About Waterloo Region
Waterloo Region is a great place to live, work, study and invest.
Waterloo Region is in Southern Ontario. It is about a one hour drive (or 100 kilometres) from Toronto and two to three hours drive from the United States. The 401 Highway runs through Waterloo Region linking us to London, Windsor, and Detroit to the West and Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal to the East.
While Waterloo Region is easy to reach from many nearby large and mid-sized cities, it is set within beautiful countryside.
The Region of Waterloo is made up of the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo, and the Townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich. For more information about the communities that make up Waterloo Region go to the Our Community page.
Find out more about:
- Diversity
- Geography
- Weather
- Government and the Canadian Political System
Diversity in Waterloo Region
There are people from many countries and cultures living in Waterloo Region. Almost 25% of the people in Waterloo Region are immigrants from over 150 different countries.
English is the common language used at work and in daily situations, but there are over 100 different languages spoken in Waterloo Region.
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo has more information about the immigrants who have made Waterloo Region their home.
Geography
Waterloo Region is surrounded by three of the Great Lakes: Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and Lake Huron. The region is in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Lowlands, an area that has rolling farms and forests, and rich soils.
One of the Region’s best known natural features is the Grand River, a Canadian Heritage River that flows through Waterloo Region into Lake Erie.
Weather
Waterloo Region has four very different seasons each year. We have a moderate climate, but temperatures in the winter can fall below -15 °C, and in the summer they can rise to above 30 °C. Snowfall in winter is usually more than 125 cm, and our average yearly rainfall is over 500 mm. Our growing season is from May to September.
You can find out more about our climate and today’s weather from the Environment Canada Weather Office. Settlement.Org also has more information about weather in Ontario. Ontario Travel also has weather tips.
Government and the Canadian political system
In Canada, there are several orders (levels) of government, each with different responsibilities and services.
Waterloo Region has two orders or levels of municipal (or local) government. The first order includes each of the three cities and four townships that make up the Region:
The second order is the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, which provides services to all the cities and township in the Region.
There are also two higher levels of government: the Government of Ontario at a provincial level, and the Government of Canada at a federal or national level.
Settlement.Org has more information about Canada's political system and about voting in Ontario and Canada. Learn more about Canadian democracy at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Learn more about the Waterloo Region community on the Our Community page. You might also be interested in Maps of Waterloo Region.
For more information…