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02 Jan 08

Amalgamation: 10 years later (Toronto Star)

Report by Royson James on 10th anniversary of Toronto's amalgation -- more negative (generally) than Christopher Hume's article (also in today's TorStar), but also full of useful info re. downloading by Province.

www.thestar.com/...290172 - Preview

amalgamation downloading local_government municipal_funding toronto

Against great odds and in the face of trenchant hostility, the amalgamation of seven governments into one unified Toronto has survived its first decade. Barely.
Happy anniversary, megacity.
Never has a forced union been so universally detested and excoriated – every outflow, offspring or offshoot smeared with the "bastard" tag: unwanted, unloved, unappreciated. And yet, alive, if not well.
Some wounds are only now healing, 10 years later. And considering what it's been through, it's a miracle Toronto is still standing.
"It's been a real body blow to the city," says Sewell, still defiant. "I fear for the city's future."
"A disaster," adds MPP Michael Prue, East York's last mayor.
Kathleen Wynne, now education minister, was Sewell's right-hand person back then. Her analysis? "I've knocked on tens of thousands of doors since I got into provincial politics, both in 2002-2003 and 2006-2007, and I have yet to meet anyone who says they think the amalgamation of the city of Toronto was a good idea ... Maybe that's a lie. Maybe I've met two people."
11 more annotations...
- Urbanists and planners flocked to the city to study its transit, the co-existence of its multicultural citizens and its two-tier government that thrived even as U.S. jurisdictions clung to tax-defined borders.
  If anything, Toronto's intelligentsia hated the Metro government. It was big, less susceptible to ratepayer influence and had majority political representation from the suburbs of Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke.
  - I don't understand the transition(s) here: urbanists & planners study T.O., but the intelligentsia hated the Metro (amalgamated) idea? - on 2008-01-02
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- But about three-quarters of services were already amalgamated under Metro. Citizens may have felt close to their city councillor, but it was the Metro councillor who was getting them to work on transit, sending out ambulances and police, setting the policies that helped build social cohesion.
  - - this is eerily similar to how Victoria has been shaping up, with the CRD acting as the "Metro" - on 2008-01-02
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- So when Harris, fulfilling his tax-cut, less-government mandate, rode into town with a plan to eliminate a level of municipal government, it was logical to keep Metro and eliminate Scarborough, North York, York, Etobicoke and East York. The biggest fight since "Stop the Spadina Expressway" was on.
  - - bingo. - on 2008-01-02
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- The idea did not infuriate everyone. Opponents hiss that the newspaper editorial boards and many other media were in favour. But others, like ex-mayor David Crombie, also saw value in it.
  Proponents viewed amalgamation as part of a normal evolution that reduced the Toronto area to 13 municipalities by 1953, six by 1967. Others suggested one big Toronto would provide a citywide equity of services otherwise missing.
  
