Toronto is the 'lowest risk city’ for business

CANADA - According to Aon Consulting's People Risk Index, which compares 90 major global cities for demographics, education, employment practices and government regulations, Toronto is the lowest risk city in the world for business. Toronto is also the most desirable city in the world to start a business, recruit, hire, train and transfer employees.

According to the study's results, Toronto beat out rivals NYC, Singapore, London and Montreal to become the best city for business. Toronto and Montreal both did well because of Canada's lower levels of corruption, equal opportunity, less monopolies and a slew of health and retirement benefits which companies don't have to worry about.

The highest risk cities in comparison were Dhaka in Bangladesh; Phnom Penh in Cambodia; Lagos in Nigeria; Karachi in Pakistan; and Tehran in Iran. These cities have problems with the local government which tends to be confrontational, non-transparent and ignore workers rights and the rights of businesses.

The study however points out that Toronto could be better, because Toronto employers are not hiring enough people for "specialized financial jobs and design/visual arts jobs" to gain a creative edge on the competition.

Plus all the cities in North America are now facing an aging babyboomer workforce and a shortage of experienced and skilled workers. Part of the problem is that many of these skilled-labour jobs are currently filled by people near retirement and many North American companies have failed to create mentoring programs wherein they can replace those skilled positions eventually.

Meanwhile Toronto also ranked 12th in the latest Global Financial Centres Index. Its believed Toronto may reach the top 10 by 2015.