As the second largest and by far the most populous province in Canada, Ontario plays a huge role in the economy of the entire country. Home to several large cities including Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton, it has a diversified business environment that includes a well-developed and highly profitable technology sector. In 2025, this business segment is one of the major drivers of growth that employs a large number of people and contributes significantly to the public budget.
The story of continued prosperity of the IT sector in Ontario deserves to be told with more detail and with a proper historical perspective. What’s especially interesting is the ability of local companies to adjust to the changing global demand and continually answer to challenges in a quest to stay relevant.
Ontario as the National Technology Hub
There are several factors that made Ontario a natural candidate to host the bulk of Canadian high-tech companies. The province has always been comparatively wealthy and has abundant supply of highly educated cadre, with numerous universities located in urban areas producing experts necessary for high-tech firms to operate. Proximity to the US border is another hidden advantage, as it simplifies collaboration of Ontario-based businesses with their American counterparts and makes it easy for tech professionals to attend conferences and events south of the border.
Thanks to favorable conditions listed above and some visionary thinking, Ontario developed its IT industry very early and reaped significant benefits from over the decades. Local government is fully aware of the importance of innovation, and has supported the industry in many different ways. In particular, national capital Ottawa stands out for its friendly policies towards technology companies, which is why the region around it is sometimes described as Silicon Valley North, with around 1700 tech firms headquartered in this densely populated cluster.
Evolution of Canadian Tech From Blackberry to Shopify
Over the course of previous 30+ years, the marketplace for high-tech products and services has gone through several transformative changes. Throughout it all, Ontario-based businesses stayed ahead of the technology trends and in some cases demonstrated impressive capacities that allowed them to achieve worldwide success. Probably the most famous tech brand hailing from Ontario is Blackberry, which was synonymous with high-end handheld phones in the late 90s and early 2000s. Some of the other heavy-hitters from this era include Nortel, Uniphase, and Newbridge Networks.
Once the era of hardware gave way to online services, Ontario was again ready to take the lead. The province has a strong software industry and is home to many web-based businesses including the e-commerce behemoth Shopify, a market leader in its segment. The transition towards service-oriented business models fits into the overall trend for North American IT industry, proving that Ontario is staying a step ahead in the never-ending game of changing priorities and evolving strategies.
Nascent iGaming Industry Joins the Party
In recent years, one new sub-sector has been growing vigorously and now generates a lot of revenues for the province. We are talking about online gaming, which was made legal in Ontario only in 2022 but has exploded since then. Legalisation opened the doors for local players to participate in online game of chance, while also creating a domestic market for iGaming companies. With the interest for Powerplay Ontario’s casino and other local brands at a very high level, the opportunities for new companies to make a quick turnaround are obvious.
Given the foundation already in place in Ontario, it’s not a surprise that iGaming sector has taken off so quickly. This sector doesn’t require a huge investment into infrastructure and depends mostly on software to create revenues. Ontario has excellent software engineers, many of whom already have experience in this field from working on projects for foreign markets. Because of this, it is an attractive location for startups or established companies looking to tap into the newly created market.
How Can Ontario Maintain Its Position of Technology Leader?
Due to all of the above, Ontario is well-positioned to remain the most technologically advanced part of Canada for the foreseeable future. However, the rest of the world is quickly catching up and competition in IT business is heating up globally. At the same time, the pace of innovation is accelerating with artificial intelligence, VR/AR, and blockchain technology seen as key drivers of progress. This is not the time to rest on laurels, and Ontario tech industry will have to keep reinventing itself to stay in the game.
Canada has a good regulatory framework in place, competitive salaries for skilled workers, and fair taxation practices, which is attractive to IT companies as well as individual talent. Still, this is not enough to guarantee that success of the previous decades will be replicated under completely different circumstances. Private and public sector in Ontario should work together to ensure this is the case, and to remove remaining obstacles that constrain technology businesses. This is a matter of strategic interest, and should be treated as a first-order priority when it comes to allocating funds or implementing new policies.