Janet Ecker has spent her career championing public-private collaboration - from Bay Street to Queen's Park, in Canada and beyond.
A leader in politics and finance, she has helped build Toronto's reputation as a global financial hub. She also shared her expertise with the University of Toronto, providing the university with crucial oversight as both vice-chair and chair of Governing Council.
Today, for her outstanding contributions as a public official and for her dedicated service to U of T, Ecker will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the university.
Born in 1953, Ecker grew up in Exeter, Ont., where her father was a family physician. She earned a bachelor's of arts degree in journalism from Western University, then worked for the Ontario Treasury and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. In the mid-1980s, she became active with the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, later winning election in Durham West and serving in Mike Harris's majority government.
During her time in politics, Ecker held multiple portfolios, including minister of community and social services and, under Premier Ernie Eves, minister of finance. She was the first woman in Ontario history to deliver a provincial budget.
After leaving public life in 2003, Ecker became founding president of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, a public-private partnership that advocates for boosting the Toronto region's global role in finance.
In a 2009 op-ed in the Toronto Star , she and co-writer Don Drummond, then-chief economist at TD Bank, identified several strategies for growing Toronto's financial industry. (They noted that the sector employed more people in Canada - and generated more GDP - than mining, agriculture or oil and gas.)
Their suggestions included capitalizing on Canada's reputation for weathering the financial crisis by creating a global institute for risk management. They also argued for strengthening Toronto's leadership position in sustainable finance and pension management. "We find that our value proposition is strong, but the awareness needs to grow," Ecker said in a 2010 interview with the Star .
Speaking at the Empire Club in Toronto in 2021 , she compared the alliance's public-private finance strategy to the "Own the Podium" campaign used to help more Canadian athletes win medals at the Olympics. "The successful outcome gave Canadians something to shout about from the rooftops or, more accurately these days, to share through our social media channels," she said.
In that speech, she also emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships in building the Toronto region's infrastructure, citing successful projects such as the Billy Bishop Airport tunnel and the Union-Pearson Express.
"These new and renewed state-of-the-art facilities are critical to the economic future and quality of life of these communities," she noted, adding that public-private projects "can be a major part of the solution to our infrastructure challenge."
As part of her ongoing effort to attract jobs and investment to the Toronto region (and following up on her own suggestion in the Star op-ed), Ecker, in 2011, established the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services - a collaboration among financial industry leaders, and the governments of Ontario and Canada. She is also one of the founders of Equal Voice, a national, multi-partisan organization working to elect more women.
First appointed to Governing Council in 2015, Ecker became chair of U of T's governance body on July 1, 2022 for a one-year term. She served on several of the council's board and committees, including in leadership roles on the audit committee and the now defunct pension committee. She played a critical role as the university undertook the complex the task of transitioning to the University Pension Plan.
Throughout, she demonstrated a deep commitment to the transformative impact of higher education. "I've always believed that education is one of the great levelers in our society," she told U of T News. "Educating our young people and giving them the tools they need to succeed in whatever career they choose - and hopefully be good, productive citizens - is one of those important tasks that government and society have to get right."
Ecker is a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute and sits on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, agencies and advisory committees. In 2017, she was invested in the Order of Canada by the Governor General, in recognition of her work as a devoted public servant who "made positive changes for students, children in care and people with disabilities" and for promoting Toronto as a leader in the international financial services industry. She has been named one of the "Most Influential People in the World's Financial Centres" and has received the "Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award" from the Women's Executive Network and the Richard Ivey School of Business. In 2012, she received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for public service.
