Markham
City (lower-tier)
City of Markham
Markham Civic Centre
Flag Coat of arms Logo
Nickname:  The High-Tech Capital
Motto:  Leading While Remembering
Location of Markham within York Region
Markham Markham in relation to southern Ontario
Coordinates: 43°52′36″N 79°15′48″W / 43.87667°N 79.26333°W / 43.87667; -79.26333[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Regional Municipality	York Region
Settled	1794 (Thornhill and Unionville)
Incorporated	1872 (village) 1971 (town) 2012 (city)
Government
• Mayor	Frank Scarpitti
• Deputy Mayor	Michael Chan
• Governing Body	Markham City Council
• MPs	List of MPs Paul Chiang (L) Mary Ng (L) Helena Jaczek (L) Melissa Lantsman (C)
• MPPs	List of MPPs Paul Calandra (PC) Logan Kanapathi (PC) Laura Smith (PC) Billy Pang (PC)
Area [2]
• Total	210.93 km2 (81.44 sq mi)
Elevation	200 m (700 ft)
Population  (2021)[2]
• Total	338,503 (16th)
• Density	1,604.8/km2 (4,156/sq mi)
Demonym	Markhamite
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Forward Sortation Area	L3P to L3S, L6B to L6G
Area codes	905, 289, 365, and 742
ISO 3166-2	CA-ON
GNBC Code	FDNFZ[1]
Website	www.markham.ca

Markham (/ˈmɑːrkəm/) is a city in York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503,^[2] which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and 16th largest in Canada.^[3]

The city gained its name from the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe (in office 1791–1796), who named the area after his friend, William Markham, the Archbishop of York from 1776 to 1807.

Indigenous people lived in the area of present-day Markham for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the area.^[4] The first European settlement in Markham occurred when William Berczy, a German artist and developer, led a group of approximately sixty-four German families to North America. While they planned to settle in New York, disputes over finances and land tenure led Berczy to negotiate with Simcoe for 26,000 ha (64,000 acres) in what would later become Markham Township in 1794.^[5] Since the 1970s, Markham rapidly shifted from being an agricultural community to an industrialized municipality due to urban sprawl from neighbouring Toronto.^[6] Markham changed its status from town to city on July 1, 2012.^[7]

As of 2013^[update], tertiary industry mainly drives Markham. As of 2010^[update], "business services" employed the largest proportion of workers in Markham – nearly 22% of its labour force.^[8] The city also has over 1,000^[9] technology and life-sciences companies, with IBM as the city's largest employer.^[10][11] Several multinational companies have their Canadian headquarters in Markham, including: Honda Canada, Hyundai,^[12] Advanced Micro Devices,^[13] Johnson & Johnson, General Motors, Avaya,^[14] IBM,^[15] Motorola,^[16] Oracle,^[17] Toshiba,^[18] Toyota Financial Services,^[19] Huawei, Honeywell, General Electric^[20] and Scholastic Canada.^[21]

History

Indigenous people lived in the area of present-day Markham since the end of the last Ice Age and the city is situated on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Huron Wendat, Petun and Neutral people.^[4][22] In the early 1600s, when explorers from France arrived, they encountered the Huron-Wendat First Nation.^[4] The southwest corner of Markham is included in Treaty 13, known as the Toronto Purchase of 1787, which transferred roughly 250,800 acres of land from the Mississauga people to the British Crown for 10 shillings and fishing rights on the Etobicoke river.^[4][23] The remainder of Markham's land (roughly east of Woodbine Avenue/Highway 404) is covered by the Johnson-Butler Purchase of 1787-88 (aka Gunshot Treaty) and formally by the Williams Treaties, signed in 1923.^[4]

Objects recovered by local mill-owners, the Milne family, in the 1870s give evidence of a village within the boundaries of the present Milne Conservation Area.^[22]

European settlement in Markham first began in 1794.^[24] The Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe (in office 1791–1796), named the township of Markham, north of the town of York (now Toronto), after his friend William Markham, then Archbishop of York. William Berczy first surveyed Markham as a township in 1793, and in 1794 led 75 German families (including the Ramers, Reesors, Wheters, Burkholders, Bunkers, Wicks and Lewis) from Upstate New York to an area of Markham now known as German Mills.^[25] Each family was granted 81 ha (200 acres) of land; however the lack of roads in the region led many to settle in York (present-day Toronto) and Niagara. German Mills later became a ghost town. Between 1803 and 1812 another attempt at settling the region was made. The largest group of settlers were Pennsylvania Dutch, most of them Mennonites. These highly skilled craftsmen and knowledgeable farmers settled the region and founded Reesorville, named after the Mennonite settler Joseph Reesor.^[26] In 1825 Reesorville was renamed to Markham and took the name of the unincorporated village (see Markham Village, Ontario).

