Celebrating an Unstoppable Hamilton

HAMILTON, ON – There were no tricks at the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce’s annual City Manager’s breakfast this morning, with Mayor Fred Eisenberger introducing the City’s ‘Unstoppable Hamilton’ campaign – a city-wide anthem speaking to Hamilton’s tenacious spirit that set the theme for the Hamilton-Amazon HQ2 bid. The bid document is now available for viewing at www.unstoppablehamilton.ca.

City Scores High on Tech Talent, Connectivity & Thriving Business Environment

City Manager Chris Murray then addressed over 300 attendees from the business community and members of municipal and provincial government, reflecting on the HQ2 proposal. Mr. Murray highlighted key assets and attributes of the province, region and city that would attract a company like Amazon. But, the city manager stressed that these are underpinning assets for the area as a hospitable place of future investment for many industries:

• Ontario has the second-largest tech cluster in the world next to Silicon Valley
• The Golden Horseshoe region will explode to more than 13.5 million people by 2041; currently, 2.3 million live within 30 miles of downtown Hamilton
• Hamilton has the country’s most diversified economy according to the Conference Board of Canada
• Hamilton is the second best place in Canada to get a job according to the Bank of Montreal’s latest regional labour market report
• Hamilton is the only Golden Horseshoe city that offers every mode of transportation within its municipal boundary, including two international rail lines and the busiest port of all the great lakes ports
• Hamilton is in proximity to 23 research universities and technical colleges – the largest cluster in Canada

In addition, Mr. Murray emphasized the city’s affordable quality of life; diversity; a vibrant arts, culture and culinary scene; world class health-care; and, relevant to the Amazon bid, Hamilton’s robust broadband infrastructure.

Underscoring that point, Mr. Murray announced that Hamilton passed a rigorous evaluation process and was recently named a finalist in the Intelligent Community Forum’s Smart21 2018 Intelligent Community Award. This recognition places Hamilton shoulder-to-shoulder with global cities that embrace the idea of building a high-quality internet infrastructure to revolutionize how we work, play, live, educate and entertain ourselves.

“The collaborative nature of our Amazon HQ2 bid underpins the spirit of our community. I'm grateful to have aligned with the City of Burlington and Region of Niagara to showcase our broader regional capabilities. This opportunity is in keeping with the continued work to highlight our city on an international level. The work that's been done on this bid positions us to seek additional major opportunities and build our capacity for employment, industrial taxes and community development." - Mayor Fred Eisenberger

“The Amazon HQ2 bid was a phenomenal opportunity for us to take stock of where we are as a city, and to really reflect on what is real and what is possible – hence our Unstoppable title that shifts Hamilton beyond just an ambitious city. There’s an undeniable forward motion, and it is very motivating to be amongst an energetic community of people inside and outside of city hall making it all happen.” - Chris Murray, City Manager, City of Hamilton

Additional resources

• Amazon is expected to make an announcement on the location for HQ2 in 2018
• To view the City of Hamilton’s Amazon HQ2 bid proposal and to support the Unstoppable Hamilton campaign, visit www.unstoppablehamilton.ca
• View the Unstoppable Hamilton campaign video
• View more information on the Intelligent Community Forum’s Smart21 Intelligent Community Award