Markham Leader Newsletter Summer 2009

Summer 2009 Volume 29
an economic development department publication
Economic Success Through Creative Markham
The past decade has witnessed the growing strength and
momentum of industries that leverage creative ideas through
arts, culture, information and technologies to drive economic
growth. More and more businesses are recognizing the value of
social, ethnic and cultural diversity as a competitive advantage
in the knowledge economy, where different skill sets, talents
and ideas can converge to stimulate creativity and innovation.
Building a “Creative Markham” is one of the core mandates of
Markham’s innovative 10-year Economic Strategy: Markham
2020. The strategy envisions Markham as a place where innovation, technology and cultural diversity help fuel successful
enterprises and create a high quality of life. It also identifies the
Information, Entertainment and Cultural Industries as one of
the four key sectors with strong opportunity for success.
Markham already has a growing number of electronic media
companies, a richly diverse community and well-established
cultural facilities – including the Town-operated Varley Art
Gallery, Markham Theatre and Markham Museum.
To further shape Markham’s cultural industry, a Culture
Department was established in 2008, focusing on the
development of a cultural plan and policies for Markham.
As part of this focus, Markham has embarked on an exciting
Cultural Mapping Project that aims to:
• Take stock of Markham’s cultural assets to better
commercialize and invest in culture and education to
strengthen the Town’s creative capacity
• Understand the composition of the cultural industry
(e.g., employment, talent, demographics, skills and
services) to better facilitate synergies between
cultural industry groups and to reach out to companies in the
Information, Entertainment and Cultural Industries
• Help improve the quality of life in the community, by
identifying social groups that live and work within Markham
and developing new service delivery models that best meet
the needs of those groups.
Markham’s Cultural Mapping Project is close to completion.
The result will be a publicly-accessible online searchable
database that captures the entire creative cluster, from industry
businesses to community cultural assets to entertainment. The
database will also have an interactive function that will allow
businesses update their own profiles.
More broadly, Markham has also joined the Consortium on
New Media, Creative and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto
Region (CONCERT) – a GTA consortium exploring the growth
of the cultural, creative and entertainment industries as an
economic cluster, and as a source of research development
and innovation.
York University, IBM Canada Ltd., Motorola and AMD Inc.
are working with Markham, the City of Toronto and the
Government of Ontario, to develop a strategy to drive
innovation within this emerging sector.
The cultural, creative and entertainment cluster accounts
for close to 200,000 jobs in the GTA, including 25,000 in
information technology and 30,000 in entertainment.
Employment includes architects, engineers, digital
media and software developers, educators, librarians,
recreational and cultural centre workers.
CANADA’S HIGH-TECH CAPITAL
Markham Mayor Meets With
India Consul General
P R O F I L E
M A R K H A M
India is an emerging global economic
powerhouse with one of the largest and
productive workforces in the world and is
ranked as the 5th largest purchasing power.
The country shares many strong linkages
with Canada, some of which are reflected in
language (English), social diversity, and the
democratic nature of the country’s political
and economic systems.
Canada’s ethnic diversity was identified by
the Consul General as serving an important
trade function for Canada in international
markets. In particular, the Indian connection
in Canada was deemed a value area that can
be tapped into to support the trade between
the two countries.
India Consul General, Mrs. Preeti Saran; and
Markham Mayor, Frank Scarpitti
This spring, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti hosted
Mrs. Preeti Saran, Consul General of India at a
business leaders’ breakfast meeting to promote
investment and the development of global
business networks.
The meeting was held in the presence of key trade
staff, international consular officials and more than
50 invited guests including Markham Councillors and
senior executives of Markham businesses. It focused
on the investment climate in India, key growth
sectors and trade flow in Canada and India.
Markham Companies Win
A number of India’s key sectors were identified as
having strong investment opportunities including:
energy (consumption demand increases 10 percent
annually), infrastructure (e.g., development of roads,
highways, ports, aviation and telecommunications),
medical tourism, biotechnology, media and entertainment, retail, information technology, research and
development, and the automotive sector.
This was the fourth breakfast meeting in the series,
which has seen the Mayor host the Consul General’s
from the UK, USA and China. The next meeting will
focus on business opportunities with France.
2009 ACCE Awards
On the evening of April 4, 2009, the Association of
Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs (ACCE) presented
awards to two entrepreneurs with close ties to
Markham. ACCE annually recognizes companies that
have high achievements or have contributed great
value to the community.
averages approximately 10 per cent month-overmonth growth, and the company aims to double
its revenue by the end of 2009.
