Markham launches campaign to attract the bid for Amazon's HQ2

Markham is Canada’s high tech capital, and it wants the world to know it.

The world, but especially Amazon.

The City of Markham launched its #ChooseMarkham campaign on Monday, aiming to attract the bid for Amazon’s HQ2.

“Markham is a part of the Toronto-wide bid for Amazon’s HQ2,” tweeted Mayor Frank Scarpitti‏. “We are proud to be a part of the bid which demonstrates our strength as a region to compete globally.”

Anything is Possible with the international talent pool here in #Markham Most diverse city in #Canada High percentage of Post-Secondary educated workforce #chooseMarkham pic.twitter.com/y897RrFRIq

— Mayor Frank Scarpitti (@frankscarpitti) May 7, 2018

The GTA city proclaimed May 7 to 13 “Innovation Week” in Markham, a place that’s home to more than 1,500 high-tech and life sciences companies.

According to the City, more than 60% of Markham’s population has a post-secondary education, and it has the lowest industrial and commercial tax rates in region.

City of Markham

As Toronto continues its bid for Amazon’s new HQ2, Amazon officials were in the region in March as they visited the 20 shortlisted cities.

According to Toronto Global, the city held two days of meetings with the officials, who were “very interested in hearing more about our tech sector and the benefits that come from our publicly funded health care and education systems.”

Toronto was one of 238 cities bidding for Amazon’s new HQ2. In Canada, bids were received from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, and even Langford – a suburb of Victoria.

Chicago, LA, Dallas, New York City, and Boston, among others, are all up against Toronto.

Amazon HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America, and the company expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.

They expect to make a final decision sometime in 2018.

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