/government/People"
academia
• Sense of Place/Quality of Life
Attract • Transportation
and Retain Talent
• To / from / within Waterloo Region
• Competitive Economic Environment/
Access to Capital
16. CEI Creative Sector Services
include…
Made Available
150
Chamber
Memberships
Encouraging local small creative businesses
access to the KW Chamber of Commerce
benefits and programing
21. LRT Implementation
• Public-Private Partnership
• Design-Build-Finance-Operate-
Maintain
• GrandLinq
• Plenary, Meridiam, Aecon, Kiewit, Keolis
• Region's role
• Own the infrastructure
• Set fares, schedule,
• Integrated system; seamless
customer service
• Optimum risk allocation
• Cost and schedule certainty 21
22. Investment Around Rapid Transit
22 per cent of residential units and 25 per
cent of non-residential floor area were
constructed within 800 metres of planned
"Following "The three region years is poised of negligible to see change, major
local
construction transportation output improvements is poised to soar over 14 the per next
cent
in 2014 five and years, 12 per which cent will in entice 2015 thanks even to more
work
on a businesses $818-million to light locate rail within line."
the region."
station areas in 2013
– Conference Board of Canada
24. Maintaining Momentum
• Focus on talent attraction /
retention
• Creating a "sense of place"
– Density / quality / creativity
• Moving people
– Into / out of / around the
Region
• Partnerships and collaboration
25. A Final Thought
“Why is this the best place
to invest in Canada?
Talented people! Our
region is a magnet for
talent.”
--David Johnston, Governor General of
Canada--
--Former President of the University of
Waterloo--
26. Thank you.
Mike Murray
Chief Administrative Officer
Region of Waterloo
mmurray@regionofwaterloo.ca
Editor's Notes
R+T Park
49 ha, 1.2 million Sq.Ft. research and technology park on University of Waterloo campus
Accelerator Center for Technology Start-Up Companies
Currently:
55 companies (28 start-ups)
9 buildings (850,000 Sq.Ft.)
3,200 knowledge workers
University "donated" 49 ha of land:
99 year lease
10 % of project costs
Federal, Provincial,
Regional, City:
Built infrastructure
(roads, water, etc.)
Built "Accelerator Center"
to support start-up enterprise
20% of project costs–1/3 each
Private sector buildings:
Approx 70% of project costs
Photos:
Waterloo Corporate Campus
144 Park
BarrelYards
Victoria Common
Improved GO Train Service to Kitchener
Frequent two-way, all-day service
GO Train Service to Cambridge
LRT from North Waterloo to downtown Cambridge (Galt)