To learn more about ACCE, please visit www.acce.ca
Helen Ching-Kircher, President and CEO of
Downtown Fine Cars Inc., received the Entrepreneur
of the Year award. One of Downtown Fine Car’s
three state-of-the-art locations is Audi Uptown in
Markham. Ms. Ching-Kircher founded the company
23 years ago, alongside her husband Dr. Peter
A. Kircher. The company was one of the first luxury
car dealers in the GTA to offer a very high level of
personalized service.
Amanda Colluci’s Clean 4 Me business won the
award for Best Start Up Business. Founded two years
ago and headquartered in Markham, Clean 4 Me
provides cleaning services for residential households
and small and medium sized businesses in York
Region and the Greater Toronto Area. Clean 4 Me
Amanda Colluci, Clean 4 Me, the winner
of the Best Start Up Award; and Markham
Mayor, Frank Scarpitti
MARKHAM: CANADA’S HIGH-TECH CAPITAL
Markham Wins Ontario
Economic Development Award
Markham's economic competitiveness strategy, Markham 2020,
won top honours at the 2009 Ontario Economic Development
Awards.
The awards were presented by the Economic Developers Council
of Ontario (EDCO), Canada's largest provincial economic
development association.
Markham was awarded first place in the “strategic plan”
category. More than two years in the making, Markham 2020
is an economic blueprint that will help shape Markham's
future as one of Canada's leading communities in the
knowledge economy.
Markham Economic Developers (L-R): Suzanne McCrimmon, Christina
Kakaflikas and Huyen Hare, along with consultant Brock Dickinson
(second from left), receive the award from EDCO President Geoff Gillen.
“Our Markham 2020 plan strengthens Markham's position as a
leader and innovator in the global marketplace,” said Markham
Mayor Frank Scarpitti. “We are poised to face the challenges of
the global economy, because we have the talent, the place and
the connectivity to compete on the international stage.”
To learn more about Markham 2020, visit
www.business.markham.ca
Markham Participates in
2009 Medical Technology Mission to China
In April 2009, Town of Markham staff joined the Trillium
Medical Technology Association (TMTA) delegation on a 10-day,
industry-led business mission to Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
John Livey, Town of Markham CAO and Chair of the
National Centre for Medical Device Development Corporation,
and Christina Kakaflikas, Manager of Special Projects,
Economic Development Department, participated in the
mission to promote Markham as a preferred investment
location and strategic partner, and to showcase the National
Centre for Medical Device Development, Markham's long
championed public-private sector initiative to accelerate the
commercialization of convergent medical technologies.
In addition, Markham representatives met with officials at the
Shenzhen operations of IBM and Huawei – two international
leaders in IT and telecommunications with a significant
presence in Markham.
Markham representatives also visited Yangpu District (Shanghai)
and Jiangmen City (Guangdong province). Markham’s visit
to Yangpu District builds on the Memorandum of Understanding
signed by the two municipalities in 2008 to develop economic
and cultural links. The visit to Jiangmen City built on discussions started when officials visited Markham in fall 2008 to discuss ways to cooperate on international trade and investment.
Highlights of the mission included:
• A site visit and business partnering meeting with the
Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, including its new
Biotech Centre
• A private meeting with International Trade Minister Stockwell
Day to discuss challenges and opportunities for trade
with China
• One-on-one business meetings facilitated by the Canadian
Consulate in Hong Kong
• A Canada-Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce business
networking event attended by over 200 business representatives
• Exhibiting in the Canadian Pavilion at the China International
Medical Equipment Fair – a world-renowned annual medical
technologies exhibition that attracted more than 50,000 visitors
over the course of four days.
(L-R): Christina Kakaflikas, Manager of Special Projects, Town of
Markham; Stephen Lam, Senior Manager, Hong Kong Science and
Technology Parks; Christian Dube, Chairman, Trillium Medical
Technologies Association; and John Livey, CAO, Town of Markham
WWW.BUSINESS.MARKHAM.CA
Markham’s Growth Management Strategy
Population and Employment
Forecasts for Markham
2006
Households
Population
77,200
272,500
Employment
144,800
Growth Management is one of the six
strategic priorities that form Markham’s
strategic direction – Building Markham’s
Future Together. Markham is developing a
sustainable community growth plan that
addresses both Provincial and Regional
growth management initiatives.
