The report provides an update on initiatives to promote Toronto's Information and Communications Technology sector. It outlines activities to strengthen the sector through partnerships with schools and industry to boost the talent pipeline and address future labor demands. Recommendations include continuing to report back on the state of the ICT industry and success of initiatives to promote the sector.

1. STAFF REPORT
ACTION REQUIRED
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Initiatives Update Report
Date: October 27, 2011
To: Economic Development Committee
From: General Manager, Economic Development and Culture
Wards: All
Reference
Number:
SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the current and upcoming activities
that staff have been implementing to ensure the Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) sector is moving forward and expanding in Toronto. There are a
number of activities the City has been working on since a presentation was made to the
Economic Development Committee on March 31, 2011.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The General Manager, Economic Development and Culture recommends that the
Economic Development Committee:
1. Request the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture, to report
back in mid-2012 on the state of the ICT industry and the success of initiatives to
promote and strengthen the ICT sector including labour force trends.
Financial Impact
There are no financial impacts resulting from the adoption of this report.
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2. DECISION HISTORY
At its meeting on March 31, 2011, the Economic Development Committee requested the
General Manager, Economic Development and Culture to report back on how the City
can facilitate the promotion of ICT careers in the secondary schools through
organizations such as the ICTC, its FIT program and other activities.
The Committee also requested an update on recent initiatives in the ICT Sector.
ISSUE BACKGROUND
In November 2010, the City published a report, Canada's High Tech Hub: Toronto,
http://www.toronto.ca/business_publications/pdf/ICT-Report_March2011.pdf
for Technicity, an annual conference that brings together the ICT industry. That report
focused on three areas - Talent, Research and Development (R&D), and Investment in
the ICT sector. It was prepared by Economic Development & Culture based on
information from Statistics Canada, IDC Canada, MaRS Discovery District, the Toronto
Region Research Alliance (TRRA), the Impact Group, KPMG and the Government of
Ontario.
Canada's High Tech Hub: Toronto indicated that the sector employs over 161,000
workers (56.4% of all ICT workers in Ontario and 30% of all ICT workers in Canada).
This is an increase of 30,000 jobs since the last analysis was completed in 2004.
The ICT sector workforce is young and enjoys high employment (over 60% of its
workforce under the age of 45 and boasts a 95.9% employment rate or 4.1%
unemployment rate). Their average wage is $64,725 (6.6% above the Toronto average).
They are also well educated (96.8% have a post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree,
compared with 88.9% for the city's total labour force). Currently, the Toronto ICT
industry is growing and firms are actively recruiting new staff.
The sector has 11,522 companies that generated $52.2 billion in revenues with $21.8
billion in the manufacturing subsector and $30.4 billion in the services sector. The sector
is dominated by small to medium sized firms with fewer than 100 employees (97.7%).
The numbers of service sector firms have grown 20% from 8,776 to 10,917 from 2002 to
2009.
Although Toronto is the dominant force in the ICT industry in Canada, the report
revealed that there is a decline of post secondary graduates in ICT related disciplines.
The decline in ICT graduates has also been cited in ongoing research by the Information
and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) and was discussed in greater detail in a
report, Outlook for Human Resources in the ICT Labour Market, 2011-2016. Over the
next five years, Canadian employers will need to hire an estimated 106,000 ICT workers.
It is estimated that Toronto would require approximately 35,000 personnel. Industry
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3. demands for ICT personnel are ever increasing but the supply of qualified candidates has
not kept up with these demands.
Senior executives from the ICT sector who attended the Technicity conference discussed
various challenges and opportunities facing the sector, including the demand for more
ICT workers.
COMMENTS
The ICT industry is a key strategic sector in Toronto. It is large (with over 160,000
workers and 11,500 firms), growing, innovative, young and generates well paid jobs. In
addition to being a major industry in and of itself, the ICT sector is also a critical enabler
supporting virtually all other sectors, from manufacturing to financial services to film and
television.
With the City of Toronto's overall unemployment rate at 8.7% (and the Toronto region at
7.3%) and with a youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment rate now at 20.25%, proactively
nurturing the health and vitality of the ICT sector is essential for economic success.
Economic Development & Culture Division – Sector Development staff are engaged in a
number of initiatives that help bolster the ICT industy through peer development
opportunities, mentoring, start-up programs and expansion and business to business
networking activities.
The ICT industry thrives on creativity and innovation; attributes found throughout
Toronto's diverse labour force and youth. Staff are engaged in a number of initiatives to
encourage young people to pursue ICT careers as a means of improving their own and the
city's prosperity. To address the need for ICT talent, staff are working with the ICTC to
promote ICT training and entrepreneurship to secondary school students.
Through Technicity, a forum for senior level ICT industry executives, and other related
industry conferences, City staff and ICTC have developed a CEO ICT outreach program.
This program recruits senior executives and entrepreneurs as volunteers from various
sized ICT firms to discuss career opportunities with secondary school students. The
selection of a suitable career focus starts in secondary school, and thus, the outreach by
ICT professionals to this demographic is critical in the promotion of ICT careers.
