[LeftCoaster]

First off let me apologize for saying you were unwilling to discuss this rationally, it was uncalled for. i did it because you seem to be twisting what I am saying and ignoring key points what I am posting which I find extremely frustrating. Perhaps it is my fault for not properly articulating my argument. i will try to be very clear here, and do not mistake it for me patronizing you, I am just trying to be as clear as possible to avoid any confusion.

Moving on, let me be very clear I am not saying that the entire Toronto economy is running off the oil sands, not even close. Toronto's economy is quite healthy and diverse, you will never catch me arguing the inverse.

What I did say was that the majority of the growth of the finance sector has been thanks to the oil sands. I dont have hard evidence to back me up, but I just finished a degree where the majority of my peers are now working in finance, predominantly i-banking and consulting, and when we talk shop the majority of what they are working on is energy related. It is somewhat logical however that this is true if you consider the following:

No doubt there is a ton of mining and traditional commerce functions still being performed by the banks, but those industries have not seen major growth lately so they have stayed at similar sizes within the banks. An industry that has seen major growth in Canada however is the energy sector, and hence where the banks have seen major growth is in the energy sector. So while the traditional areas are still important, much of the growth of our financial services has been due to energy.

An example, say the bank employs 1,000 people in year 1, 800 in traditional markets and 200 in energy and in year 2 they employ 1200 people, 850 in traditional markets and 350 in energy. The banks still saw good growth and are still healthy in their traditional markets, but the majority of their growth has come from energy.

Now this is just the banks sure, but it is important to note that there are a few top down industries in every economy, that fuel many of the other industries. In Calgary it is O&G, in Vancouver it is Mining and in Toronto the largest of these industries is finance. And while not everyone is working in finance the majority of Torontonians owe their employ to finance, as most other white collar professions work along side the banks, the entertainment industry is supported by wages of bankers and said white collar workers, construction workers build the condos for the white collars entertainment industry etc... It all trickles down from the upper industries.

So while without the oil sands I think Toronto's economy would still be fine as it is diverse and healthy, I'm saying that the majority of the exceptional growth we have seen lately is due to the oil sands. And that isn't a bad thing, it is important for cities to capitalize on booms like this, and the fact that Toronto can from thousands of miles away is amazing IMO.