Crack smoking Toronto mayor feels slighted in $100 million investment plan
Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is feeling slighted by Cisco. His crack smoking honor wasn’t invited to the Cisco announcement that it’s investing $100 million in the city as one of its four global innovation hubs.
Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly was invited instead. Since Ford was stripped of most of his powers last fall after confessing to smoking crack and other inebriated faux pas, Kelly has been the functional head of Toronto’s municipal government.
But it’s not just the announcement snub that has Ford feeling sorry for himself. He’s miffed that nobody thanked him for creating the environment that attracted Cisco to Canada’s largest city: the low, business-friendly taxes, the booming economy, the unmitigated expansion and sprawl…
Toronto must have been a ghost town before Rob Ford wafted in like a fog and lifted the city to new highs, er, heights. At least, that’s what Rob Ford’s hazy recollection is.
Cisco’s investment in Toronto will be spread over 10 years to research and incubate Internet of Everything technologies. It dovetails with the company’s $4 billion, 10 year investment in the Province of Ontario to create 1,700 jobs, and multimillion dollar investment in 10 Canadian universities to establish research chairs.
Toronto is one of four such IoE Innovation Centres. The others are in Songdo, South Korea; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Germany. The Toronto Innovation Centre will be located in the Oxford Properties’ new RBC WaterPark Place, scheduled for completion in spring 2015.
RBC WaterPark Place will also be home to Cisco’s new Canadian headquarters. The building will be the first commercial office tower in North America to take advantage of a fully integrated IP-based building and energy network, Cisco says.
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