The
Tri-Cities (also known as
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo or simply
Kitchener-Waterloo) is a metropolitan area located in
the south-central portion of
Ontario,
Canada. It is centred on the cities of
Kitchener,
Waterloo and
Cambridge, as well as surrounding municipalities, collectively called the
Regional Municipality of Waterloo. The
census metropolitan area (CMA) had a population of 477,160 in 2011, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Ontario, after
Toronto,
Ottawa and
Hamilton, and the
tenth largest metropolitan area in the country. The tri-cities area is known for its
high concentration of tech companies, such as
Blackberry (formerly Research in Motion),
OpenText,
Kik, and
Maplesoft. As such, it has often been referred to as "Canada's Silicon Valley".