THE GTA AND BEYOND

 "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

Toronto is part of a continuous urban region from Halton to Durham.

Many city functions spill over the city boundaries into neighbouring municipalities – transit, human services and the natural environment are three good examples. This has led some to suggest that a charter for the city of Toronto alone is too limited.
 
This proposal makes it clear that the city should have the ability to enter into agreements with other municipalities to deal with shared issues on a bilateral or regional basis.

There is currently no regional structure within the Greater Toronto Area capable of becoming a charter city – we have no choice but to work with the existing municipalities and their boundaries.

It can be anticipated that other municipalities other than Toronto will seek to establish City Charters of their own, and the proposal outlined here can be a model on which they can build. 

Whether or not they do opt to pursue Charter status, neighbouring municipalities can and should work closely together to ensure that the issues which cross over municipal boundaries are reasonably addressed.  If they do choose that path, then a loose or formal alliance of Charter Cities could be established to provide some sort of regional governance.
 
If Toronto can secure a charter, other cities in Ontario and across Canada can, working with provincial officials, use Toronto’s example to secure a charter for themselves. We see no reason why what is proposed here should be limited just to Toronto.
Picture
The GTA from space. In 1954, Metropolitan Toronto comprised 80 per cent of the urban population north of the lake. Today, it's about half. There is no single government to coordinate programs, services and issues for the entire urban area between the "four O's" -- from Oakville to Oshawa and from the Oak Ridges Moraine to Lake Ontario. The provincial government's priority is the entire province and so cannot fulfill that role, despite attempts to do so.
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​LOGO DESIGN / Julien Balbontin
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ABOUT US

The goal of Charter City Toronto is the adoption of a constitutionally protected City Charter for Toronto and other large Ontario municipalities who want one.

We're a group of independent residents of Toronto who believe cities are the most important level of government in our confederation, and that they should be accorded the respect, authority, resources and protection necessary for them to fulfill their responsibilities to their citizens, their neighbours, the province, the country and the world.
 
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