Kanata

Kanata is a large suburban area in the western part of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, it has a population of 90,000 and is growing rapidly. It is located just to the west of the Greenbelt and is one of the largest of several communities that surround central Ottawa. It is a planned community and an important hi-tech centre.

The area that is today Kanata was originally part of the Township of March, and was first settled by Europeans in the early nineteenth century. One site dating from this era is Pinhey's Point.

It remained mainly agricultural until the 1960s when it became the site of heavy development. Modern Kanata is largely the creation of Bill Teron, a developer and urban planner who purchased over 3,000 acres (12 km2) of rural land and set about building a model community. Unlike other suburbs, Kanata was designed to have a mix of densities and commercial and residential properties. It contained large amounts of open space, and was to be surrounded by a greenbelt. A reflection of the garden city movement, the area was divided into a series of communities, each of which was intended to have their own commercial centres and unique cultures. These include Beaverbrook, Glen Cairn, Bridlewood, Katimavik, Hazeldean, Morgan's Grant, and Kanata Lakes.

The community grew rapidly. The Province of Ontario incorporated Kanata as a city in 1978 out of the Township of March, and portions of the Township of Goulbourn and the Township of Nepean (subsequently the City of Nepean). It remained a city until 2001, when the province created a new (amalgamated) City of Ottawa that included the City of Kanata (pop. 59,700). As of the 2006 census, the population of Kanata had increased to 85,000.

The city became an important hi-tech centre. DEC was one of the pioneer technology companies in Kanata. The DEC campus has been successively Digital, Compaq, and is now HP. Kanata remains home to many of the major hi-tech employers of Ottawa, such as Mitel, March Networks, Ubiquity Software, Alcatel-Lucent, Dell Canada, HP, Smart Technologies, Norpak, Nortel, MDS Nordion, Breconridge, and Cisco Systems, Inc.. The hi-tech industry is clustered along March Road, in the Kanata North Business Park and Kanata Research Park, and along Eagleson Road, in the Kanata South Business Park.