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Should the "Metro" Concept be Revived for the GTHA?

gweed123

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I'm sure many of you on here are familiar with the former Metro Toronto. One of the main rationales behind its creation was the understanding that there were certain issues (transportation & transit, regional planning, etc) that extended beyond the borders of the existing municipalities, and that these problems couldn't be adequately solved in isolation.

When Metro was formed in 1954, it comprised the vast majority of the residents in the GTA, with only a small fraction of them lying outside its boundaries. By and large, it was representative of the entire GTA. However, with the rapid expansion of the 905, Metro no longer represented all of, or even the significant majority of, the Greater Toronto Metropolitan area. The issues it was designed to solve, it could no longer adequately solve, and it was eventually amalgamated into the current City of Toronto.

Again today, the GTHA is facing a similar problem to what it faced in the early 1950s: too many municipalities, not enough central control over the "big picture" issues. Is recreating a "Metro" type of government the answer? Personally, I think it is.

The work that the Province has done with the Places to Grow Act, the Greenbelt Act, and the Big Move are good building blocks, but implementation is dependent on the municipalities, and they are complying to varying degrees (to put it nicely). A new Metro government would be able to better implement those plans, and with new taxation powers (as well as shifting taxation from lower/upper tier municipalities to Metro) would be able to implement those plans with greater financial independence from the Province.

What I envision the new Metro being responsible for are things like regional roads (basically former King's Highways before the late 90s downloading, as well as major regional roads), mass transit (consolidated entirely under Metrolinx), major infrastructure projects, social housing and homeless shelters, and possibly planning departments. Basically any type of service that impacts the region as a whole.

These items would be lifted off the books of the municipalities, and onto Metro's books, with an equivalent shift in taxation amounts. Metro would also be given the authority to impose things like a sales tax, a vehicle registration tax, road tolls, etc.

In terms of structure, what I would like to see is the individual municipal councils elect from their own membership a certain amount of representatives to sit on Metro Council (number of reps TBD based on population). I figure doing an election from council members ensures that the will of the majority from various councils is represented.

Thoughts?
 
If we have a Metro level of government, which I think we should - then the question is why should the province have control over Metrolinx?

AoD
 
If we have a Metro level of government, which I think we should - then the question is why should the province have control over Metrolinx?

AoD

Sorry I missed that point. I think that Metrolinx should be "downloaded" to Metro. Transit services from the municipalities get uploaded and merged into Metrolinx, which gets downloaded to Metro.
 
The big sticking point that I see is that with the creation of a 3rd level of local government (in some cases), that may create an excess of government. Toronto and Hamilton are the only single tier municipalities in the GTHA, so they won't really be an issue. But what about Halton, Peel, York, and Durham? Do you abolish the Regional governments and either upload or download all of their responsibilities? Or do we go the amalgamation route and basically wipe the lower tier municipalities out of legislative existence, leaving only the namesakes and maybe neighbourhood sub-councils (like North York, East York, York, Scarborough, and Etobicoke)? That would leave only 2 levels of government, but there may be a sense that it isn't "local" enough for some residents.
 
I strongly disagree with the idea. We don't have too many municipalities. If anything we have too few.

The TTC is overburdened as it is having to sacrifice better downtown service to serve Toronto's suburbs. With a regional transit agency the problem would only become more acute.

It's bad enough that people in Etobicoke get to decide whether downtown gets bikelanes and where, letting downtowners tell the people of brampton how to lead their lives and vice versa will only lead to a lot more trouble.
 
Sorry I missed that point. I think that Metrolinx should be "downloaded" to Metro. Transit services from the municipalities get uploaded and merged into Metrolinx, which gets downloaded to Metro.

The problem is that Metrolinx reach is just too large. GTHA is probably already about half the population of the province. Do you include Niagara, Barrie, Peterborough - this would approach 2/3 or more of Ontario's population and such a large number of municipalities that it would be unworkable. For transit and transportation, I think It is best to have rapid mass transit (GO and subways) with the privince. The same with freeways such as the Gardiner and DVP.
 
I say abolish the Megacity and upper-tier governments in Halton, Peel, York and Durham (except for maybe courts and school boards). Turn the 4 community council areas into municipalities.
 
