The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. Kitchener, the largest city, is the seat of government.
The region is 1,370 square kilometres (530 sq mi) in area, with a population of 587,165 as of the 2021 Canada census, though an end of 2023 estimate puts the population above 673,910 people. Waterloo Region forms the tenth-largest metropolitan area in Canada, with recent population growth almost entirely fuelled by international students.
The region was formerly called Waterloo County, created in 1853 and dissolved in 1973. The county consisted of five townships: North Dumfries, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.
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History
Early Archaic hunters of the Bifurcate Base tradition were present in the area around 8300 years ago. They occupied the Kassel site (AiHd-71), a base camp, and the Blue Dart site (AiHd-89), which was likely a kill site; this followed typical hunter-gatherer occupation patterns.
Up to the 17th century, the Attawandaron (Neutral) nation inhabited the Grand River area. European explorers admired their farming practices.
In the wake of a smallpox epidemic and European incursions, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the Wendat (Huron) Confederacies waged war from 1642 to 1650. Invasion by the Haudenosaunee's Seneca and Mohawk nations ended Attawandaron independence.
In 1784, in recognition of Haudenosaunee support during the American War of Independence and the consequent loss of its land in New York state, the British government granted the Grand River valley to the Confederacy. The latter settled in the lower Grand River Valley, the present Brant County, and sold land in the upper Grand, now part of Waterloo Township, to Loyalist Colonel Richard Beasley. In 1816, William Dickson, a Scottish-born land speculator, acquired 90,000 acres (360 km2) along the Grand River, in present North and South Dumfries Townships, and the city of Cambridge.
North and South Dumfries Townships
Dickson planned to divide the tract into lots to sell to Scottish settlers. He and American-born miller, Absalom Shade, chose the confluence of Mill Creek and the Grand River to found Shade's Mills. In 1825, the growing settlement had a post office.
Despite settlers' reluctance, Dickson renamed the settlement Galt in honour of John Galt, a Scottish novelist and Canada Company Commissioner. Galt's visit in 1827 brought wider acceptance to the name change.
Initially serving local farmers, Galt's industrial development in the late 1830s eventually earned it the nickname "The Manchester of Canada". It remained the area's main town until Berlin overtook it at the beginning of the 20th century.
Kitchener-Waterloo
According to the City of Waterloo, indigenous people lived in the area, including the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and the Neutral Nation.
One report states that at least two "aboriginal settlements from the 1500s can now be identified near Schneider and Strasburg Creeks" in Kitchener. The finds include the remains of a First Nations village, estimated to be 500 years old, discovered in 2010 in the Strasburg Creek area with "artifacts going back as far as 9,000 years". In 2020, a site at Fischer-Hallman Road was found to include artifacts from a "Late Woodland Iroquois village" that was inhabited circa 1300 to 1600. Archeologists found some 35,000 objects including stone tools and a 4,000 year old arrowhead.
Settlement of the later Waterloo Township started in 1800 (in an area that is now Kitchener) by Joseph Schoerg (later called Sherk) and Samuel Betzner Jr. (brothers-in-law), Mennonites, from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Joseph Schoerg and his wife settled on Lot No.11, B.F. Beasley Block, S.R., on the bank of the Grand River opposite Doon, and Betzner and his wife settled on the west bank of the Grand River, on a farm near an area that is now the village of Blair.
As of March 2021, the homes built by these families' next generation still stand on Pioneer Tower Road, Kitchener. Built circa 1830, they are listed as historically important: the John Betzner homestead (restored) and the David Schoerg farmstead (not yet restored).
Other settlers followed, mostly from Pennsylvania, and also purchased land in Block Number 2, German Company Tract from Richard Beasley who had acquired a massive territory previously owned by the Six Nations.
The first school opened in 1802 near the village of Blair, then known as Shinglebridge; it became part of Preston, Ontario and then part of Cambridge, Ontario. The first teacher's name was Mr. Rittenhaus.
After 1803, many Pennsylvania pioneers bought lots from the German Company, established by Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The 60,000-acre section included most of Block 2 of the former Grand River Indian Lands acquired by Beasley and previously owned by the Six Nations Indians. Many farms were 400 or more acres in size.
Restructuring
In 1973, the regional municipality style of government was imposed on the county by the provincial government. The cities of Galt, Kitchener, and Waterloo were previously independent single tier municipalities prior to joining the newly formed regional municipality. In that major reorganization, the fifteen towns and townships of the county were reduced to just seven in the new Region of Waterloo. The new city of Cambridge was created through the amalgamation of the City of Galt, the towns of Preston and Hespeler, the Village of Blair, and various parcels of township land. One township vanished when the former Waterloo Township was divided among Woolwich Township and the three cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge. The settlement of Bridgeport was annexed to the city of Kitchener. The settlement of Erbsville was annexed to the city of Waterloo. The former county government was given broader powers as a regional municipality.
Regardless of the resistance, the amalgamation proceeded and became effective 1 January 1973, creating the Region of Waterloo, with Jack A. Young appointed by the provincial government as the first Regional Chair. The region took over many services, including police, waste management, recreation, planning, roads and social services.