In early 2009, Markham held extensive
consultation sessions with residents,
businesses and other stakeholders to
discuss the work being done on the
Growth Management Strategy and to gather
public comments on future growth and
transportation planning options in Markham.
Markham’s Growth Management Strategy
will help identify the amount, location and
pace of population and employment growth
for Markham from now until the year 2031.
The strategy will also identify the infrastructure and financial requirements needed to
support this anticipated growth.
A number of policy initiatives and
background studies are underway, including
an Employment Lands Strategy. These, in
combination with feedback received from
the public consultations, will contribute to
the Growth Management Strategy, which will
in turn form the basis of a new Official Plan
for Markham.
2031
Households
Population
Employment
139,300
423,500
248,500
Forecast Growth
2006-2031
Households
62,100
Population
151,000
Employment
103,700
Markham Employment Lands Strategy
Markham has a strong economy and is a
major employment centre within York
Region. It is forecast to retain this position
over the next 25 years, with the anticipated
addition of more than 100,000 jobs. Most of
these new jobs will be in offices or business
parks, with the balance distributed in
industries that serve the needs of local and
regional residents (e.g., retail, education,
health care facilities, etc.).
Given Markham’s anticipated long-term
employment growth, additional accommodation will be needed, which will be in new
buildings within Markham’s current urban
area and on lands outside the current
urban area.
Markham has been pursuing an Employment
Lands Strategy to ensure an appropriate
supply of land to accommodate this future
employment growth in Markham.
The Phase 1 Employment Lands Study
resulted in several key findings, including:
• Markham is poised for exceptional
business growth
• Markham is on the right track, but policy
refinements are recommended
• Markham’s existing employment areas
can’t accommodate all of the job growth –
more employment lands are required
• Lands in the 404 North area will be
critical for accommodating future
economic activity
• Markham East Lands (ORC lands) play a
small but important role in rounding out
the employment land base.
The Employment Lands Strategy is ongoing and a report is expected in 2009.
For details on the strategy findings, please visit http://www.markham.ca/Markham/
Departments/Planning/Studies/Studies_EmploymentLands.htm
MARKHAM: CANADA’S HIGH-TECH CAPITAL
Heat and
Power System
Facility Opens In Markham
District
Markham’s
High-Tech
Companies Make It To
Canada’s Top 300
A total of 19 companies from Markham’s high tech sector made
it onto the 2008 Branham300 list of top IT companies in Canada.
Produced annually, the Branham300 is the most comprehensive
listing of publicly traded and privately held Canadian IT
companies. The rankings are based on company revenue
generated in 2008.
The top companies from Markham are:
(L-R): George Smitherman, Ontario Minister of Energy and Infrastructure;
Bruce Ander, President and CEO, Markham District Energy Inc.; Frank
Scarpitti, Markham Mayor; and Jack Heath, Markham Deputy Mayor
Ontario Minister of Energy and Infrastructure George Smitherman
recently joined Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti to open a new
five megawatt combined heat and power facility as part of
Markham’s District Energy System.
The new facility resulted from a successful contract bid with
the Ontario Power Authority to build a high efficiency natural
gas plant to serve the provincial power grid.
“The newly constructed combined heat and power cogeneration
facility produces enough electricity to power 5000 homes. The
heat recovery system is capable of providing heat for up to three
million square feet of building space," said Markham Deputy
Mayor and Markham District Energy Chair Jack Heath.
“The start up of this new facility signifies another great step
forward in Markham’s continuing effort to support our
community with green energy,” said Mayor Frank Scarpitti.
“We’re now looking at further advancements that will use
solar thermal technologies, biogas and biomass fuel options.
These green initiatives create jobs, reduce
environmental impact, help local businesses
and add tremendous value to taxpayer’s
dollars.”
SMTC Manufacturing
Platform Computing
Adastra
Enghouse Systems
Illumiti
Momentum Advanced Solutions
Sangoma
B Wyze
Pulse Voice
Doxim Inc.
Onx Enterprise Solutions
Azcar Technology
Redline Communications
TeraGo Networks
Nightingale Informatix
Camilion Solutions
qdata
Filbitron Systems
CMI Group
Markham companies accounted for almost 20 per cent of the
total companies on the list from the GTA – a confirmation that
Markham has an extremely developed high-tech industry
attracting both regional and national attention.
