An urban manifesto: cities need equal political weight
The world is urban, but constitutions globally treat cities as afterthoughts
Canada is a microcosm of the modern world. It is vast, but most of its population lives in urban centers. Its historic rural wealth generation has been overshadowed by urban wealth generation. Its federal and regional governance was laid down over a century ago, and does not align well with current and future reality. Urban areas barely exist in Canada’s Constitution or in land mass. Yet they dominate the economy and populace.
82% of Canadians live and work in cities. The vast majority of Canada’s wealth is generated in cities.
It’s worth looking at a 2018 snapshot of the four largest urban areas in Canada compared to Canada overall. At 0.15% of Canada’s area they represent a fraction of a percentage of Canada’s landmass, but close to 40% of GDP and population.
Adding in other Canadian urban areas such as Halifax, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Quebec City, London, Hamilton, Ottawa and Victoria takes the GDP and population well over 50% while barely budging the landmass. That’s ignoring the smaller cities across Canada such as North Bay, Sudbury, Prince George and St. John.
Yet cities have almost no existence in Canada’s constitution, except as things provinces get to make decisions about.
The Constitution Act, 1867 established the parameters of current federal and provincial relationships with municipalities. Section 92 of the Act sets out the exclusive powers of provincial legislatures in 16 areas, with section 92(8) giving the legislature of each province exclusive responsibility for making laws relating to that province’s municipal institutions. Of the other sections of the Constitution Act, 1867 with implications for municipalities, section 92(2) grants the provinces the power to impose direct taxes to carry out provincial responsibilities. Because local governments are legally subordinate to provincial governments, the only sources of authority and revenue available to municipalities are those that are specifically granted by provincial legislation.
The British North America Act of 1867 was written when Montreal had barely 100,000 residents and was the biggest city in Canada. Quebec City was second largest at 60,000 and then Toronto at 56,000. The top 10 cities had less than 10% of the total population of Canada, so while the seat of government was urban, it was easy to see why politicians might ignore them and delegate their accountability to the large rural regions which were where most people lived and where wealth was created.
But it’s 2018 now. 82% of Canadians live and work in cities. The vast majority of Canada’s wealth is generated in cities. As early as 2001, 72% of Canada’s GDP was generated in metropolitan areas.
Yet in 2018, the provincial government of Ontario was legally able to override the four-year redistricting process Toronto underwent to decide it needed 47 ridings and arbitrarily set the number of councillors at 25. The province was effectively able to do this with the stroke of a pen. It was ethically wrong and empirically without merit, but legally permissible. Metro Toronto produces 55% of Ontario’s GDP and has almost half of Ontario’s population. But it exists at the whim of Queen’s Park, the seat of Provincial government.
Similarly, in Metro Vancouver, transit’s perennial lack of funding is subject to provincial meddling and a lack of urban means of raising funds. In 2015, the provincial government of the time put a transit tax to a hasty referendum designed to lose. Subsequently that provincial government lost and the new provincial government appears to be sensibly signing off on the 1.5 cent regional gas tax which mayors brought forward. Metro Vancouver is a tiny portion of BC’s land mass, but represents 60% of its GDP and over half of BC’s total population. Politicians from rural ridings have more control over Metro Vancouver than urban politicians do. The MPP from Nechako Lakes was elected with 5,108 of the 9,370 valid votes for the interior riding — about 0.02% of the population of Metro Vancouver — , but arguably has more real authority over Metro Vancouver than any of its mayors. And Nechako Lakes MPP John Rustad isn’t even a member of the coalition government, but the opposition.
This Canadian microcosm is played out globally. Hong Kong is a major economic hub for Asia, yet is ruled from Beijing. The cities of USA are where the greatest economic impacts of global warming will be felt, where the majority of people live and where the most money is made, yet they are subject to federal policies which are strongly counter to them. Around the world in democracies, rural voters have inordinate power over city dwellers, to the detriment of all.
It’s no longer appropriate for cities to be poor cousins in governance and authority. It’s time for a Constitution for Cities, both in Canada and the world.
