Toronto only Canadian metro area to make it to Amazon’s HQ2 shortlist

Toronto is the only Canadian city on the short list of 20 metropolitan areas that Amazon.com Inc is considering for its second headquarters in North America, dubbed HQ2. The 20 metro regions were selected from 238 submissions. Other Canadian metro areas, including Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, put in proposals, but only Toronto made the cut. The Seattle, WA-based tech giant now proceeds to the next stage of the search process and has committed to provide the winner with investments of over US$5 billion and 50,000 high-paying jobs. In addition, the sheer task of building and operating an office campus that’s about the size of the Seattle HQ (752,500 m²) will bring other business opportunities to the winning metropolitan region. Toronto worked with other cities in the GTA to submit a proposal last October, including the regions of Durham, York, Caledon, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton, Halton, Mississauga and Brampton. Toronto’s submission was endorsed by the Prime Minister and the Ontario Premier. In the next round, Toronto will compete against 19 US cities, including Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Indianapolis, IN; Los Angeles, CA;  Miami, FL;  Montgomery County, MD;  Nashville, TN;  Newark, NJ;  New York City, NY;  Northern Virginia, VA;   Philadelphia, PA;   Pittsburgh, PA; Raleigh, NC; and  Washington DC. Toronto City mayor John Tory said in a statement that Toronto will continue to work with GTA and regional officials as they go through the next steps in the bidding process. Ontario has named Ed Clark, former president and CEO of TD Bank Group and business advisor to Premier Kathleen Wynne, to help municipal and federal governments succeed in the bid. Amazon said they will dig deeper into the proposals and request additional information before making a decision within the year.