Further municipal amalgamation began discussions in the 1990s, with little progress. In late 2005, Kitchener's city council voted to visit the subject again, with the possibility of reducing the seven constituent municipalities into one or more cities. A new proposal in 2010 would study only the merger of Kitchener and Waterloo, with a public referendum on whether the idea should be looked into. Kitchener residents voted 2–1 in favour of studying the merger while Waterloo residents voted 2–1 against. Waterloo city council voted against the study.
Government
The region's governing body is the 16 member Waterloo Regional Council. The council consists of the Regional Chair, the mayors of the seven cities and townships, and eight additional councillors – four from Kitchener and two each from Cambridge and Waterloo.
Beginning in 1978, the Regional Chair was appointed for a 2-year term by the councillors, who were elected by the citizens of Waterloo Region. James E. (Jim) Gray was appointed in 1978. In 1982, the Chair's term was extended to 3 years and Jim Gray was appointed for his third term. He retired in 1985. Ken Seiling held the position of Regional Chair from 1985 to 2018, when he declined to run again for the seat. His successor is Karen Redman.
Beginning with the 1997 election, the citizens of Waterloo Region have directly elected the chair. Of the nine regional municipalities in Ontario, Waterloo Region and the Regional Municipality of Halton are the only ones that allow for direct election of the chair.
Communities
Within the townships are many communities. Some were once independent and had their own reeves and councils but lost this status in amalgamation. These communities include: Ayr, Baden, Bloomingdale, Breslau, Conestogo, Doon, Elmira, Freeport, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Maryhill, New Dundee, New Hamburg, Petersberg, Roseville, St. Agatha, St. Clements, St. Jacobs, Wellesley, West Montrose, and Winterbourne.
Demographics
As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo had a population of 587,165 living in 222,426 of its 233,253 total private dwellings, a change of 9.7% from its 2016 population of 535,154. With a land area of 1,370.07 km2 (528.99 sq mi), it had a population density of 428.6/km2 (1,110.0/sq mi) in 2021.
Immigrants accounted for 22.6% of the region's total population according to the 2016 Canadian Census, while visible minorities accounted for 19.0% of the region's total population.
Economy
Waterloo Region is also experiencing significant commercial growth. The presence of two universities, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, acts as a catalyst for high-tech growth and innovation. The region is known for its high concentration of tech companies, such as BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion), OpenText, Kik, and Maplesoft. As such, it has often been referred to as "Canada's Silicon Valley".
Canada's top three fastest growing tech companies are located in the Region: Kitchener's ApplyBoard, Intellijoint Surgical, and Waterloo's Auvik Networks. The list also includes Kitchener's Smile.io, and Vidyard.
Major employers in the region
Waterloo Region District School Board (5,000 employees)
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (6,500 employees)
Manulife Financial (3,800 employees)
University of Waterloo (3,500 employees)
Sun Life Financial (3,300 employees)
BlackBerry Ltd (3,000 employees)
Waterloo Regional Health Network (4,800 employees)
ATS Automation Tooling Systems (1,800 employees)
City of Kitchener (1,700 employees)
Real estate
As of October 2023, the average (mean) selling price of a detached home sold on the Multiple Listing System of Waterloo Region was $890,591 (in Canadian dollars), an increase of 1.1 per cent compared to October 2022. The average selling price for an apartment style condominium was $476,166, a decrease of 2.6 per cent from October 2022. These prices are significantly less than prices in Toronto, where the average selling price for a detached home in the 416 area code was $1,718,440 in October 2023, and the average selling price for an apartment style condominium was $729,160.
Crime rate
The national average for the crime severity index was 78.10 per 100,000 people in 2022, while the rate was slightly higher for Waterloo Region at 79.12 per 100,000 people. By comparison, the rate for Ontario was 58.47 per 100,000 people, and nearby cities Guelph and London were 60.56 and 73.98 respectively. By comparison, "Canada's most dangerous place", North Battleford, Saskatchewan, had an index of 353 in 2016.
An updated report by Maclean's in 2019 ranked the Region as the 49th most dangerous community in Canada, with robbery approximately as prevalent as the Canadian average of 60 incidents per 100,000 people. The region has a homicide rate of 0.89 per 100,000, below the Canadian average of 1.68 per 100,000.
Services
Over time, many services have come to be delegated to the jurisdiction of the municipal government. These include police, emergency medical services, waste management, licensing enforcement, recycling, a food bank, and the public transit system. The main administration of these services is run from Kitchener, however many service offices may be found in different parts of the Region. For example, from a geographically central location in north Cambridge, maintenance operations and the police headquarters are able to manage operations and provide services to the entire service area.
Health care
Hospital services in the region are provided by Grand River Hospital which includes a Freeport Campus and St. Mary's General Hospital, both located in Kitchener, as well as Cambridge Memorial Hospital. All three were highly ranked for safety in a national comparison study in 2017–2018, particularly the two located in Kitchener, but all would benefit from reduced wait times. Long-term care beds are provided at numerous facilities, including the Village of Winston Park in Kitchener and Saint Luke's Place in Cambridge which were promised additional funding by the province in 2018 for expansion.