By 1830, many Irish, Scottish and English families began immigrating to Upper Canada and settling in Markham.^[27] Markham's early years blended the rigours of the frontier with the development of agriculture-based industries.^{[citation needed]} The township's many rivers and streams soon supported water-powered saws and gristmills and later wooden mills. With improved transportation routes, such as the construction of Yonge Street in the 1800s, along with the growing population, urbanization increased. In 1842 the township population had reached 5,698; 11,738 ha (29,005 acres) were under cultivation (second highest in the province), and the township had eleven gristmills and twenty-four sawmills.^[28]

In 1846 Smith's Canadian Gazetteer indicated a population of about 300, mostly Canadians, Pennsylvanian Dutch (actually Pennsylvania Deitsch or German), other Germans, Americans, Irish and a few from Britain. There were two churches with a third being built. There were tradesmen of various types, a grist mill, an oatmill mill, five stores, a distillery and a threshing-machine maker. There were eleven grist and twenty-four saw mills in the surrounding township.^[29] In 1850 the first form of structured municipal government formed in Markham.^[30]

By 1857 most of the township had been cleared of timber and was under cultivation. Villages like Thornhill, Unionville and Markham greatly expanded.^[31] In 1851 Markham Village "was a considerable village, containing between eight and nine hundred inhabitants, pleasantly situated on the Rouge River. It contains two grist mills ... a woollen factory, oatmeal mill, barley mill and distillery, foundry, two tanneries, brewery, etc., a temperance hall and four churches... ."^[32] In 1871, with a township population of 8,152,^[33] the Toronto and Nipissing Railway built the first rail line to Markham Village and Unionville, which is still used today by the GO Transit commuter services.

In 1971 Markham was incorporated as a town, as its population skyrocketed due to urban sprawl from Toronto. In 1976 Markham's population was approximately 56,000. Since that time, the population has more than quintupled, with explosive growth in new subdivisions. Much of Markham's farmland has disappeared, but some still remains north of Major Mackenzie Drive. Controversy over the development of the environmentally-sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine will likely^{[original research?]} curb development north of Major Mackenzie Drive and by Rouge National Urban Park east of Reesor Road between Major Mackenzie Drive to Steeles Avenue East to the south.

Since the 1980s Markham has been recognized^{[by whom?]} as a suburb of Toronto. As of 2006^[update] the city comprises six major communities: Berczy Village, Cornell, Markham Village, Milliken, Thornhill and Unionville. Many high-tech companies have established head offices in Markham, attracted by the relative abundance of land, low tax-rates and good transportation routes. Broadcom Canada, ATI Technologies (now known as AMD Graphics Product Group), IBM Canada, Motorola Canada, Honeywell Canada and many other well-known companies have chosen Markham as their home in Canada. The city has accordingly started branding itself as Canada's "High-Tech Capital". The province of Ontario has erected a historical plaque in front of the Markham Museum to commemorate the founding of Markham's role^{[clarification needed]} in Ontario's heritage.^[34]

Town council voted on May 29, 2012, to change Markham's legal designation from "town" to "city"; according to Councillor Alex Chiu, who introduced the motion, the change of designation merely reflects the fact that many people already think of Markham as a city.^[7] Some residents objected to the change because it will involve unknown costs without any demonstrated benefits. The designation officially took effect on July 1.^[7]

Geography

Markham covers 212.47 km² (82.04 sq mi) and Markham's city centre is at 43°53′N 79°15′W / 43.883°N 79.250°W / 43.883; -79.250 (Markham city centre). It is bounded by five municipalities; in the west is Vaughan with the boundary along Yonge Street between Steeles Avenue and Highway 7 and Richmond Hill with the boundary along Highway 7 from Yonge Street to Highway 404 and at Highway 404 from Highway 7 to 19th Avenue and Stouffville Road. In the south, it borders Toronto with the boundary along Steeles Avenue. In the north it borders Whitchurch–Stouffville with the boundary from Highway 404 to York-Durham Line between 19th Avenue and Stouffville Road. In the east it borders Pickering along York-Durham Line.

Topography

Markham's average altitude is at 200 m (660 ft) and in general consists of gently rolling hills. The city is intersected by two rivers; the Don River and Rouge River, as well as their tributaries. To the north is the Oak Ridges Moraine, which further elevates the elevation towards the north.

Climate

Markham borders and shares the same climate as Toronto. On an average day, Markham is generally 1–2 °C (1.8–3.6 °F) cooler than in downtown Toronto. It has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) and features warm, humid summers with rainfall occurring from May to October and cold, snowy winters. The highest temperature recorded was 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) on August 8, 2001, during the eastern North America heat wave and the lowest temperature recorded was −35.2 °C (−31.4 °F) on January 16, 1994, during the 1994 North American cold wave.^[35]