CHARTER CITY TORONTO

PROPOSAL OVERVIEW

There's been a lot of talk lately about empowering the city of Toronto.

Adopting a City Charter is often mentioned as a way to give the city the power and authority it needs to govern its own affairs.

But what would a City Charter look like? What would be in it? What would it do for cities?

This website, and the downloadable text version of our proposal (PDF at bottom of the page) is an attempt to begin that conversation.

Charter City Toronto proposes a two-step process toward greater power and autonomy for the city of Toronto. We believe this can serve as a template for other cities in Ontario and Canada who wish to achieve greater control over their own affairs.

This proposal is not a final set of ideas. We hope it will be widely discussed, massaged, amended, and changed to produce a document that has wide agreement.

Adopting a City Charter is a Two-Part Process

1. A CITY CHARTER

The city and the province--with substantial public consultation--will create and pass
a City Charter for Toronto.
The Charter will give the city enhanced power and jurisdiction over city affairs.

2. A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

The province and federal government will pass a single-province amendment to the Canadian Constitution that enables the creation of Charter Cities in Ontario and protects them from provincial interference in areas of municipal jurisdiction.

C O N T E N T O F T H E C H A R T E R

A City Charter should cover four broad areas: Governance, Authority, Resources, and Protection.
The navigation buttons at the top and bottom of the page will take you to a more detailed discussion of each section of our proposal.
The full proposal can be downloaded by clicking "Proposal PDF" at the bottom of the page.

Governance

The city of Toronto would regain the authority to determine its own governing structures.

That authority was unilaterally revoked by the province in 2018.

The city would have full control over: city council and the Mayor's office; the city bureaucracy; agencies, boards and commissions; community councils; oversight and accountability, and elections.

Toronto is the only municipality in Ontario without such authority.

Authority

The Charter would place exclusive responsibility and authority for key municipal functions clearly in the hands of an empowered city government.

Where necessary, the city and province would share authority in certain areas, but with clear rules defining the roles and authorities of the two partners.

The city would be empowered to make arrangements, financial and otherwise, directly with other governments, including other cities.

Resources

The Charter would give the city control over (not just access to) the revenues and resources it needs to meet its responsibilities.

It would also continue the practice of sharing the wealth generated in the city with its municipal neighbours, the province and the country as a whole.

Cities currently have access to just 10 per cent of all taxes
raised in Canada;
the rest goes to the federal and provincial governments.

Protection

We propose that the provincial and federal governments create
and pass a single-province amendment to the Canadian Constitution.

The amendment would define Charter Cities and end their status as "creatures of the province" whose every decision--and very existence--is subject to provincial override.

This would ensure that no changes could be
made to the City Charter without the express consent of the city.

"At the heart of the Charter is the concept that cities...should and can
be responsible for governing all those aspects of urban life that can be implemented locally,
but need to have the requisite resources and authority to do it well."
--Alan Broadbent, CEO Avana Capital Corporation, 2000

City Charters Are Not
a New Idea

City Charters which give cities strong inherent powers are common in Europe and the US, with over a hundred in California alone.

Many European Cities have charters also.

Several Canadian cities have what are commonly referred to as City Charters, including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saint John and others.

In each case these Canadian "charters" are provincial legislation which can be unilaterally amended or revoked by the province.

We propose a constitutionally-protected City Charter that can only be adopted or amended with the consent of the city.

Single Province Amendments
are Common

There have been eight such amendments since the Constitution was repatriated in 1982.

Quebec and Newfoundland used them to establish secular school systems. New Brunswick, to establish equality between its French and English-speaking populations. Prince Edward Island, to build the Confederation Bridge.

Under Section 43 of the Constitution, such amendments need only the approval of the provincial legislature and the federal parliament in order to come into effect.

This makes them easier to achieve than amendments covering the country as a whole, which require the consent of at least seven provinces that have 50 per cent of Canada's population.

How a Charter
Protects the City

Once the basic rules of governing a city are laid out and adopted in a City Charter, constitutional protection means those rules can only be changed if the city consents.

If Toronto had had a City Charter as we propose in 2018, the Ford government would not have been able to unilaterally reduce city council and revoke Toronto's powers of governance against the will of the city.

Nor could the province unilaterally change the rules for amending the Charter. That would require the agreement of the federal parliament.

No rules are fireproof but the ones we propose would afford solid protection for the city.