In addition to the CEO ICT outreach program staff are working with the ICTC on several
initiatives to help students jump start careers in the sector. The Focus on Information
Technology (FIT) program provides high school students with the opportunity to work in
hands-on situations at post-secondary institutions, tours of local businesses, guest
speakers and duel credit courses to help them gain entry into the ICT sector. Upon
completion, the program rewards students with an industry approved certificate. The
secondary schools currently taking part in the FIT program are:
Georges Vanier Collegiate Institute, (Don Mills and Finch)
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4. William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, (Sheppard and Wilson Heights)
George Harvey Collegiate Institute, (Keele and Eglinton)
Northview Secondary School, (Bathurst and Finch
SATEC @ Porter Collegiate Institute, (Warden, north of St. Clair)
L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute, (Warden, north of Finch)
David and Mary Thompson Collegiate Institute, (Brimley and Lawrence)
Yorkdale Secondary and Adult Learning Centre, (Dufferin and 401)
St. Basil the Great, (Albion and Weston)
EDC staff are also exploring how the CEO ICT outreach program and the FIT program
can be customized to engage youth and their participation in the ProTech Media Centres.
The Centres provide skills development and workforce training opportunities for youth in
priority neighbourhoods.
ICTC, in conjunction with the School of Information and Communications Technology at
Seneca College, hosts learning days at its Newnham campus. Over 200 secondary school
students explore and experiment with computers through activities designed to stimulate
their interest in a technology-related field. These events consist of numerous hands-on
workshops in areas such as electronic circuits, communications and control systems,
computer programming and networking, and computer hardware and software
configurations. Interactive lecture and laboratory sessions in structured programming
techniques are also provided.
Economic Development & Culture Division staff are working to engage secondary
school students and teachers through tours of ICT incubators in the city, including
Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone (DMZ) and George Brown College's gaming
incubator. At these incubators, EDC staff are providing business advisory services and
facilitating business expansion.
Staff are also engaged in the following activities which help to promote ICT careers:
ICT is one of the sector workshops at the Internationally Educated Professionals
(IEP) Conference that the City co-organizes every year (the next one is on
February 10, 2012 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre), which seeks to
provide information to IEPs to advance their careers in Toronto (see www.iep.ca).
Through the Youth Employment Partnerships (YEP) program staff in Social
Development, Finance & Administration (SDFA) engage youth in discussions
about ICT careers (see http://www.toronto.ca/yep/).
Toronto Employment and Social Services (TESS) and EDC staff work to match
Toronto residents with jobs.
EDC staff are engaged in the CFO Technology Forum, a networking group of C-
suite executives at ICT companies who share and exchange learning and
mentoring business experiences at quarterly meetings.
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5. Technicity 2011 will be held on November 22 at the Metro Toronto Convention
Centre. This forum provides senior representatives from the ICT sector with
opportunities to mobilize and strengthen the sector.
City staff are collaborating with the Toronto chapter of the International Game
Developers Association (IGDA) to build greater synergy within the cluster and to
raise greater awareness of career opportunities in the digital gaming/interactive
sub-sector and attract and retain talent.
The Toronto Board of Trade has established a Technology Forum to promote and
highlight the strengths, growth, employment opportunities, and importance of the
ICT cluster to the city's economy. Staff are participating on the Board's Advisory
Committee.
EDC is also partnering with the Ontario Media Development Corporation
(OMDC) and the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre of OCAD University on a
mobile research study. The study will report on the developments in the mobile
application sector and highlight the educational and skills requirements for current
and emerging careers in the mobile application market.
Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, awarded to Toronto earlier this year,
will take place from July 8 to 12, 2012. This major international conference will
feature exhibits, workshops and product launches. EDC staff are working with
conference organizers to develop programming to highlight the career
opportunities and increasing employment prospects within the ICT sector. Over
15,000 delegates from 191 countries are expected to attend. The conference will
raise Toronto's profile as an ICT hub and create a positive "buzz" about Toronto's
ICT sector.
CONCLUSION
The ICT industry thrives on creativity and innovation and requires collaboration and
partnerships to succeed. Many of the initiatives listed above that staff are leading or
participating in are focussed on strengthening existing relationships and helping to build
new ones. Diversity is Toronto's strength, however, it does take a directed and concerted
effort to take best advantage of the benefits diversity offers. Forums such as Technicity
have been widely applauded by industry for bringing together senior decision makers
from many different sub-sectors of the ICT cluster and creating opportunities for
partnership development.
Similarly, facilitating the partnerships between industry leaders and colleges, universities
and high schools to ensure high quality and relevant training programs and to encourage
youth to consider careers in this high growth industry have also been successful. These
initiatives and others to develop the ICT sector have contributed to the growth of the
industry, job creation, and attracting global recognition for Toronto as a centre of
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6. creativity and innovation. Recent announcements by Google, Zynga, Microsoft,
Gameloft, and others demonstrate private sector confidence in the vitality of the ICT
sector in Toronto. A strong and growing ICT sector, in turn, contributes to the strength
of other key industry sectors within Toronto.
CONTACT
Joe Mazzei, Senior Advisor, ICT, 416 392-3482, fax: 416 392-3374, jmazzei@toronto.ca
SIGNATURE
_______________________________
Michael H. Williams General Manager, Economic Development and Culture
Information and Communications Technology Update