Kingston is a midsize city that is home to over 172,000 residents at the place where the Cataraqui and St. Lawrence Rivers flow into Lake Ontario. Europeans settled the area in the 1600s on First Nation lands named Katarokwi, calling it King’s Town in honor of Britain’s George III. Kingston, as it became known, went on to serve as Canada’s first capital – and that federal connection continues to this day. Kingston is home to Canadian Forces Base Kingston, Corrections Canada, the Royal Military College of Canada and various departments of the federal and provincial government.
The significant role of federal spending in the economy represents both a benefit and a risk to the city. After decades of excessive dependence on federal spending, Kingston has created innovative, diverse economy that delivers growth and hedges against policy change at the national level Kingston has planned and executed carefully to create an innovative, diverse economy that delivers growth and hedges against policy change at the national level.
Data and Economic Development
The city-owned Utilities Kingston provides electric, water and sanitation to the city – and also operates a 1,000-kilometer dark-fiber network, supplemented by fixed wireless in hard-to-reach areas. Low cost of deployment has attracted multiple service providers to provision and manage business and residential services to customers. Business customers include global companies such as DuPont, INVISTA, Frulact, IDEXX, IPG Photonics and Umicore.
The city’s economic development strategy has centered on another of its strengths: a robust academic sector anchored by Queen's University, a top research institution, and St. Lawrence College, a leading applied-learning institution with schools of business, computer and engineering technology, health sciences, and skilled trades. Together with the Royal Military College of Canada, these institutions give Kingston the second largest talent pool in Eastern Ontario and one of the most highly educated populations in the nation.
Queen’s University serves 28,000 students, mostly undergraduate, and has Canada’s highest graduation rate at 89%, with 95% of students gaining employment within six months of graduation. Overall, the city has Canada’s highest per-capita percentage of Ph.D.s and over 42,000 students in post-secondary education. The challenge for the university and the city – which work in close partnership, guided by a formal strategy to which leaders of both organizations are committed – is to connect enough of those promising graduates to local career opportunity to benefit both them and the city.
Diversity in Innovation
To that end, Queen’s has an assistant vice president of economic development in its leadership team. It developed an Ingenuity Lab Research Institute stocked with robots and robotic components, which allow students to develop projects with commercial potential. The Queen’s Innovation Centre gives budding entrepreneurs training and support in business skills, while the Queen’s Translational Institute of Medicine (TIME) provides research, facilities, equipment and students to help small companies develop medical technologies. TIME is currently building out a C$15 million facility for state-of-the-art research equipped with equipment that can track processes at the cellular level, deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier, and support development of personalized medicine.
With these assets at work, the city has established a track record of success for startups and scale-ups. Octane Medical Group, a biotech company, creates production technologies to rapidly scale medical treatments. IPG Photonics, a spin-out from Queens University, created a technology that can instantly assess the quality of welding, saving substantial time and money in manufacturing. The crossroads of the startup scene is 945 Princess Street, home to coworking spaces, offices, labs and Reaction Hub, an accelerator for specialty chemical businesses formed by company founders, universities and sector nonprofits.
Creative Industries
Talent is not just for technology. Kingston operates a Film Office to support local production companies in attracting location filming and staff the resulting productions with local talent. A new animation studio is also under construction. A Music Office works to leverage the Kingston origins and decades-long career of the Canadian rock band, The Tragically Hip. Supporting its development work is a Queen’s University BA program in music, and music business training from high schools and St. Laurence College. The proximity to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal is an advantage for local musicians because they offer a large market of music venues where musicians can perform.
Kingston complements its academic and research capacity with innovative workforce and talent initiatives. The city developed the NEST* Program, which helps relocating professionals and their families integrate into Kingston by supporting spousal employment, housing searches and community connections. The program also serves newcomers undergoing the immigration process, which has made it a vital tool for attracting and retaining global talent.
