Coolstar
Senior Member
London or Kingston would be suited for the capital city of Ontario.
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Finch West Line 6 LRT
- Thread starter W. K. Lis
- Start date
RyanM12
New Member
But the City of Toronto is kind of arbitrary borders. A Toronto province should include some of the surrounding GTA.
Fritter
Active Member
And Mel Lastman was laughed out of the room for suggesting just that many years ago.
TossYourJacket
Senior Member
Kingston was briefly the capital of Canada a long time ago, so there would be a nice symmetry there if we made it the capital of a Toronto-less Ontario.
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
Yeah, the whole point is that we need to start thinking regionally. It should really be the Greater Golden Horseshoe including Hamilton, Niagara, and Kitchener-Waterloo.
rbt
Senior Member
Indeed, which is exactly what makes it a really stupid idea for Toronto to propose. Ottawa, London, Windsor, Kingston, ThunderBay, etc. have legitimate complaint about being ignored.
If Toronto area is unhappy with Ontario government, Toronto area should elect different people to government because it's already in complete control over what happens at Queens Park. If you don't want a Ford, Lastman, Wynne, Tory for Mayor/ Premier, stop electing those people for Mayor/Premier.
What Province of Toronto people really want is a division of the GTA based on values, not geography.
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
I'm not concerned about politics so much as tax revenues and government income and spending.
I would really like it if the taxes the Toronto region paid, went back into investing in the Toronto region's infrastructure. I also would really like the freedom for the region to adopt stuff like road tolls without Queen's Park veto-ing it.
I would really like it if the taxes the Toronto region paid, went back into investing in the Toronto region's infrastructure. I also would really like the freedom for the region to adopt stuff like road tolls without Queen's Park veto-ing it.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
This Province of Toronto/GTA thing will never happen anyways. The energy should be focused on devolving powers to the municipalities with constitutional protections. We can achieve our goals just as well
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Ha. I wasn’t very happy to see Ford elected, but I had the feeling that the silver lining would be that he’d set the wheels in motion for Toronto to become a constitutionally protected charter city, with significant autonomy, albeit inadvertently. His time in office would clearly demonstrate why such protections for Toronto were necessary.
Lo and behold, Ford couldn’t help but interfere in Toronto’s affairs in the most offensive way possible. Now we have the federal Liberal Government coming out in favour of a constitutional amendment to empower and protect the City of Toronto from Queen’s Park. And you can bet your bottom dollar that the LPC has been coordinating this idea with the top brass in the LPO. If the PC government is deposed in 2022, all the pieces will be in place to pass this constitutional amendment. The days of Toronto being a creature of the province could soon come to a close. Thank you Doug Ford!
Towered
Superstar
The question is to what extent will this charter city status grant Toronto autonomous powers? The example when John Tory proposed road tolls on the Gardiner and Queen's Park simply disallowed it comes to mind - if the city will still be at the mercy of having such significant local decisions arbitrarily overturned by the province then charter city status will be meaningless. It needs to have some sort of teeth. The difficulty will be getting the Ontario government to agree to such a change. I doubt Thug will sign off on such a proposal given his obsession of exacting revenge upon Toronto through endless meddling.
Steve X
Senior Member
That is a major problem. The province would also need to achieve goals to keep themselves in power. With an independent Toronto (GTA), there would only be one level of government thus combining provincial and municipal elections into one. The Toronto council would be replaced with MPPs. The rest of Ontario can have a proper government the focus on rural and Northern Ontario issues.
There has been major divides between rural and urban Ontario, such as the sex ed issue. If GTA is separated from the rest of Ontario, they can have separated education curriculum as the "two" provinces can do their own things. Other ministries like health care, energy, MTO (highway design, expansion) and OPP could operate over the two jurisdiction if that benefits both through agreements.
That fact that many well known cities around the world have federal level cities, maybe it's time for a change. Especially after Ford thought he is the Premier of Toronto.
Neutrino
Senior Member
Wouldn't Toronto then just be a perpetually minority party?
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
You mean within an independent province of the Greater Golden Horseshoe? Yes, maybe the 905 will vote differently from Parkdale and Leslieville, but at the moment so do the outer 416, so I don't see that as being a contradiction to the goals of succession. Democracy is still democracy.
I think there would be a lot of cooperation going on with big ticket items like transit, as it is in the interests of all municipalities in the region to invest in transit networks elsewhere in the belief that it will be reciprocated in kind. Plus, with control over our own tax revenues, we'd have the capacity to build multiple projects such as both the Relief Line and Yonge North Extension simultaneously.
11th
Senior Member
It should only eliminate the regional governments. Municipal governments have their place - for local issues. The current city of Toronto should revert back to former six municipalities. Maybe they can also carve up Mississauga and Brampton.
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
I feel that rather than six municipalities, only really Scarborough might be better off on their own for governance reasons, as demonstrated by the subway issue.