Why Ontario - Proximity to Market

Proximity to Market

As Canada's economic powerhouse, Ontario's business community is export-focused with easy access to NAFTA and other world markets.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) gives Ontario businesses secure access to more than 400 million consumers and a US$13 trillion marketplace.

More than 135 million consumers and large business-to-business markets are within a day's drive of southern Ontario.

Ontario's total international trade tops $1 billion per day. Ontario companies export more than $170 billion in products to the U.S. every year and more than $25 billion to other customers in markets around the world

Ontario itself is Canada's richest market with a population of more than 12 million and the country's highest personal incomes.

People, products and ideas flow easily from Ontario companies to customers across the country and around the world.

Extensive Transportation Access

Highway and rail networks with advanced traffic management systems help speed just-in-time deliveries and connect Ontario with markets in Eastern Canada, Western Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Marine lines offer shipping options to ports throughout the Great Lakes and around the world.

We have five international airports - Toronto, Hamilton, London, Ottawa and Thunder Bay - and 60 regional/local airports. The largest - Toronto's Pearson International Airport - offers non-stop service via 75+ carriers to 29 Canadian and 47 United States destinations and same-plane service to 76 other international cities.

In 2007, Ontario launched a $30 billion ReNew Ontario public infrastructure renaissance that is creating better transportation and transit systems, colleges, universities, research labs and hospitals.

Nearly $1.5 billion in additional targeted infrastructure investments announced in 2008 will help people and goods move more quickly. This includes:

$497 million for public transit in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton
$400 million for municipal roads and bridges in communities outside Toronto
$448 million to accelerate provincial highway bridge projects

World-class Telecommunications Infrastructure

State-of-the-art telecommunications networks provide seamless, secure, high speed national and international connections.

With optical wavelength capacities at 10 gigabits per second, scalable to 320 gigabits per second capacity, The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) is an ultra high-speed fibre optic network that connects Ontario's research and education institutions to one another, and to partners and colleagues throughout Canada and around the world.