News   Nov 01, 2024
Toronto’s Bike Lane Feud at an All-Time High
 1.9K     11 
News   Nov 01, 2024
Bayview Village Resubmission More Than Doubles Height Near Bessarion Station
 2.1K     2 
News   Nov 01, 2024
Drone Flight Captures Cladding Progress at Menkes' Maison 77 Clarendon
 683     0 

Why were no other "Metropolitan (City)" regions ever created in Ontario?

T

Transportfan

Senior Member
Member Bio
Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
2,386
Reaction score
883
Metropolitan Toronto was created by splitting Toronto and it's suburbs from what was then York County in 1953, creating a new county-level tier. Why was this not done to say, Hamilton and Ottawa (or perhaps London), while leaving the rest of their parent counties (Wentworth and Carlton respectively) intact?
 
I agree. Amalgamations just happened at different rates. A bunch of smaller entities were amalgamated into the original lower tier Toronto governments within a Metro government upper tier. Similar actions occurred in Ottawa and Hamilton, just lacking the 'Metro' handle for whatever unknown reason. Even Sudbury started out as a two-tier regional municipality before evolving (devolving?) into single-tier. During the Harris years, a number of jurisdictions leapt directly to single tier (Chatham-Kent, City of Kawartha Lakes, etc.) but the GTA regions were left untouched for better or worse.
 
Also, there was a successor to Metropolitan Toronto for short time. Known as the Greater Toronto Services Board, it was basically Metro Toronto but instead it spammed the Greater Toronto Area. However they had no real political power as they were only in charge of GO Transit and School taxes of all things.
 
JasonParis said:
I don't think the other created Regional Municipalities (e.g., Niagara, Hamilton-Wentworth, Ottawa-Carleton, York, Peel, Durham, Halton, etc.) were all that different, despite not having "Metro" in their names.
Click to expand...

My question was that why there were no other Metro-type regions created by splitting off parts of counties, rather simply restructurings of entire counties. Example: Metropolitan Toronto was created from a part of York County, with the rest of the county remaining until it was made into a different region later.
 
Last edited:
Transportfan said:
My question was that why there were no other Metro-type regions created by splitting off parts of counties, rather simply restructurings of entire counties. Example: Metropolitan Toronto was created from a part of York County, with the rest of the county remaining until it was made into a different region later.
Click to expand...

Sudbury Regional Municipality was such an example, when the City of Sudbury and surrounding towns and townships were separated from the District of Sudbury.

Though apart from Muskoka (which is a regional municipality in all but name), districts have no government, and are simply jurisdictional boundaries for courts and provincial service provision.
 
JasonParis said:
I don't think the other created Regional Municipalities (e.g., Niagara, Hamilton-Wentworth, Ottawa-Carleton, York, Peel, Durham, Halton, etc.) were all that different, despite not having "Metro" in their names.
Click to expand...

Metro did have some key differences from other RM's though. Like vernacular, division of powers, and border signage: It was rarely called a region, was considered one city by many, and did not have "regional police" or "regional chairs" in a named sense. It also had parking authority (but lacked a regional school board). Also signs on highways said "Metropolitan Toronto: Population 2,000,000" as if it Metro was an actual city.

ShonTron said:
Sudbury Regional Municipality was such an example, when the City of Sudbury and surrounding towns and townships were separated from the District of Sudbury.
Click to expand...


Though Sudbury was not a true metropolitan area though, just a small city with unconnected satellite towns. I guess the big factor was that other city regions lacked prewar inner suburbs that were indistinguishable from their inner-city neighborhoods, though Ottawa did have prewar suburbs like Rockcliffe Park and Vanier. Maybe it was a size thing?
 
I think it was very much a matter of the terms being used. Back in the '50s, no other municipality came even close to the term 'metropolis'. Back then I suppose the words were more important. Now it seems terms such as 'city' and 'town' are pretty flexible. Rockcliffe Park and Vanier (Eastview)were distinct municipalities until they created the single tier City of Ottawa out of the region.

The majority of amalgamations in Ontario coalesced, sometimes locally-driven, over time interspersed with government-driven spurts. The creation of Metro and the original late '60s-early '70s regions were seen as an effort to manage impending growth. The municipal restructuring of the '90s was aimed more at reducing local government. Prior to creating the District Municipality, there was no district-wide level of elected government, similar to what is still currently in place in Parry Sound.

