Governing Metropolitan Areas

1
Governing Metropolitan Areas

• Oct. 25

2
Two-Tier Metropolitan Government

• The basic theory of two-tier metropolitan
  government is simple a metropolitan level of
  government is established for those functions of
  local government that require a
  metropolitan-level solution, usually
  metropolitan-wide and-use planning and major
  intermunicipal physical infrastructure local
  municipalities remain in place to provide such
  local-level services as zoning and recreational
  facilities (Sancton, 2005 321).

3
Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto

• two-tier metropolitan government in Canada was
  pioneered in Canada (Sancton, 2005 319).
• The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto came
  into existence in 1954.
• Metro and its constituent municipalities became
  the textbook example of successful two-tier
  system (Sancton, 2005 321).
• Since the 1950s, the Toronto region has been in
  the center of attention for students of urban
  affairs from around the world. The two-tier
  system of municipal government, which was typical
  for Toronto, was first introduced in 1953 and
  became the basis for the widely used moniker the
  city that works (Boudreau et al., 2006 31).

4
Metro Toronto

• combined a metropolitan level of government
  responsible for various local welfare state and
  collective consumption services with a number of
  local municipalities that had retained autonomy
  in many areas of municipal concern including fire
  and waste disposal services as well as water
  (Boudreau et al., 2006 31).
• Initially, 20 local municipalities included with
  Metro Toronto.
• Initially, Metro council comprised of appointed
  local councillors, but in 1968 switched to
  elected Metro councillors.

5
Metro Toronto

• Metro helped manage postwar growth and
  infrastructure development in the postwar period.
• The provincial governmentsaw the opportunityto
  use the exploding and rich tax base of the
  job-rich central city to subsidize development in
  the suburban areas (Boudreau et al., 2006 32).

6
Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto

• Challenges of the 1970s
• Suburban growth surpassed the population of city
  of Toronto, and suburbs resisted paying for
  renewal of central Toronto infrastructure.
• Growth was now occurring beyond borders of Metro
  Toronto, but borders remained same.
• Jurisdictional battles were emerging between the
  city and metro levels. Appeared dysfunctional.

7
Amalgamation of Toronto, 1998

• The primary stated purposewas to save moneythe
  controversial amalgamation had nothing to do with
  metropolitan governance (Sancton, 2005 322).
• All the difficult issues associated with
  metropolitan growth were taking place outside the
  new citys borders (Sancton, 2005 322).
• did absolutely nothing to address problems of
  metropolitan governance for the larger Toronto
  area (Sancton, 2005 325).

8
Toronto City Summit Alliance

• In 2002, a business-led groupemerged to attempt
  to provide some leadership with respect to
  city-region issues (Sancton, 2005 325).
• The chairs of the Summit were Elyse Allan, then
  President and CEO of The Toronto Board of Trade
  Hon. David Crombie, President and CEO of the
  Canadian Urban Institute Frances Lankin,
  President and CEO of United Way and John Tory,
  President and CEO of Roger Cable. The City Summit
  was financed by the private sector fund-raising
  efforts were led by Courtney Pratt, President and
  CEO of Toronto Hydro Corporation (Boudreau,
  2006 37).

9
Toronto City Summit Alliance

• published a policy document in April 2003
  entitled Enough Talk An Action Plan for the
  Toronto Region, which summarizes the policy
  objectives of the alliance as (1) a new fiscal
  deal for cities, (2) improvement of the physical
  infrastructure, especially regional
  transportation and the waterfront, (3) reviving
  tourism in Toronto, (4) creating a world-leading
  research alliance, (5) investing in peoples
  education, (6) integrating immigrants into the
  economy, (7) strengthening social and community
  infrastructure, especially affordable housing and
  community services, and (8) supporting arts and
  culture. (Boudreau, 2006 37).

10
Civic Action

• Toronto City Summit Alliance renamed Civic
  Action (Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance) in
  2010
• http//www.civicaction.ca

11
Regional Municipalities in the GTA

• Halton (Burlington, Oakville, Halton Hills,
  Milton,)
• Peel (Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon)
• York (includes Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill,
  Newmarket, Georgina, Aurora)
• Durham (Oshawa, Whitby, Pickering, Ajax,
  Clarington)

12
Regional Governance in the GTA

• There is a lack of institutional structures to
  provide governance (and coordinate policy and
  planning) over the entire GTA, let alone the
  entire Golden Horseshoe.