Like many in the Waterloo Region, tech executive Tim Jackson knows that the commute to or from Toronto is not just a massive inconvenience.

It’s a deterrent to economic growth.

Back in 2007, when he was CFO of Pixstream, Jackson commuted daily from his Toronto home to Waterloo. Now, as EVP Corporate and Community Development and Lead Executive at the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, he finds himself travelling the 401 once again, shuttling on Sundays and Thursdays between his family in Waterloo and his condo in Toronto.

He’s not alone. An estimated 10,000 individuals now commute daily from the Greater Toronto Area to the Waterloo Region. Tens of thousands more head the other way.

“As early as 2000, when my family and I decided to relocate here to Waterloo, you could clearly see that a significant sector was being built, as the community transitioned from its traditional manufacturing and insurance roots into a centre for information and communications technology excellence,” said Jackson in an interview. “Companies such as RIM (now BlackBerry), OpenText, Descartes and MKS were pioneering the way back then, and were the companies we all looked up to and admired. Alongside University of Waterloo, they were laying the groundwork for Waterloo Region to become what it is today – an emerging hotbed for startups in North America and a magnet for global tech brands such as Google, Huawei, SAP, Shopify, Square and others.”

But the Waterloo Region has not earned this reputation without growing pains. One problem is the 100-plus kilometres between Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo, which on a good day translates into a typical four-hour round trip.

The individual frustrations aside, the lack of an efficient transportation connection is a business inhibitor, said Jackson.

“While Waterloo Region is highly regarded as a source for engineering talent, the community has always struggled to attract executives [like CEOs and COOs], as well as marketing and sales professionals.

Companies in this area need this kind of business talent to grow to the next level. So the question we’re wrestling with is, ‘How do we better dock with Toronto and the resources it offers to expand our access to capital, talent and customers?’”

Jackson is one of the industry, academic and government leaders who are collaborating on a long-term strategy to solve this challenge. But, Jackson warned, the process will be far from easy and will demand a massive infrastructure overhaul.

“Let’s look at what happened with Light Rail Transit in Waterloo Region. It took different groups coming together to speak with one voice and advance the business case,” he said. “That effort gave politicians the cover to make the hard decisions. We now need to do the same to move people through the digital corridor. It will require strong intestinal fortitude to make this kind of infrastructure investment, and so we need broad involvement. ... And it needs to happen all the way along the line, involving other municipalities that lie along the corridor including Milton, Brampton, Mississauga and so forth.” Glimmers of early cooperation are there. University of Waterloo and University of Toronto recently joined together to publish an op-ed piece.

The Accelerator Centre, Communitech and MaRS are collaborating more, with the Waterloo organizations tapping into the significant health sciences, cleantech and fintech expertise in Toronto. Toronto and Waterloo are also cooperating on efforts to bring capital up from the U.S.

Jackson noted that the resolution to the transportation challenge is likely a decade or more away. “If the ultimate plan is an all-day train link, then these things always take longer than anyone would like. What we need to build is a long-term plan with milestones, and then figure out interim solutions, such as dedicated HOV [High-Occupancy Vehicle] lanes, or train/bus combinations to bridge us to our final destination.”

The ultimate result would mean greater economic prosperity for Waterloo Region. “Even a few decades ago you could see that something extraordinary was happening here,” said Jackson. “The more we can do to help entrepreneurship flourish and to attract capital, the more all of Canada benefits.”

Ellyn Winters-Robinson is President and Chief Marketing Officer for Ignition Communications, a boutique marketing communications and PR firm based in Waterloo Region focused on the tech sector. She also serves as the in-house PR and communications mentor with the Waterloo Accelerator Centre. You can follow her on Twitter @ellynjane.