The problem is that Metrolinx reach is just too large. GTHA is probably already about half the population of the province. Do you include Niagara, Barrie, Peterborough - this would approach 2/3 or more of Ontario's population and such a large number of municipalities that it would be unworkable. For transit and transportation, I think It is best to have rapid mass transit (GO and subways) with the privince. The same with freeways such as the Gardiner and DVP.

The areas that I include are Toronto, Durham, York, Peel, Halton, and Hamilton. Areas outside of that can still be served by Metrolinx rapid transit (ie GO), but would still have their own local transit systems.

And I'm a bit confused. First you say that the reach of Metrolinx is too large, but then you state that GO and subways should be under the control of Metrolinx.

I say abolish the Megacity and upper-tier governments in Halton, Peel, York and Durham (except for maybe courts and school boards). Turn the 4 community council areas into municipalities.

Interesting idea. So basically have the entire GTHA be 1 upper-tier government, and a whole bunch of lower-tier governments? Would you propose the same de-amalgamation for Hamilton as you do for Toronto?

And I agree with the partial de-amalgamation of Toronto. Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough can be their own cities, but I think that realistically East York and York are too small to effectively be their own cities, and should stay part of Toronto.

Do you think that police and fire should be administered at the upper-tier (GTA) level, or at the local level? There are certainly merits to each option.
 
The issues it was designed to solve, it could no longer adequately solve, and it was eventually amalgamated into the current City of Toronto.

I disagree with this statement in the sense that Metro was not intended to incorporate any entity the size of the current GTA. And it did in fact solve most of the issues it was designed to solve within Metro.

Metro was simply a compromise to outright overnight annexation Toronto had been doing prior. Metro was a manageable city proper sized entity, and the two tiered system made the gradual switch even more manageable. One part genius...another part luck....it worked.

That's why Toronto was know as "The City that Works".

I definitely don't think it can be duplicated on a GTA scale, and I don't think it could be duplicated today at all....I think Metro worked mostly because of the dynamics at play during that era.
 
Interesting idea. So basically have the entire GTHA be 1 upper-tier government, and a whole bunch of lower-tier governments? Would you propose the same de-amalgamation for Hamilton as you do for Toronto?

And I agree with the partial de-amalgamation of Toronto. Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough can be their own cities, but I think that realistically East York and York are too small to effectively be their own cities, and should stay part of Toronto.

Do you think that police and fire should be administered at the upper-tier (GTA) level, or at the local level? There are certainly merits to each option.

Yes, that was suggested in the OP. There should be a two-tier government, the problem with Metro is it was based on 1954 boundaries.

I agree York and East York should go with Toronto. That was suggested by Carl Goldenberg in the 1960s but that never went through.

My feeling is police and fire should be at the local level, but I'm of an open mind on the merits of either.

De-amalgamation is needed more in Hamilton and Ottawa as well...more so than in Toronto in fact. Imagine if Caledon, Whitby, Burlington, etc. were part of the megacity! Makes no sense whatsoever.
 
the problem with Metro is it was based on 1954 boundaries.

I'd hardly call it a "problem". It's the entire reason it worked in the first place.

My feeling is police and fire should be at the local level

Then you are completely against the Metro model then?

The whole point of metro, was gradual amalgamation. It started off as lower-tier dominated and gradually became upper-tier dominated to the point where 75% of city resources/services were top-tier by 1998. That's why saying we amalgamated in 1998 is kinda silly, as it was mostly amalgamated by that time anyway.

The concept of Metro is completely irrelevant to the GTA today. The 905 does not require the services of the 416, and the 416 does not require the land of the 905 to expand. There's no point to amalgamating.
 
I disagree with this statement in the sense that Metro was not intended to incorporate any entity the size of the current GTA. And it did in fact solve most of the issues it was designed to solve within Metro.

Metro was simply a compromise to outright overnight annexation Toronto had been doing prior. Metro was a manageable city proper sized entity, and the two tiered system made the gradual switch even more manageable. One part genius...another part luck....it worked.

That's why Toronto was know as "The City that Works".

I definitely don't think it can be duplicated on a GTA scale, and I don't think it could be duplicated today at all....I think Metro worked mostly because of the dynamics at play during that era.

