Mississauga is a Southern Ontario city in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), part of the Regional Municipality of Peel. Mississauga is a fast growing city, doubling its population every decade for the last couple of decades. It is Canada's sixth most heavily populated municipality (pop. 734,000) and the third most heavily populated city on the Great Lakes. Between the year 1986 and the year 1991, the city of Mississauga had the largest growth in population of whatever city in Canada. Population growth has slowed a bit afterward, although a sustained growth in population continues. Residents of Mississauga City are referred to as Mississaugans.
The growth of Mississauga is mainly because of it being a main suburb of Toronto. The city on the other hand is not just a mere bedroom community. There is a great deal of industrial and corporate development, which provides plenty of job opportunities. The city of Mississauga has succeeded in creating a distinctive image for itself during the past decade. An international architectural design competition held in 2006 for two condominium towers, referred to as Absolute World, created an iconic landmark for the city. The towers, which are almost completed, are the tallest to be found within any suburban city in Canada.
Mississauga is highly accessible to major domestic markets along with markets in Midwestern and Northeastern United States. Toronto Pearson International Airport is located there, and five major freeways pass through Mississauga City. Mississauga's big corporate/financial district has the Canadian head office of such major international Fortune 500 companies as General Electric, Fujitsu, Wal-Mart Canada, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Intuit Canada and Siemens. In reality, more than sixty of the Fortune 500 base their global or Canadian head offices in this city.
The numerous industries that are supported in the city consist of finance and banking, electronics and computers, pharmaceuticals, equipment industries and transportation parts. In the financial sector, the major companies consist of Citibank Canada, and its two corporate IT development centres, and TD Bank Financial, with its three Corporate IT development centres. Retail is one more strong sector. Mississauga boasts the second-biggest shopping mall of the Greater Toronto Area, Square One Shopping Centre. Mississauga City is currently free of debt, though it may have to borrow money for new capital projects in 2012.
The city has the headquarters of several airlines comprising Air Georgian, Kam Air and Air Canada Jazz, that operates a regional office within Mississauga.