Municipalities and Provinces: Rethinking their Relationship

The Ontario government. The city of Toronto. It is understandable why the province has great interest in the city of Toronto. As a “creature of the province,” the Ontarian government can ensure, for example, that Toronto is fiscally sustainable, delivering efficient and high-quality services, and is economically prospering. Simply, provinces are okay in acting upon the interests of municipalities.

But do municipalities feel the same way?

The latter level of government can feel at odds with the province from its intervention in municipal affairs. Practically every decision the city makes is subject to provincial approval or regulations of one form or another. Notable examples include control over the size of council, land use planning, and local transit.

Charter City Toronto, a independent group of Torontonians , share a similar feeling albeit at a more extreme level. They propose the use of a constitutional amendment that would guarantee that Toronto would have exclusive decision-making power over specific areas of government. In other words, provincial control or oversight over these specific areas, like transit and land-use planning, would be under the City of Toronto’s control. The proposal would also provide the City with new revenue tools such as borrowing funds or passing sales or income taxes.

But the problems behind this proposal are not the main point. Whether the use of an amending formula, used only handful of times and only by provinces such as New Brunswick with its win over linguistic rights, is not the main takeaway. Whether the argument that the City of Toronto Act (COTA) operates much like a charter by expanding the city’s taxation authority but isn’t being utilized to its full extent is not where the focus lies upon.

This ties back to the phrase used earlier: “creature of the province.” That label sounds more like a tattoo branded onto municipalities that binds them to provincial authority. After all, the local political institutions; delegated responsibilities and decision-making power; and accountability to local citizens evident in municipalities is facilitated by Canadian provinces.

There’s no denying that municipalities can operate as a separate level of government. However, in this discussion about what makes provinces interested in cities, we should question what the ideal relationship should be between a municipality and province. Is it appropriate for provinces to act upon the interests of municipalities even if coercion is involved? Is it possible for municipalities to survive and function independently from provincial control?

There are no clear answers to these questions. Nonetheless, they are important as they provoke a much-needed discussion on rethinking the municipality’s position in Canadian society relative to upper-level governments.