Why, aren’t those small powers for such a large city?!
Prior to last week’s lesson on municipalities and their powers, or lack thereof, I was not well versed on the topic. At all. Dr. Eidelman enlightened us all to the fact that city dwellers use municipal resources every single day, including (but not limited to) garbage collection, transit, roads, hydroelectricity, and water. In fact, these services cost cities (especially big cities like Toronto) billions of dollars each year. However, because cities are not recognized orders of government and they are instead public corporations who provide services to those who live within city bounds (or visit from out of bounds!), their hands are figuratively bound when it comes to making many choices. The most shocking fact I learned in class is that we don’t have the right to vote in municipal elections! But, due to the astonishing nature of this, I decided to deep a bit deeper. I learned that Canada’s municipalities went through a period of reform in the early 20th century, and in an attempt to distinguish municipal and provincial powers, they were compared to a “board of directors” whose function was to do business without the politics. However, Canada was far less urban in the early 20th century; the entire nation had a population just shy of 7 million in 1910, compared to the 6.8 million that now live in the GTA alone, as of 2021 estimates. The system that delegates municipal powers was hedged on the former reality of Canada being agrarian and rural. While further reforms have taken place, such as the City of Toronto Act, 1997 and the Stronger City of Toronto for a Stronger Ontario Act, 2006, there are still major gaps yet to be filled.
While cities are viewed and treated as the little sibling to their province and the nation, they take on the parental duties of hashing out the logistics and providing the services that their citizens require to survive and thrive. The most significant challenges at the hands of the provincial and federal governments primarily come to pass in the municipal arena. For example, Indigenous affairs and immigration policy are purely national matters, despite 6 in 10 Indigenous peoples living in metropolitan areas, and the vast majority of immigrants being housed in Canada’s three largest cities. These issues, along with poverty, transportation, and drug policy (just to name a few) would be best handled through intergovernmental cooperation and powers. Perhaps municipalities, especially large ones such as Toronto, could enter trilateral agreements to address these pressing policy challenges and fill the gaps of Canada’s federalism. Will the provincial and federal governments be willing to play a game of give-and-take for the potential betterment of servicing their citizens? Stay tuned…
