Toronto Board of Trade

The Toronto Board of Trade is Toronto's chamber of commerce, the largest local chamber of commerce in Canada, representing more than 10,000 business and individual members with about 500,000 employees across Canada and annual revenues of more than $200 billion (Canadian dollars).

It is a non-profit organization with a mandate to serve, represent and unite Toronto's business community. The Toronto Board of Trade offers business services, facilities, events, policy development and analysis, and advocacy to the city, provincial and federal governments. It develops and promotes policies and programs including affordable housing, public transit, youth/immigrant employment, and the development of a more competitive business environment.

It operates at five locations across Toronto: the Downtown Centre in the heart of the city's financial district, another near Toronto Pearson International Airport (moving to the Toronto Marriott Airport Hotel on April 2, 2007) and one each in Etobicoke, Ontario, Scarborough, Ontario, and North York, Ontario. The last three locations are the result of the integration of the Board with local chambers of commerce in those former cities, which were amalgamated into the City of Toronto in 1998. The Board also owns and operates the World Trade Centre Toronto, part of the global network of World Trade Centre operations, with a mandate to help the business community conduct business globally by alerting them to services and opportunities available locally and abroad.

History

It was founded 10 February, 1845 by an act of the legislature of Canada:Cquote
To promote and/or support such measures as, upon due consideration, are deemed calculated to advance and render prosperous the lawful trade and commerce and to foster the economic and social welfare of the City of Toronto... To advance in all lawful ways the commercial interests of the members of the Corporation generally and to secure the advantages to be obtained by mutual co-operation. ...each and every person carrying on trade and commerce of any kind, or being a Cashier, Manager or Director of any Financial Institution, Railway or Insurance Company, shall be eligible to become a member of the said Corporation.

Its first president was George Percival Ridout, who served in that position until 1852 when he was elected to the legislature. It grew slowly, and had only acquired 60 members by 1856. Until the 1860s, most members were traders, specifically wholesalers.

In 1884, it was amalgamated with the Toronto Corn Exchange Association. The Old Toronto Board of Trade Building (1892-1958), which housed the board, was Toronto's first skyscraper at seven storeys.In 1932-33, the board's name was officially changed to "The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Toronto".

References

* [http://www.bot.com/ Toronto Board of Trade home page]
* [http://www.bot.com/blog Toronto Board of Trade blog]
* "To serve the community: the story of Toronto's Board of Trade", Geoffrey Hunt Stanford, University of Toronto Press, 1974, ISBN 0-8020-3325-3.
* [http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/privlaw/214790/501.html Toronto, Board of Trade of the City of] - Private Acts dealing with the Board, from the Statutes of Canada, Department of Justice (Canada)