Separating cities from their surrounding county is fairly common. Barrie and Orillia are not part of Simcoe; although you may be correct that I'm sure sure if any city has been created out of part of a county other than perhaps some local expropriation.

Sudbury was somewhat unique in that the surrounding towns were largely centred on a minesite and were, at the time, either still private 'company towns' or very recently so. Of course it also ensured that any new mine revenue emerging outside of the old city or towns was going to be taxable at the municipal level.
 
Transportfan said:
Metro did have some key differences from other RM's though. Like vernacular, division of powers, and border signage: It was rarely called a region, was considered one city by many, and did not have "regional police" or "regional chairs" in a named sense. It also had parking authority (but lacked a regional school board). Also signs on highways said "Metropolitan Toronto: Population 2,000,000" as if it Metro was an actual city.
Click to expand...
Not that this really matters, but did it have a singular parking authority? Wasn't North York's "Blue P" as one example? Also, the other RMs still have signage and population, often just before or after the municipal "border" signage. All of Toronto's former municipalities also had border and population signage, with the exception of "old Toronto" itself.

Toronto did appear a bit more unified though if only by changing-out the Regional name with the Metro one. Even newscasts at the time rarely said "across Toronto today," they'd always say "across Metro today..."
 
Last edited:
lenaitch said:
I think it was very much a matter of the terms being used. Back in the '50s, no other municipality came even close to the term 'metropolis'. Back then I suppose the words were more important. Now it seems terms such as 'city' and 'town' are pretty flexible. Rockcliffe Park and Vanier (Eastview)were distinct municipalities until they created the single tier City of Ottawa out of the region.

The majority of amalgamations in Ontario coalesced, sometimes locally-driven, over time interspersed with government-driven spurts. The creation of Metro and the original late '60s-early '70s regions were seen as an effort to manage impending growth. The municipal restructuring of the '90s was aimed more at reducing local government. Prior to creating the District Municipality, there was no district-wide level of elected government, similar to what is still currently in place in Parry Sound.

Separating cities from their surrounding county is fairly common. Barrie and Orillia are not part of Simcoe; although you may be correct that I'm sure sure if any city has been created out of part of a county other than perhaps some local expropriation.

Sudbury was somewhat unique in that the surrounding towns were largely centred on a minesite and were, at the time, either still private 'company towns' or very recently so. Of course it also ensured that any new mine revenue emerging outside of the old city or towns was going to be taxable at the municipal level.
Click to expand...

It used to be that a "city" in Ontario meant that you were separated from the county. Guelph, London, Windsor, Peterborough, Belleville, Owen Sound, Stratford, St. Thomas, Barrie, Orillia, Brockville, etc. are all cities, and have been for many years, separated from the counties, though they may be the county seats and have the same judicial boundaries, and they will share certain services with the surrounding county, such as ambulance service, public health, and provincially-mandated social services like Ontario Works.

Some towns are also separated. St. Marys is also separated from Perth County, despite its small size. Interestingly, Sarnia, despite being a city, is not separated from Lambton County.
 
JasonParis said:
Not that this really matters, but did it have a singular parking authority? Wasn't North York's "Blue P" as one example? Also, the other RMs still have signage and population, often just before or after the municipal "border" signage. All of Toronto's former municipalities also had order and population signage, with the exception of "old Toronto" itself.

Toronto did appear a bit more unified though if only by changing-out the Regional name with the Metro one. Even newscasts at the time rarely said "across Toronto today," they'd always say "across Metro today..."
Click to expand...

Metro Toronto did have parking authority:

1605406532691.png



And did licensing too:

1605406408798.png


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3047/2949207849_d8a9175936_z.jpg?zz=1

Other RM's and counties don't have populations on highway signs, just the cities and towns do. There was even a sign that said "Metropolitan Toronto - Capital of Ontario" on the 400. I'm definitely old enough to remember it.

Metro was definitely a one-of-a-kind among Ontario's divisions.
 
Last edited:
There are 46 metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom. However, in the United Kingdom, "metropolitan" is...

"generally defined as consisting of an urban area, conurbation or agglomeration, together with the surrounding area to which it is closely economically and socially integrated through commuting." Key word is "commuting". London being the largest metropolitan area.

From link.

700px-London_TTWA_2001.png

From link.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top