Another significant achievement for Markham’s high-tech sector
was the performance of multinational IT companies with a local
presence. Five companies from Markham – IBM Canada, Apple
Canada, Motorola Canada, Sun Microsystems and McAfee –
made it on the list of the nation’s top 25 multinational IT
companies. These five companies alone contributed almost
31 per cent of the total 2008 revenues for the category.
A detailed analysis of Branham300 can be accessed at
www.branhamgroup.com/branham300
The Markham District Energy system
is EcoLogo certified and has produced
heating energy on a continuous basis to
the community since 2000 – over 75,000
continuous hours. The high efficiency district system reduces
greenhouse gases in Markham Centre by 50 per cent.
Markham District Energy President and CEO Bruce Ander says
they are planning a second district system in east Markham, to
begin construction in 2010-2011, to serve Markham Stouffville
Hospital, the new East Markham Community Centre and the
planned Cornell Centre development.
WWW.BUSINESS.MARKHAM.CA
eko Markham Centre
& Liberty Square
D I D
Y O U
C O
K N O
WM
? PA N I E S
I N
T H E
N E W S
Win the BILD Award
Liberty Development’s “eko Markham Centre” and “Liberty
Square” were recently awarded the Places to Grow Community
of the Year Award (High-Rise Category), at the 29th Annual
BILD Awards Ceremony. BILD (Building, Industry and Land
Development) is Canada’s largest home building industry
association.
Based in Markham, Liberty Development was recognized for
achieving the mandate of the Places to Grow principles. The
development is estimated to achieve nearly 1,000 people and
jobs per hectare – nearly five times the provincial target and 25
years ahead of the province’s schedule. To learn more, please
visit www.libertyforall.ca
Profile on...
Nightingale
Based in
Markham,
Nightingale is one
of the fastest
growing health care service and software companies
in North America. In fact, last year Nightingale
ranked #1 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list of
fastest growing technology companies in Canada.
Founded in 2002 by President and CEO Sam Chebib,
Nightingale offers a comprehensive electronic
medical records system that allows doctors to operate
in a fully paperless medical practice. By streamlining
record keeping processes, health care providers can
say goodbye to Post-it® notes, paper prescriptions,
lab results and notes, misplaced files, file cabinets,
and x-rays on film. Instead, they can take advantage
of highly specialized web-based technology that will
help them improve efficiency, provide better care to
patients, and experience a better working life.
It is a very exciting time for Nightingale and the
healthcare technology industry. Recently, both the
Canadian and the U.S. governments highlighted the
value of electronic medical records as a way to
improve healthcare delivery while stimulating their
economies and creating technology jobs.
To learn more about Nightingale, please visit
www.nightingale.md
Sability Comes to Markham
Workforce Management Software
(WFM) to help them create better
links between employees and
management, and between
employees and technology.
After an extensive search, Sability
has chosen to base its Canadian
operations in Markham. The office
officially opened in December 2008
and will allow the company to
expand their research and development capabilities.
Founded in 1993, Sability provides
human resources management consulting services to large companies
across North America and Europe,
including Coca-Cola, Lucent
Technologies and four of the
world’s top airlines. It also works
with companies to implement
In addition to implementation
services, Sability can host clients’
WFM systems, provide benchmarking services and provide
analysis and tuning of client
infrastructure.
To learn more about Sability,
please visit www.sability.com
(L-R):Markham Councillor Alex Chiu;
and Scott Brown, President of Sability
MARKHAM: CANADA’S HIGH-TECH CAPITAL
AMD Leading
In Green Computing
AMD, Markham’s leading global provider of microprocessor
and graphics solutions, is also leading in the development of
energy-efficient solutions for product designs and operations.
A number of energy-efficiency projects, led by Richard
Conohan, Program Manager of AMD’s Environmental Safety
and Industrial Hygiene, have helped reduce AMD Markham
campus’ energy use by approximately $281,000 per year.
The total energy saving is in part due to the installation of
168 occupancy sensors in meeting rooms, 180 programmable
thermostats, conversion of lighting to compact fluorescents
and adjusting lighting schedules to better reflect the employee
occupancy of the facilities.
Even greater savings were achieved when AMD partnered with
electricity distributor PowerStream in May 2008 to pilot their
Data Centre Incentive Program to reduce energy demand.