  The province's position was that huge savings would be exacted. But once the entire Harris plan was unveiled – amalgamation plus a huge download of social services and an end to transit funding – opposition was cemented.
- Ten years later, it's virtually impossible to determine which of Toronto's problems are the result of amalgamation, of downloading, or simply inevitable in any case.
  - - key point: downloading? amalgamation? systemic anyway? - on 2008-01-02
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- The city talks of Queen's Park owing it $700 million to $1 billion. On the other hand, it got a $1 billion asset in Toronto Hydro, and the province took on $600 million in education costs.
  What is irrefutable is that the city was set on a path to fiscal failure. Amalgamation was supposed to deliver three main benefits: savings, greater equity and more clout.
  "Savings" were wrung from the system, all right: thousands of jobs cut in the first three years. But that wasn't sustainable. At the same time, more staff were hired for police and transit to cope with growth.
  On equity, the megacity has been a big success, spreading the social safety net across the city. York, the poorest of the old municipalities, has benefited most.
- Toronto has updated a property tax system that was outdated and unfair, and approved a progressive climate change plan that will have influence well beyond our city. The mayor's campaign for a new deal from senior governments has resonated across Canada, lending credence to Toronto's claims of clout.
  - - re. protests against downloading - on 2008-01-02
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- But as an experiment in local democracy, merger has been a huge failure. The megacity's continued survival is a testament mainly to the efforts of a great civic workforce. Its creation was too hurried. Too much was heaped on its head.
  What now? Do we de-amalgamate, as the school board is now pondering? A few diehards have always harboured such thoughts. But the former mayors and Metro chairs, except Prue, say going back is not an option. Better to have the province fix the fiscal mess by taking back social services costs and giving Toronto some breathing room.
  Mayor David Miller has staked his own political survival on the province riding to the rescue.
- Twelve neighbourhood councils might be better than the four community councils we have now. And party politics would more clearly define the platform and expectations of city council.
  - - this part I don't get (since I don't know T.O. well): 12 neighbourhood councils better than four community councils? Really? - on 2008-01-02
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- And Miller doesn't sound like a suicidal hero of the C4LD crowd. In solidifying the mayor's office and investing it with more power, he moves in the opposite direction.
  - - probably wants more of a "strong mayor" model, which in Canada has been non-existent thus far - on 2008-01-02
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- Meanwhile, we can expect a slow evolution. The fight of this generation – a new deal from the province that removes social services costs – is closer than ever.

Megacity politics in shambles 10 years later (Toronto Star)

Commentary (one of several in today's Toronto Star) by Christopher Hume on the 10th anniversary of Toronto's amalgamation. Hume has previously written cogently on the problems municipal infrastructure funding in Canada, and while it doesn't come up in this article, I get the impression that he doesn't want to join in fully with the chorus of complainers who moan about the evils that amalgamation has wrought. The key sentence, I think, is "We have gone to great lengths to empower the local at the cost of the civic," and *that* is something totally applicable to (as of yet) un-amalgamated Victoria.

www.thestar.com/...290200 - Preview

amalgamation christopher_hume local_government politics toronto

Though the forced joining of Toronto and its boroughs left city council and the civic bureaucracy a mess, daily life continues much as it did before former premier Mike Harris unleashed his onslaught.
Then, as now, most of us remained ensconced within our own neighbourhood. Etobicokers still think of themselves as Etobicokers, North Yorkers as North Yorkers, Scarboroughites as Scarboroughites. Until we travel far enough that the finer points of residency are lost, we're reluctant to admit to being Torontonians. Go far enough, however, and even Mississaugans become Torontonians, something they'd be loath to acknowledge in these parts.
The rest of Toronto still jokes about Scarborough, or as we prefer to call it, Scarberia. We still shake our heads at the condo mayhem of "downtown" North York and can't make sense of Etobicoke politics.
Everyone else still despises Toronto – the "old" city of Toronto – for its arrogance and self-absorption. Some things never change.
- - sounds familiar! - on 2008-01-02
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- With a few exceptions, no one on council has started to think about Toronto as a whole. The system discourages that at the best of times, never more so than now. The result has been a sharp drop in civic self-confidence; a growing sense Toronto has entered a downward spiral. The blame extends well beyond city hall, but the low level of debate, divisiveness, bitterness and triviality of council meetings has led to feeling that we're no longer able to deal with the problems we face.
  The psychology of amalgamation hasn't created more solidarity between neighbourhoods, but a masochistic, let's-hate-Toronto attitude. But Toronto is us, and we are Toronto. In the decade since amalgamation, we have become our own worst enemy.
- It will take at least a generation to get over our prejudices, for East Yorkers to be able to say, happily, I am a Torontonian. Even then, we will tend to identify with a neighbourhood, rather than the city. In Toronto, people come from the Annex, Cabbagetown, Riverdale, Moore Park, and so on. Only after that, are they Torontonians. We are, don't forget, a city of neighbourhoods. We have gone to great lengths to empower the local at the cost of the civic.