Toronto mayor tells Amazon to come north if it’s rethinking New York for ‘HQ2’

TheStar.com
Feb. 13, 2019
David Rider

If Amazon is rethinking New York City as a second headquarters, the retail giant knows Toronto will welcome the tens of thousands of jobs with open arms, Mayor John Tory said Tuesday.

After speaking at a Pinterest Canada event, Tory was asked about a Washington Post report citing two sources saying Amazon is rethinking New York as co-host for its so-called “HQ2” amid political and community opposition to a new campus built with $2.8 billion (U.S.) in government incentives.

“I’ll just say I’ve communicated with the people of Amazon that we’re still here, they know that,” Tory said, adding local officials are in “continuous discussions” with Amazon officials about putting more jobs in Toronto, whether as part of the new headquarters or some other initiative.

“My message to them has continuously been we’d be delighted to have any aspect of Amazon’s operations here including part of their head office.”
Toronto in November learned it had lost its bid to host Amazon’s second headquarters to a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., and the New York borough of Queens.

Amazon had pitted North American cities against each other in an unprecedented competition to woo the booming company and its promise of up to 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion in local investment. Toronto was the only non-U.S. site to crack the 20-city short list.

But the Amazon deal is facing staunch opposition from some Democrats on New York city council and the state senate, who say too much was handed to one of the world’s richest companies.

The Washington Post on Friday quoted insiders as saying the opposition, including activists worried about famously high housing costs squeezing low-income earners even harder, has Amazon reconsidering New York and exploring alternatives.

Michael Gianaris, the No. 2 lawmaker in the Democrat-controlled senate, said Monday that the reports won’t make him reconsider his opposition. “New York is bigger than Amazon,” he said. “We don’t have to do what they want, especially if it’s the wrong thing.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio countered that his city expects tax revenues to drop $1 billion this year, and it needs the economic boost of 25,000 to 40,000 new Amazon jobs over 10 to 15 years. Observers say it’s possible Amazon is feigning cold feet to try to get more incentives.

Toronto’s bid was unusual in that details were made public and no special incentives were offered. The city highlighted its growing pool of talented tech workers, cultural diversity and immigrant-friendly policies, regional university network, government health care and cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Toronto Global, a federal agency that co-ordinated the Amazon bid, said Tuesday it recently updated the bid book with new census figures, is using it to pitch south-central Ontario to other international employers, and remains open “to discuss the growth of Amazon throughout the region.”

BMO Capital Markets recently reported that Toronto now has North America’s fourth largest tech sector --and the fastest growing, outpacing Silicon Valley and Amazon’s Seattle home base.

Some of Toronto’s growth has come from Amazon, which in December announced 600 new jobs over five years, expanding a downtown footprint that already includes about 800 “Amazonians” in Canada’s biggest city.

In the unlikely event the online behemoth looks north as part of a HQ2 rethink, it’s likely the same protests seen in New York --potentially negative effects on a housing situation many already call an affordability crisis, and aging city infrastructure strained by rapid growth --will arise here.

But Tory, a former Rogers chief executive, says he will keep pitching international companies on setting up shop in Toronto or expanding existing operations here.

“That’s why we see some of these global companies growing so fast here,” the mayor said of the city’s attractiveness to international employers.

“It’s not so much because the Canadian business itself is growing but it’s because they’re performing global functions from here because we have smart people here, and a way of life that the people find very attractive so (companies) can bring people from all over the world.”