Markham hosted the Canada2080 kickoff. Here is why that work belongs here.

On 4 October 2026 I welcomed the room at the Hilton Toronto/Markham Suites Conference Centre. I said the future is not guaranteed. It is made. Soaring technology, cleaner energy, longer lives, and thriving communities are a picture, not a promise. Abundance has to be shared, and resilience has to be built on purpose.

The speakers who followed took that question into their own fields. The recap is the record of what they said. I will not repeat their talks here. What follows is what the afternoon means for Markham.

What the Prime Minister has already put on the table

On 14 and 15 September 2026, Toronto hosted the first Canada Investment Summit. The Prime Minister convened it with CPP Investments and PSP Investments. The public aim is long-horizon capital into productive assets, including artificial intelligence and the energy that makes that work possible. I wrote about that summit in an earlier note. The kickoff in Markham was a local test of the same idea: capital and talent only help if the work is built where people live.

Why Markham, and why now

Markham is a technology city. Employers and young technical talent are already here, across software, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and the services around them. Ontario’s electricity system is a real advantage for compute. So is geography. We sit inside the largest labour market in the country, with universities and colleges a commute away.

Waterloo showed Ontario how a region can lead in technology, through co-operative education and firms that grew up beside the campus. That record stands. The next chapter is broader. Artificial intelligence needs power, places to build, and a steady supply of young people who can stay and start companies. A city that already has the employers, the grid, and the families does not have to wait for that work to land somewhere else.

This is a different bet from the one being made in Western Canada, where governments are talking about new oil pipelines, port capacity, and the trade that moves resources to tidewater. That is a resource economy. Markham’s economy is labs, product teams, and the jobs that sit next to them. Both can be Canadian. They are not the same plan, and a technology city should be clear about which one it is building.

What I will keep doing

Since I have been on council I have pushed for technology investment in Markham, and for young people to live and start companies here. Supporting the Canada2080 gathering in our ballroom was a concrete version of that. The next version is ordinary and local: more room for firms that hire here, more reason for a graduate to stay, and a public record of whether the jobs arrived.

If you want the speakers in their own words, read the recap. If you want to talk about what a technology employer needs in this city, my office is open.