Under this program, AMD removed 1,152 servers from their
data centre and replaced them with 312 energy efficient
Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ processor-based servers. As a result,
the data centre reduced energy use by more than 200 kW,
reduced cooling load by 23 tons, reclaimed 11 rack spaces, and
saw an annual cost savings of $156,000. In addition, AMD
Markham Headquartered
IBM Canada Chosen for 2009
Canada’s
Greenest Employers
List of
Some of IBM’s eco-friendly
highlights include:
- Receiving the Building Owners and Managers
Association Go Green Plus certification for its
Markham buildings
- Being a founding member of Smart Commute 404-7
- Hooking up its facilities to Markham District
Energy, Markham’s environmentally-friendly power,
heating and cooling system
- Tracking its carbon footprint and reducing it
by 40 per cent
- Focusing on workplace recycling and engaging
employees in greening measures such as
tree planting
received a rebate of
over $60,000 from
Power Stream’s Data
Incentive Program
for their energy use
reduction.
AMD in Markham
is continuing to
evaluate additional
opportunities for
energy-efficiency
projects and is
striving to exceed
the corporate goal
of a 40 per cent
reduction in
normalized energy
usage by 2010,
based on a baseline
year of 2006.
Richard Conohan, Program Manager, Toronto
Environmental Health and Safety, AMD
To learn more about AMD, please visit www.amd.com
Introducing the Markham
Manufacturers
Sustainability Program
Businesses looking to “green” their production process and reduce
costs can now turn to the Markham Manufacturing Sustainability
Program (MMSP) for help.
The MMSP offers pollution prevention assessments to small to
medium-sized manufacturers in Markham. The assessment
addresses key environmental issues targeted by all levels of
government, and results in an action plan that can improve your
business’s environmental and financial performance in the form
of cost savings and reduced liability.
The program is delivered by the Ontario Centre for Environmental
Technology Advancement (OCETA), which is a private, not-forprofit organization.
Manufacturers with fewer than 500 employees are eligible to
have an assessment done by a pre-qualified pollution prevention
consultant. Participants can also receive a funding incentive of up
to 50 per cent (maximum $5000) to help offset the costs of an
assessment arranged by OCETA. An average payback of less than
one year has been realized by implementing pollution prevention
through the program.
For further details, please visit
www.oceta.on.ca/TORSUS/mmsp.htm or contact Fred Granek at
905-882-4133 ext. 224 or fgranek@oceta.on.ca.
WWW.BUSINESS.MARKHAM.CA
Branches Out
In February 2009, MyTableTennis.NET celebrated its 6th birthday
and the grand opening of its new table tennis equipment store
in Markham.
MyTableTennis.NET is the largest table tennis supplier in Ontario.
It has more than 20,000 registered members from several
countries and has also become one of the largest table tennis
forum websites in the world.
The website was started by Alex Li, former CEO of the North
American branch of Founder Group (China’s largest software
company) and a Toronto “Top 5” table tennis player. He is also a
founding member and director of the Markham-based Canadian
Chinese Table Tennis Association – the largest table tennis club
in Canada with over 600 members, offering 35 tables in a 15,500
square foot space.
Following the incredible success and popularity of these two
endeavours, Mr. Li decided to expand the website to include a
new online table tennis equipment store, as well as open a local
store inside the Canadian Chinese Table Tennis Association club,
to meet the community’s growing needs.
(L-R): Rosalie Chan; Steve Zhou; Alex Li, Owner of
MyTableTennis.NET; Danny Ly; and Gloria Lam
Markham Launches
For more information on the MyTableTennis.NET forum and table
tennis stores, please visit www.mytabletennis.net and
www.mytabletennis.com
BizPaL
Starting and running a business in Markham just became easier,
thanks to a new feature on Markham’s website called BizPaL.
BizPaL is a free, online service that helps existing businesses
or aspiring entrepreneurs identify and obtain the permits and
licences they need from the Government of Canada, the Ontario
government, and the Town of Markham, in order to open or
expand their business.
Entrepreneurs need only visit www.markham.ca/bizpal,
answer a series of questions and BizPaL generates a customized
list of all permits and licences required, as well as pertinent
information such as fees, processing and renewals, contacts
and links to sites with more information.
This unique partnership among federal, provincial,
territorial, regional and local governments is designed to cut
through the paperwork
burden and red tape that
small business owners
encounter.
For more information
about BizPaL, or about
starting and running a
small business in
Markham, please contact
the Markham Small
Business Enterprise Centre
at 905-248-2737 or
msbec@markham.ca
Contact the Economic Development Department:
tel 905.475.4878 fax 905.475.4888 edoinfo@markham.ca