Urban Policy Goes Beyond the Confines of City Hall: A Provincial Outlook
The general public tends to assume that when it comes to urban policy that it is confined to the walls of City Hall and all decision-making for municipalities takes place there. However, that is not the case because nearly everything in municipalities depends in some shape or form on successful intergovernmental activity. When we look at how municipalities operate, we can see that a lot of direction is given by the Province of Ontario as there are 280 provincial statutes that dictate municipal responsibilities. The Province of Ontario has jurisdiction over its municipalities to make decisions and implement programs usually through consultation, however at the end of the day municipalities are creatures of the province and must abide by shifting priorities and new programs and initiatives. It is an interesting relationship to try and understand given the diverse agendas that all levels of government may have and how municipalities can align their strategic direction and vision with what they are obliged to do and deliver on while remaining fiscally sustainable.
Currently Canada is one of few countries that does not have a National Urban Policy that can guide the direction of municipalities in how they should govern and the issues that need to be tackled. This leads to a system that becomes quite disjointed and primarily implicit especially at the federal level of government. It becomes more evident at the provincial and municipal level as to what priorities are set out and how to go about achieving certain objectives whether than be tackling affordable housing or an improved public transit network. However, one of the primary concerns in addressing these major challenges is the need for reliable and available financial resources to match the demand for this sort of investment. A place like Ontario is growing significantly and the demand for new infrastructure is not being met by the supply that is provided each year and this problem will only continue to grow.
The province takes an interest in municipalities for a few primary reasons. It is mainly due to matters of financial oversight, political accountability, service standards as well as service equity. It is the responsibility of the province to ensure that these are consistent amongst their entire jurisdiction to make sure that certain obligations and requirement are met. I wonder if we are constantly just looking at maintaining the minimum as a matter of duty that it might get in the way of encouraging more innovation and prosperity within municipalities. I wonder what could be if municipalities have more leeway in developing their own economic prosperity and become economic drivers for the region through new innovative approaches. I believe cities have a lot more to offer than we realize because I think that are pillars of opportunity, culture, diversity, innovation and knowledge transfer/sharing. More often than not they are viewed as politically vote rich, however there comes a time when you need to divide the political interest with the public servant interest in order to truly provide your best fearless advice for the success of our cities. So, I wonder what it would take for the province to take a larger step in addressing the concerns specific to different municipalities and implementing the necessary strategies to follow through with it while ensuring effective collaboration?
