The downtown Calgary skyline is shown in July, 2008.Larry MacDougal
For four decades, Toronto has held the undisputed crown of head office capital of Canada. But those days may be numbered as Calgary makes inroads into Toronto's lead.
Toronto is still the kingpin in overall number of major corporate headquarters, with more than double the head offices of No. 2 Calgary, according to figures released by Calgary Economic Development. Trailing in third place is Montreal, which once dominated the rankings for large head offices.
That means Toronto still boasts much larger numbers of highly skilled professionals and managers who inhabit head offices. But Calgary's trend is on the rise while Toronto has experienced a decline in head offices over the past decade, the Calgary agency says.
Calgary has widened its leadership in another key measure - the number of major headquarters per 100,000 population. In 2009, the western city, whose population exceeds a million, boasted 9.3 head offices per 100,000 people, almost double Toronto's 4.7 head offices per 100,000.
Vancouver ranked third among Canada's top six census metropolitan areas, and its numbers are also up from nine years ago.
The definition of a head office is where a large company, with multiple branches, locates top leadership and administrative functions.
Calgary's increasing muscle arises from factors such as Alberta's low tax rate, its supply of qualified managers and quality of life. But the biggest asset is its status as Canada's energy capital. Indeed, 84 of Calgary's top 114 head offices, or 73.7 per cent, hail from the energy sector.
The economic development agency sees this as both threat and opportunity. It's a threat because this success in energy could breed complacency and suck dynamism from other sectors. But there is the opportunity to build a global centre that cuts across all forms of energy.
So Calgary faces a dilemma. To rise farther as a head office city - and strike fear into rival Toronto - it has to get beyond oil and gas. But not too far. Oil, after all, is what carried it to this point.