Road infrastructure, mass transit ‘widely cited’ concerns among Toronto financial executives surveyed: Conference Board

Some financial industry executives responding to a recent survey cited road infrastructure, mass transit links and timely health services as areas of concern in Toronto, the Conference Board of Canada suggested in a recent report, titled Growing Financial Services Headquarters in Toronto.

The objective of the survey, of financial services executives, was to “identify the factors that make Toronto attractive as a destination for financial services headquarters.”

Those factors include regulatory certainty, good transportation infrastructure, a clustering of financial institutions and telecommunications infrastructure.

About 30.6% of “all financial services headquarters in Canada” are located in Toronto, the Conference Board says, while 13.2% are in Vancouver. Eighty-two per cent of the respondents were from banking, securities and insurance.

“Improved road infrastructure and/or mass transit links for commuting purposes was widely cited as an area of concern. A secondary issue for transportation is the availability of and access to efficient and affordable air travel, especially for closing business deals in foreign markets,” the Conference Board said in the report. “Quality of life factors, such as better availability of green space, more timely health care services and entertainment options, were also cited as a way to improve the attractiveness of Toronto.”

Related: Aviva Canada set to move headquarters to Markham, Ontario

The Conference Board noted that the corporate income tax rate is 11.5% in Ontario, 11.9% in Quebec and 11% in British Columbia.

“Corporate income tax rates in the Canadian context do to not appear to be a key location determinant,” the Conference Board said, adding Canada ranked 47th among 135 counties in terms of corporate income taxes and this puts Canada “at a competitive disadvantage versus lower-tax nations in its efforts to attract new headquarters.”