CHARTER CITY TORONTO

CHARTER CITIES
IN THE GTA, ONTARIO AND CANADA

We began with the goal of protecting and empowering Toronto.
But we think other cities in the Greater Toronto Area,
Ontario and the rest of Canada would benefit from
becoming Charter Cities too.

Would a Charter help my city?
Here are some actions you can take to find out:

• Read our proposal.
In brief on our website. In full in this pdf.
How could it apply to your city?
• Hold a zoom discussion with others you think
might be interested.
• Identify problems that could be solved or opportunities that could be exploited with a City Charter.
• Send us an email. We are happy to talk, collaborate and encourage you, whether you want to start a local Charter City chapter or advocate for the idea in your city.
• Tell your city councillor and MPP they should look
into the Charter City proposals.

ONTARIO

We started our work after Doug Ford slashed Toronto city council from 47 to 25 members in 2018. Our goal was to protect the city from such unilateral provincial interference in such local affairs. We settled on a City Charter, protected by a short constitutional amendment, as the best means to achieve this and to empower the city in other beneficial ways.

As a Toronto group, we didn't feel it was our place to promote the idea for other municipalities. But in the months since, the provincial government's assault on local government in Ontario has continued and spread well beyond Toronto (as you can read on our News page, and on our page about the need for a Constitutional Amendment for cities).

With each new intrusion into municipal jurisdiction (and especially after Doug Ford revoked the option to use ranked ballots in local elections), we've been hearing more and more interest in the Charter City concept from outside Toronto. We think the time has come to talk about the relationship between the province and all its big cities.

But a City Charter is about more than fending off provincial interference. It's about giving cities modern tools and revenues to meet their responsibilities and allow them to better control their future.

We've been talking to representatives of some of these municipalities, such as Burlington, Kingston, London and others to explain our proposals. We hope to speak to others who see this as a viable project for their city to join.

If you're serious about a City Charter for your city, we'd be happy to speak to you. Please email us here.

GREATER TORONTO AREA

Many city functions transcend municipal boundaries. This is especially true in the Greater Toronto Area, where large municipalities are separated by the width of a single street. Transit, human services and the natural environment are three good examples of overlapping issues. This has led some to suggest that adopting a Charter for the city of Toronto alone is too limited in scope and that a GTA-wide charter city would be more useful.

We agree. If cities across the GTA were to adopt strong City Charters, it could transform the way things are done in the region. With enhanced jurisdiction over local affairs, cities would not only be stronger on their own, but they could enter into agreements with other municipalities to deal with shared issues on a bilateral or regional basis.

There's no existing regional structure within the Greater Toronto Area capable of becoming a single Charter City. But empowered Charter Cities in the GTA could collaborate on regional solutions.

Toronto and other interested GTA (and Ontario) cities could move forward together to claim Charter City status, or Toronto could take the lead and other municipalities can judge on actual results whether Toronto's City Charter is a model upon which they can build.

"Toronto and its suburbs and adjacent
cities in the Greater Toronto Region constitute an integrated economy….
While our city-region has many advantages, they are being undermined
by our failure to think and act like a region."
-- Anne Golden
President and CEO Conference Board of Canada 2012

OTHER LARGE CANADIAN CITIES

Wherever 21st century cities are handcuffed by 19th century rules about cities, we think a City Charter can free up city energy to find, innovation solutions to the modern challenges cities face. It's increasingly obvious that large cities are levels of government in their own right and can take on more authority--indeed require more authority--to direct their future. Clarifying what is a city authority and what belongs to the province will eliminate duplicate decision-making, reduce friction with senior levels of government and allow cities to experiment with solutions unique to their circumstance.

A critical element for any City Charter outside Ontario will be constitutional protection. Edmonton and Calgary each negotiated a City Charter with the NDP Notley government in 2018. They included among other things, access to guaranteed revenues. The subsequent UPC-Kenny government unilaterally rescinded the Charters and cut $45 million from city revenues.

That's why, for Ontario, we propose a single-province constitutional amendment to protect the Charter. Such an amendment, needing only approval by the province, House of Commons and Senate, would require city consent for any change to its Charter. If Edmonton and Calgary's Charters had been protected in this way, it would not have been so simple for Premier Kenney to undo the deal.

We'd be happy to discuss the Charter City project with civic advocates and decision-makers in other large Canadian cities and encourage them to look at our proposals.