But one of the reasons why Metro worked is because when it was formed, Metro pretty was WAS the GTA. There was very little outside of it, at least in terms of populations. Cities like Brampton, Mississauga, and Richmond Hill were pretty small, and really didn't have a significant impact on Metro. What Metro decided was what worked for what at the time was the GTA.

The problems that Metro solved still exist today, but on a larger scale. The current setup of "every municipality for itself" bound together by quasi-implemented/enforced Provincial policies clearly isn't working as well as it was intended to. Why not try going back to an idea with a proven track record?

Yes, that was suggested in the OP. There should be a two-tier government, the problem with Metro is it was based on 1954 boundaries.

In which OP was that suggested? Just curious.

I agree York and East York should go with Toronto. That was suggested by Carl Goldenberg in the 1960s but that never went through.

De-amalgamation would provide a perfect opportunity for that.

My feeling is police and fire should be at the local level, but I'm of an open mind on the merits of either.

Police and fire are kind of in that grey area where both ways have merits and drawbacks. Personally, I would leave it up to the departments themselves to choose if they want to be local or regional.

De-amalgamation is needed more in Hamilton and Ottawa as well...more so than in Toronto in fact. Imagine if Caledon, Whitby, Burlington, etc. were part of the megacity! Makes no sense whatsoever.

Hamilton yes, Ottawa partially. The urban area of Ottawa should remain as one city (I actually live right near the former border of Ottawa and Nepean), but I think the rural area should be severed to form/reform Carleton County. There is just too much rural area in Ottawa to have it be effectively represented in comparison to the urban area.

The whole point of metro, was gradual amalgamation. It started off as lower-tier dominated and gradually became upper-tier dominated to the point where 75% of city resources/services were top-tier by 1998. That's why saying we amalgamated in 1998 is kinda silly, as it was mostly amalgamated by that time anyway.

The concept of Metro is completely irrelevant to the GTA today. The 905 does not require the services of the 416, and the 416 does not require the land of the 905 to expand. There's no point to amalgamating.

The point of Metro, as I see it, was to solve problems together that individual municipalities couldn't solve on their own. The reason I think responsibility shifted upwards during the course of Metro's existence is because the nature of a lot of the problems that needed to be faced changed from being local problems to regional problems.

The reality is that the 416 and the 905 do not exist in two separate bubbles, where one has minimal effect on the other. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people stream across that "border" every day. The idea that you need to transfer from one transit agency to another transit agency just because you're crossing an imaginary line within a contiguous urban area is, in my mind, absolutely ridiculous.

It's the same problems today that existed in 1954, only Durham is the new Scarborough, York Region is the new North York, and Peel + Halton Regions are the new Etobicoke.
 
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And I'm a bit confused. First you say that the reach of Metrolinx is too large, but then you state that GO and subways should be under the control of Metrolinx.

I meant that the reach is so large that it would be impractical to have all those municipalities within the new Metro - if Metrolinx would be a Metro body.

Due to the high costs and since they are used by many people from not just Toronto, I think it makes sense for Metrolinx to control the subways. The subways even extend (soon) outside of Toronto. Relatively speaking, the buses and streetcars are more local and would remain with each municipality. The province provides the rapid transit and the municipalities provide the local
 
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I meant that the reach is so large that it would be impractical to have all those municipalities within the new Metro - if Metrolinx would be a Metro body.

Due to the high costs and since they are used by many people from not just Toronto, I think it makes sense for Metrolinx to control the subways. The subways even extend (soon) outside of Toronto. Relatively speaking, the buses and streetcars are more local and would remain with each municipality. The province provides the rapid transit and the municipalities provide the local

Gotcha. The biggest problem I see with that though is in a lot of cases, the rapid transit subsidizes the local transit. Remove the only parts of the system that are profitable from the municipalities' hands, and you drastically increase the amount of subsidization required on their part.

I know the worry is that local issues will be 'lost' if everything were a part of Metrolinx, but I think there are ways to avoid that. The way I see the route planning division divided up is there are 7 groups within it: rapid transit, Toronto, Durham, York, Peel, Halton, and Hamilton. Each of those groups is responsible for route planning within their area, and the citizens can suggest changes specifically to those groups.
 

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