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Toronto tech boom fuelling local economy despite COVID

DoorDash just the latest big name in tech world to expand its presence into the city

JOSH RUBIN

Amidst the economic doom and gloom that the COVID pandemic has wreaked on Toronto, there’s been one consistent source of good news.

The Greater Toronto Area’s technology sector keeps on growing. The latest example? Delivery app DoorDash announced Wednesday that it would be starting a 50-person engineering team by the end of the year.

It’s the first non-U.S. engineering office for the company.

“We’re excited about the world-class talent that’s available in the Toronto area,” said DoorDash Canada general manager Brent Seals in an interview. “This will help us with our goal of providing the best experience possible for our merchants, our customers and our Dashers.”

DoorDash is just the latest big name in the tech world to expand its presence in Toronto. Already during the pandemic, Uber has announced it was doubling the size of its “Tech Hub” in Toronto. Google unveiled plans for three new sites in Canada, including a 400,000-square-foot office on King Street East. Pinterest announced it would be adding 50 more staff, including several engineers.

Like DoorDash’s move, it’s the first non-U.S. engineering hub for Pinterest.

While companies move here for a variety of reasons, it’s the workforce that usually seals the deal, says Stephen Lund, CEO of Toronto Global.

“These companies are betting on Toronto. We’ve got talented people. And we’ve got a lot of them,” said Lund, whose organization is devoted to marketing the Greater Toronto Area to companies around the world.

It is funded by municipal and regional governments in the area.

Many of those tech workers learned their skills locally, said Rahim Daya, Pinterest’s head of international product, and the tech lead of its Toronto engineering team.

“When we look at where many of Pinterest’s engineers trained, a large number studied at Canadian universities, which have specialized in machine learning training. The quality of engineering talent in Toronto is some of the best in the world and is an ideal match to Pinterest’s unique engineering needs,” Daya said via email.

Uber, too, was drawn to this city by the skilled workforce, said company spokesperson Laura Miller.

“Toronto sets a high bar for developing diverse, world-class talent. Establishing our global tech hub in this city gives us the chance to play an active role in the community and create more opportunities for skill development and diversity in Canada’s tech ecosystem,” Miller said.

The head of Google’s Canadian operations, Sabrina Geremia, said the city’s existing network of technology companies is a big reason the company has been expanding its presence here.

“Toronto has a world class tech ecosystem, is one of the most diverse cities in the world and the culture of collaboration across the tech ecosystem is unlike anywhere else,” Geremia said.

Seeing high-profile firms coming here is a good marketing tool — for attracting both companies and workers — said Toronto Global’s Lund, who helped lure DoorDash north of the border.

Even before the pandemic, Toronto’s tech sector was already booming. Lund points to statistics showing 67,000 tech industry workers arrived in the area between 2015 and 2019.

They’ve helped boost the technology industry to more than 10 per cent of the GTA’s workforce, and an increasingly crucial economic sector, said Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

“This has been happening for 10 or 15 years. It’s becoming bigger and more vital all the time,” said Kavcic, adding that the tech sector helped keep the region’s economy afloat during the havoc wreaked by the pandemic.

“The tech industry really helped keep the economy going during COVID. It was one of the few areas where employment didn’t really dip all that much. They really cushioned the blow,” Kavcic said.

BUSINESS

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2021-05-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

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