March 2001
March Questions & Answers and March Graph
by Jason Clemens & Joel Emes
Q: Which Canadian city is the home for the most Canadian company corporate headquarters? How has this changed over the last decade?
A: Table 1 contains 1990 and 1999 data for corporate headquarters located in the five main corporate centres in Canada—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, and Mississauga. In both years, Toronto is overwhelmingly the dominant location for corporate headquarters; it housed 29.0 and 25.4 percent of the headquarters for the top 500 Canadian companies in 1990 and 1999, respectively. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver all experienced declines in both the absolute number of headquarters for the top 500 companies, and the percentage of companies’ headquarters located in their cities. Montreal’s corporate headquarter decline was the severest, dropping 34.5 percent from 87 to 57 head offices. Interestingly, of the 10 largest companies located in Montreal in 1990, only 4 remained in 1999: Seagram, BCE, Alcan Aluminium, and Canadian National Railway. The number of corporate headquarters in Vancouver also declined—by 17.8 percent from 45 to 37 headquarters, while Toronto declined 12.4 percent, from 145 to 127. Of the five main corporate headquarter locations, only Mississauga and Calgary experienced growth. The number of top 500 Canadian companies located in Calgary increased 34.1 percent, from 44 to 59 headquarters, while Mississauga experienced a 26.9 percent increase, from 26 to 33. Calgary had the best headquarter stability: 6 of the top 10 companies in that city in 1990 remained in the top 10 in 1999.
|
Table 1: Corporate headquarter overview |
|||||
|
1990 |
Number of headquarters |
Percent of |
Total |
Total assets ($millions) |
Total |
|
Montreal |
87 |
17.4 |
115,002 |
182,652 |
689,637 |
|
Toronto |
145 |
29.0 |
172,156 |
196,554 |
981,474 |
|
Mississauga |
26 |
5.2 |
11,253 |
7,436 |
47,702 |
|
Calgary |
44 |
8.8 |
52,850 |
77,547 |
139,689 |
|
Vancouver |
45 |
9.0 |
28,226 |
40,613 |
126,065 |
|
1999 |
|||||
|
Montreal |
57 |
11.4 |
392,501 |
731,310 |
463,216 |
|
Toronto |
127 |
25.4 |
324,652 |
1,213,256 |
898,833 |
|
Mississauga |
33 |
6.6 |
26,087 |
17,680 |
92,914 |
|
Calgary |
59 |
11.8 |
241,992 |
164,658 |
155,203 |
|
Vancouver |
37 |
7.4 |
40,927 |
82,360 |
140,237 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Montreal |
(34.5) |
(6.0) |
241.3 |
300.4 |
(32.8) |
|
Toronto |
(12.4) |
(3.6) |
88.6 |
517.3 |
(8.4) |
|
Mississauga |
26.9 |
1.4 |
131.8 |
137.8 |
94.8 |
|
Calgary |
34.1 |
3.0 |
357.9 |
112.3 |
11.1 |
|
Vancouver |
(17.8) |
(1.6) |
45.0 |
102.8 |
11.2 |
|
Sources: FP Business 1991 and 2000; calculations by the authors. |
|||||
Q: Which Canadian city has the highest per capita concentration of Canadian company corporate headquarters? How has this changed over the last decade?
A: Table 2 and the March Graph depict the relative positions of the four main cities—Mississauga is excluded due to data limitations—after adjusting for the city’s population. Calgary had more corporate headquarters per capita than any of the other corporate centres. In fact, on a population-adjusted basis, the number of corporate headquarters in Calgary exceeded that of the next highest city, Toronto, by 61.3 percent in 1990, and 133.2 percent in 1999. Calgary is the only major corporate centre to experience an increase in the number of top 500 corporate headquarters on a population-adjusted basis between 1990 and 1999.
|
Table 2: Canadian corporate headquarters per 100,000 population |
|||
|
1990 |
1999 |
1990-1999 |
|
|
Montreal |
2.66 |
1.66 |
(37.6) |
|
Toronto |
3.64 |
2.71 |
(25.5) |
|
Calgary |
5.87 |
6.32 |
7.7 |
|
Vancouver |
2.80 |
1.83 |
(34.6) |
|
Sources: FP Business 1991 and 2000; calculations by the authors. |
|||
March Graph
Jason Clemens (jasonc@fraserinstitute.ca) is the Director of Fiscal Studies
at The Fraser Institute. He has a Masters Degree in Business Administration
from the University of Windsor.
Joel Emes (joele@fraserinstitute.ca) is
Senior Research Economist at The Fraser Institute. He has an M.A. in Economics
from Simon Fraser University.
info@fraserinstitute.ca
4th Floor, 1770 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6J 3G7
Tel: (604) 688-0221 Fax: (604) 688-8539 Book Orders: 1-800-665-3558 ext. 580
You can contact us at the above email address for any comments or information requests. Please report any dead links or technical problems.