The city further supports talent attraction with its Possible Made Here and bilingual counterpart Tout Est Possible Ici platforms that provide interactive tools like job search engines, cost-of-living calculators and neighborhood quizzes. Meanwhile, the Queen’s Career Apprenticeship Program connects Arts and Science graduates with employers through subsidized, year-long apprenticeships, resulting in more than $2.7 million in new payroll and the program’s expansion into other Canadian communities and the U.S.
Fostering Community Engagement
Kingston has made public engagement a central principle of its governance, seeking to embed transparency, trust and collaboration into its decision-making processes. The City’s Public Engagement Framework guides consistent outreach across neighborhoods and sectors, supported by digital tools that make participation more accessible. Get Involved Kingston, the city’s online hub for engagement, is among the highest-performing platforms in Canada. With more than 18,000 registered participants representing 14% of the population, it supports both local and citywide consultations, on topics ranging from park improvements to the official plan. In 2024, residents provided nearly 9,000 pieces of feedback, with participation doubling year-over-year. A 2025 consultation on a proposed sports stadium drew more than 10,000 visits and 1,450 contributions, one of the largest engagement efforts in Kingston’s history.
The city also fosters inclusion and cultural connection through targeted initiatives. The Welcome to Kingston app, developed with community partners, helps newcomers access essential services, cultural events and community organizations in 15 languages. Kingston has also prioritized reconciliation and Indigenous engagement, supporting initiatives like the Katarowki Indigenous Art and Food Market, Indigenous programming at festivals and the “Engage for Change” project to strengthen relationships with Indigenous Peoples. The Mayor records monthly city podcasts and regular video updates to provide context and more information on issues brought up at each City Council meeting. These tools and programs combine digital accessibility with cultural inclusivity, ensuring that residents are informed, connected and empowered to shape the city’s evolution.
Life, Health and Sustainability
Kingston has placed sustainability at the center of its development strategy, recognizing that long-term economic growth and community well-being depend on responsible stewardship of resources. The city was the first in Ontario to declare a climate emergency in 2019 and the first in Canada to adopt a protocol for sustainable energy procurement. Its Climate Leadership Plan sets an ambitious target of carbon neutrality by 2040 and integrates both mitigation and adaptation strategies. Planned actions span transportation, buildings and energy, waste, food systems and forestry, with initiatives including establishing LEED-certified facilities, expanding organic waste diversion, growing in local food production and planting thousands of new trees annually. Kingston is further supporting these efforts with investments in an electrified municipal fleet, including buses, Zambonis and a new electric ferry, alongside expanded EV charging stations on land and even for boats.
In 2010, the city began nine-year reconstruction of Princess Street, Kingston’s main commercial artery, to replace end-of-life utilities while separating sanitary and storm sewers to prevent overflows into Lake Ontario and flooding in downtown businesses. This complex project was phased to minimize disruption to the tourism economy, with winter construction allowing streets to reopen for summer visitors – an innovation rarely attempted in Ontario. Such work underscores Kingston’s ability to blend environmental priorities with economic and cultural vitality. Other initiatives include upgrades to wastewater treatment facilities, where waste methane fuels a generator that produces 370 kW of electricity, covering about a quarter of the plant’s needs while providing heat for buildings and digesters.
Kingston is also focusing heavily on community-driven action to advance sustainability. The Kingston Community Climate Action Fund, now in its fifth year, channels financial support and public awareness into local projects led by nonprofits and charities. In 2025, Extend-A-Family Kingston’s GrowAbility Hydroponic Greenhouse Project received support to scale two greenhouses capable of producing over 10,000 heads of lettuce annually using 90% less water than traditional farming. This initiative eliminates soil and transport emissions while strengthening local food resiliency.
Mclean’s magazine has recognized Kingston as one of the best places to live in Canada, with a thriving downtown, vibrant art and theater scene and high-class restaurant and bar district. Combining its strengths in connectivity, ongoing development of a high-skilled workforce and a well-established innovation ecosystem, Kingston is ready to adapt and prosper through the continuing waves of change crossing the world’s economy.
Population: 172,000
Labor Force: 90,000
Website: www.cityofkingston.ca, www.investkingston.ca
Kingston Tourism: http.visitkingston.ca.
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