The Toronto Story: Sober Reflections on Fifty Years of Experiments with Regional Governance

Abstract

This article traces the history of Toronto's experience with metropolitan government. Toronto's experience holds discouraging lessons for those who look to senior governments to solve regional problems. The policy lessons derived from the Toronto case are identified and critically evaluated.

Reluctant rural regionalists

“…6 The Province of Ontario has the power, through force, suasion and/or incentives, to reorganize local government. Assessing 50 years' experience with regional consolidation in Toronto, Frisken (2001) argues that where higher-level governments play a strong role in shaping regional governments, the outcome is unlikely to favour stressed areas and populations within the region. She writes that ''the Toronto case (also) contains discouraging lessons for those who argue the benefits of regional restructuring for central cities and other aging municipalities that occupy the cores of their regions..To the extent that a city's influence with its parent government depends mainly on its contributions to the regional economy and on the strength of the political pressures its residents can bring to bear, its influence is likely to decline as a region expands'' (538).…”

Place of Residence, Party Preferences, and Political Attitudes in Canadian Cities and Suburbs

“…The inner cities have also seen considerable infill development and intensification over the past 30 years, which makes the collective provisioning of services increasingly efficient. The outer suburbs, on the other hand, were largely built in an era of dwindling attention to urban compactness, coordinated planning, or provisioning of services for lower‐income families (Bourne, 2001; Bunting & Filion, 1996; Frisken, 2001). This sets them apart from the inner suburbs, which tended to incorporate low‐income housing and public transit into their plans, and which became more diversely and densely populated as a result.…”

The Ties That Bind? Exploring the Dynamics of Intermunicipal Agreement Formation between Separated Cities and Counties

“…In 1941 Toronto and its immediate neighbours had a population of approximately 925,000 residents; however, by 1961 that figure had more than doubled to 1.9 million (Nader 1975, 230). The province wanted to formally link the City of Toronto and its surrounding suburban municipalities to better provide for regional planning and transportation, a task that was proving problematic without any institutional linkages (Crouch 1954;Frisken 2007).…”