Economy

A worker at the Oakville Assembly installs a battery on a Ford Flex

The Greater Toronto Area is a commercial, distribution, financial and economic centre, being the third largest financial centre in North America. The region as a whole generates about a fifth of the GDP of Canada, and is home to 40% of Canada's business headquarters. The economies of the municipalities in Greater Toronto themselves are largely intertwined with one another. The work force is made up of approximately 2.9 million people and more than 100,000 companies The Greater Toronto Area currently produces nearly 20% of the entire nation's GDP with $323 Billion, and from 1992 to 2002, experienced an average GDP growth rate of 4.0% and a job creation rate of 2.4% (compared to the national average GDP growth rate of 3% and job creation rate of 1.6%). Currently, over 51% of the labour force in the Greater Toronto Area is employed in the service sector, with 19% in the manufacturing, 17% of the labour force employed in wholesale & retail trade, 8% of the labour force involved in transportation, communication &utilities, and 5% of the workforce is involved in construction. Despite the fact that the service industry makes up only 51% of Greater Toronto's workforce, over 72% of the region's GDP is generated by service industries.

The largest industry in the Greater Toronto Area is the financial services in the province, accounting for an estimated 25% of the region's GDP. Notably, the five largest banks in Canada all have their operational headquarters located in Toronto's Financial District. Toronto is also where the headquarters of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Standard and Poor TSX Composite Index are located, with offices of the TSX Venture Exchange also located in Toronto. The TMX Group, the owners and operators of TSX Exchanges as well as the Montreal Exchange are also headquartered in Toronto. The TSX and the TSX Venture Exchange represent 3,369 companies, including more than half of the world’s publicly traded mining companies.

Markham also attracted the highest concentration of high tech companies in Canada, and because of it, has positioned itself as Canada's High-Tech Capital. The Greater Toronto Area is currently the second largest automotive centre in North America (after Detroit). Currently, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler run six assembly plants in the area, with Honda and Toyota having assembly plants just outside of the GTA. General Motors, Ford, Honda, KIA, Mazda, Suzuki, Nissan, Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Subaru, Volvo, BMW, and Mitsubishi have chosen the Greater Toronto Area for their Canadian headquarters. Magna International, the world's most diversified car supplier, also has its headquarters located in Aurora. The entire automobile industry within the region accounts for roughly 10% of the region's GDP.

Agriculture Farmland seen from the summit of Rattlesnake Point in Milton

While it was once the most dominant industry for residents in the Greater Toronto Area, agriculture now occupies a small percentage of the population, but still a large part of land in the surrounding four regional municipalities. Census data from 2006 has shown that there are 3,707 census farms in the GTA, down 4.2% from 2001 and covering 274,363 ha (677,951 acres). Almost every community in the GTA is currently experiencing a decrease in the acreage of farmland, with Mississauga seeing the most significant. The only communities in the GTA which are experiencing a growth in the acreage of farmland are Aurora, Georgina, Newmarket, Oshawa, Richmond Hill and Scugog, with Markham experiencing neither any growth nor decline. Most of the farmland in the GTA is located in Durham Region, with 55% of their total land area being farmland. This is followed by York Region with 41% of their lands being farm land, Peel Region with 34%, and Halton Region with 41%. Toronto's farmland is completely within Rouge Park. The average size of the farm in the GTA (183 acres (0.74 km2)) is much lower than the farms in the rest of Ontario (averaging 233 acres (0.94 km2)). This has been attributed to the shift of farm types in the GTA, shifting from the traditional livestock and cash crop farms (requiring an extensive land base), towards more intensive enterprises including greenhouse, floriculture, nursery, vegetable, fruit, sheep and goats.

The most numerous farms types however in the GTA is miscellaneous specialty farms (including horse and pony, sheep and lamb, and other livestock specialty), followed by cattle, grain and oilseed, dairy and field crop farms. Although the output of dairy production has dropped with farms from within the GTA, dairy has remained the most productive sector in the agricultural industry by annual gross farm receipts. Despite the decreased amount of farmland around the region, farm capital value increased from $5.2 billion in 1996 to $6.1 billion in 2001, making the average farm capital value in the GTA continued to be the highest in the province.