Grand River Hospital has a capacity of 574-beds; the Freeport location was merged into it in April 1995. That secondary campus provides complex continuing care, rehabilitation, longer-term specialized mental health and other services. The King St. location is also the home of the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre which opened in 2003. St. Mary's General Hospital is a 150-bed adult acute-care facility and includes the Regional Cardiac Care Centre with two cardiovascular operating rooms, an eight-bed cardiovascular intensive care unit and 45 inpatient beds.
As of late 2018, Cambridge Memorial had 143 beds but was in the midst of a major expansion. The general contractor went into receivership in late 2018 and that stalled the process; the new section was not expected to be completed until approximately 2021. The expansion will eventually add 54 new beds and double the size of the Emergency department.
Family doctors are often in short supply, and a source of great concern among residents. Recruiting efforts over the previous 15 years certainly achieved some success as of September 2018, but needed to be continued.
Announced January 2006, as a new School of Medicine, the Waterloo Regional Campus of McMaster University was completed in 2009. In 2018, the campus included "a complete on-site clinical skills laboratory with 4 skills rooms and 2 observation rooms, classrooms with video-conferencing capabilities and a state-of-the-art anatomy lab that was built in 2013 with a high definition video system", according to the university. Its Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine building includes the Centre for Family Medicine and the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science.
Transportation
Public transportation is provided by Grand River Transit, which is an amalgamation of the former Cambridge Transit and Kitchener Transit systems, the latter of which had also served the City of Waterloo for many decades.
In June 2011, regional council approved the plan for a light rail transit (LRT) line from Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo to Fairview Park Mall in south Kitchener, with rapid buses through to Cambridge. In Stage 1, the Ion rapid transit system runs between Waterloo and Kitchener, passing through the downtown/uptown areas. This phase opened in 2019.
Until light rail transit is extended to the downtown Galt area of Cambridge from Kitchener in Stage 2, the rapid transit link will use specially branded buses between Fairview Park Mall and the Ainslie Street Transit Terminal. Other stops for this Ion bus are at Hespeler Road at the Delta, Can-Amera, Cambridge Centre, Pinebush, and Sportsworld. The rapid transit bus uses bus-only priority traffic signals at Pinebush, Sportsworld, and other places to minimize slowdowns at times of heavy traffic.
Construction on the light rail system began in August 2014, and the Stage 1 service was expected to begin in late 2017. In 2016, however, the start date was changed to early 2018 because of delays in the manufacture and delivery of the vehicles by Bombardier Transportation. By March 2017 a single sample-only train car had arrived. All trams were eventually delivered by December 2018 and the service started operating on June 21, 2019.
By late February 2017, plans for the Stage 2 (Cambridge section) of the Ion rail service were in the very early stage with public consultations just getting started. (At least one journalist has pointed out the similarity between this plan and the electric Grand River Railway of the early 1900s.) As the original plan to share the CP Rail line had become unworkable since the original route had been planned, a new route between Kitchener and Preston was proposed. Multiple options for the new Stage 2 route were researched and presented to the public, with Regional Council approving the final route and preliminary design on April 22, 2020, and starting the required environmental assessment later in December.
Waterloo Region was the home of the first carsharing organization in Ontario in 1998. Community CarShare Cooperative (previously known as Grand River CarShare) provides access to vehicles on a self-serve, pay-per-use basis. Cars are located in many neighbourhoods around the Region. It is meant to complement other sustainable modes of transportation such as public transit, biking, and carpooling, or act as a transition out of owning a vehicle. Community CarShare has 27 vehicles stationed in the Region of Waterloo.
Education
Waterloo Region is home to the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College. For a list of all elementary and secondary schools in the area, see the List of Waterloo Region, Ontario schools.
Notable people
David Bauer, Canadian ice hockey player and coach, educator and Catholic priest, inductee into multiple sports halls of fame
Rich Beddoe is the drummer for the Canadian rock band Finger Eleven. He is from Cambridge, Ontario.
Hockey player Todd Bertuzzi of the Detroit Red Wings makes his offseason home in Kitchener.
Tim Brent is a hockey player from Cambridge, Ontario.
Khashayar Farzam, Powerlifter and physician
Amanda Burk, artist who grew up in Kitchener-Waterloo.
David Chilton, author of the financial planning guide The Wealthy Barber was born in Kitchener and lives in the region.
David Eby, Premier of British Columbia, was born and raised in Kitchener.
Author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell grew up in Elmira, Ontario.
Mike Hoffman, hockey player from Kitchener
David Johnston, former president of the University of Waterloo and Governor General of Canada lives in Wellesley Township.
Lisa LaFlamme, journalist, from Kitchener.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's longest serving prime minister, was born in Kitchener's predecessor Berlin, Ontario. His boyhood home is now Woodside National Historic Site.
Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion, came as a student to attend the University of Waterloo.