The Suburbanization of Offices: A Canadian Example

Abstract

<p> The emergence of the office sector as the largest sector in the Canadian economy has attracted increasing amounts of attention in academic literature. Recently, offices have followed the trends of residential, industrial and retail activity and have chosen to locate in the suburbs of metropolitan areas. North York is a typical example of a suburb where the office sector is growing faster than the offices in the metropolitan CBD. This research paper examines the sectoral growth of office employment in the central areas of North York and the City of Toronto. The research concludes that Metropolitan Toronto exhibits the selective decentralization of offices, that is, the suburbanization of low order, routine office functions to the suburbs leaving a CBD dominated by high order, decision-making office functions. The paper also examines the possible physical and social implications of the suburbanization of offices and the associated planning implications.</p>