Regions of Ontario

[lenaitch]

When Markham was promoted from town to city in 2012, it had over 300k people.

The way I understand it - and I could be mistaken - is that the designation is entirely up to the municipality as to what they want to call themselves. I'm not aware of any provincial guidelines, benchmarks, etc.

 

[BurlOak]

The way I understand it - and I could be mistaken - is that the designation is entirely up to the municipality as to what they want to call themselves. I'm not aware of any provincial guidelines, benchmarks, etc.

I recall reading that a City had to have a population of at least 10,000.
Dryden, which had a population in the past of over 10,000 and can't be stripped of that title once earned, is the smallest City in Ontario with 7750
I believe you are right that a Town the grows can keep its status as a town as long as it wants.
I'm not certain, but I think Oakville may be the largest Town in Ontario at just under 200k.

 

[lenaitch]

You may be correct about a shrunken city retaining its status. It seems Chatham-Kent (~101K) is one of those that didn't even try and simply stuck with 'Municipality'.

 

[toaster29]

Are there any legal differences between a Town and a City in Ontario? I believe in Quebec there is no distinction in the wording (they are all <<Villes>>). Oakville and Ajax should both be upgraded to City, but the notion of being a "town" is good marketing as being quaint little villages (which they are not).

 

[wild goose chase]

I recall reading that a City had to have a population of at least 10,000.
Dryden, which had a population in the past of over 10,000 and can't be stripped of that title once earned, is the smallest City in Ontario with 7750
I believe you are right that a Town the grows can keep its status as a town as long as it wants.
I'm not certain, but I think Oakville may be the largest Town in Ontario at just under 200k.

Really? A city can't be stripped of the title of a city once it reaches a certain population even if it falls back down again to any number?

So, if a city over 10,000 eventually becomes abandoned to become a ghost town, it remains a city with population zero?

 

[lenaitch]

Without researching the Municipal Act, I think what a municipality is called is simply nomenclature (and quite likely marketing) and whether a place is a 'city' or 'town' or anything else is essentially irrelevant from a governance point of view. They are either Single Tier (Toronto), Upper Tier (Peel) or Lower Tier (Mississauga).

I'm still not convinced a population of 10K is a benchmark to be called a 'city' but I'll take that post at face value. I suspect Dryden prefers to be called a City for the same reason Oakville prefers to be called a Town.

I can't think of a city in Ontario that has ceased to exist (except by amalgamation) or become abandoned. There is King City but I'm not sure if it ever was incorporated and I think used to be what was called a 'police village'.

Changing a name comes at a cost, if for no other reason than the legal costs of changing their Letters of Incorporation and all the things that flow from that.

 

[PinkLucy]

Under the former Municipal Act, 1990, a city was both an urban and a local municipality.[4] Under this former legislation, the Municipal Board could change the status of a village or town to a city, upon review of an application from the village or town, if it had a population of 15,000 or more.[4] The Municipal Board could also incorporate a township as a city under the same conditions with the exception that the population requirements was 25,000 or more.[4] In the event an application was received from a village, town or township located within a county, the application could have only been approved by the Municipal Board if authorized by the Minister of Municipal Affairs.[4]

In the transition to the Municipal Act, 2001, these requirements were abandoned and, as at December 31, 2002, every city that:[5]

• "existed and formed part of a county, a regional or district municipality or the County of Oxford for municipal purposes" became a lower-tier municipality yet retained its name as a city; and
• "existed and did not form part of a county, a regional or district municipality or the County of Oxford for municipal purposes" became a single-tier municipality yet retained its name as a city.

The current legislation also provides lower and single-tier municipalities with the authority to name themselves as "cities", or other former municipal status types such as "towns", "villages" or "townships", or generically as "municipalities".[6]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Ontario

 

[lenaitch]

Thanks for that PinkLucy. It seems that under the old Municipal Act the Board must have dropped the ball since, according to Wikipedia, Dryden has never been close to 15, 000, which confirms my anecdotal observation when I lived up that way. And it confirms my understanding that under the new Act municipalities can call themselves pretty much whatever they like.

 

[PinkLucy]

The City of Temiskaming was less than 15,000 when it was created.