Governance in Toronto: Issues and Questions
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Toronto Election 2010 Discussion Paper # 1 June 2010 Governance in Toronto: Issues and Questions 1 Foreword The Cities Centre is a multi-disciplinary research For further information, please contact: institute established February 2007 in response to one of the five major research priorities defined in Eric Miller the University of Toronto’s "Stepping Up" plan. The Director mandate of the Centre is broad: to encourage and Cities Centre facilitate research, both scholarly and applied, on University of Toronto cities and on a wide range of urban policy issues, 455 Spadina Ave., Suite 400 both in Canada and abroad, and to provide a Toronto, ON M5S 2G8 Canada gateway for communication between the University and the broader urban community. T (416) 946 3688 F (416) 978-7162 Late last year, several of Toronto’s civic leaders met email: [email protected] with the Cities Centre to discuss the need for focused debate on strategic issues during the 2010 Municipal Election Campaign. A consensus was reached that All photographs and maps copyright by the City of Toronto, 2008-2010. the Cities Centre would mobilize academics from the University and other professionals to prepare Discussion Papers on six themes: governance, environment, transportation, housing, finance and equality. These Papers are meant to describe current issues in an objective and apolitical way, and to raise policy options that could spark focused debate among candidates for Mayor and Council in the 2010 Election. This is the first Discussion Paper in the Cities Centre’s ‘Toronto Election 2010’ series. It summarizes a much more extensive paper prepared by: Richard Stren, Eleanor Rae, Frank Cunningham, Gabriel Eidelman, Andre Sorensen, and Mariana Valverde from the University of Toronto, Aaron Moore and Andrew Sancton from the University of Western Ontario, and Lionel Feldman, consultant. It is available at www.citiescentre.utoronto.ca/ and directly from the Cities Centre. This Paper was edited and produced with the support of Chreod Group Inc. of Toronto. 2 Who Governs the City of Toronto... and How? A short answer is: the elected Mayor and city councillors. But this is only one part of Toronto governance, and a small part at that. The City includes an array of commissions, boards, departments, divisions, and committees, the nooks and crannies of its operation often being so arcane that many citizens do not understand its workings and feel that they have little say in its policies. How can citizen involvement in Some citizens take advantage of what democratic access there governing Toronto be enhanced? is and organize themselves into groups such as residents’ associations, thus adding an informal dimension to city governance. But many people, if not most, simply accept or endure the results of policies influenced by the few who have mastered the City’s intricacies and who know which “buttons” to push. This highlights a core challenge: how can citizen involvement in governing Toronto be improved? How can the needs Another core issue relates to the size and complexity of Toronto. of the City of Toronto as a whole What is Toronto? The answer depends on whether one refers be attended to? to its present political boundaries or to loyalties inherited from history. People often refer to the “the former City of Toronto” to differentiate the area called Toronto before its amalgamation by the Provincial government in 1998 with the five adjacent cities and boroughs of East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York. These components themselves exhibit complex histories, since in the late 1960’s several other towns and villages (Mimico, Swansea, Leaside, and others) were incorporated into them. Councillors represent individual wards in this large complex (see Annex), but citizen involvement is typically focused on the yet smaller areas of their neighbourhoods. Quite naturally, these councillors and citizens are primarily concerned with problems in their particular areas of Toronto. This raises another core challenge: how can the needs of the City as a whole be better addressed? This Discussion Paper provides some pertinent facts about the structures, practices, and institutions of the City. It also raises some key questions on governance that candidates in the 2010 election need to address. 1 Improving Citizen Participation There are several avenues for increased citizen participation in the City. Voting The form of participation with which most citizens are already Only 39% of eligible residents acquainted is voting for their city councillors, of which there are 44 voted in 2006. (one for each ward), and for the mayor. In the municipal election of 2006 over 1.5 million eligible electors could vote for 456 candidates at 1,637 different voting locations across Toronto. Just under 600,000 citizens, or 39% of those eligible actually voted. Many factors affect voter turn-out, but among them are the issues addressed in an election and the approach of candidates to them. Voter turn-out increases when: • issues at stake are clearly defined and seen to be important • candidates take clear stands on those issues • there are real distinctions among candidates’ positions so the outcome of an election will make a difference. The media can play an important role in drawing people to the polls, but the main responsibility is for candidates themselves, who should take clearly articulated stands on substantive matters. An important issue with the current voting system is who should Should immigrants who are not be eligible to vote in municipal elections. At present this includes yet Canadian citizens be allowed only residents (or property owners) 18 years of age or older who to vote in Toronto elections? have Canadian citizenship. Some groups propose to increase the current category of eligible voters to include permanent residents who are not yet Canadian citizens but who are equally affected by what goes on in the City. If immigrant residents who are not yet Canadian citizens could vote this would increase the number of voters by about 200,000. Proponents argue that immigrants who reside in the City are just as affected by how it is governed as anyone else and therefore should have the right to participate in civic elections. Community Councils In addition to City Council, Toronto includes four Community Councils (see Annex). These are comprised of the councillors from adjacent wards who meet once a month, separately from City Council as a whole, to hear from citizens. The councils make final decisions about some matters (for example sign or 2 fence bylaw exemption), but on most issues they can only make recommendations to City Council. Not all citizens are aware of the existence or role of the community councils, so another way to involve more people would be to publicize them more effectively. How could Community Councils Almost since their establishment in 1998, there have been be made more responsive to discussions about improving these councils. There could be more local needs? of them, since four Councils in a city of 3 million people does not provide for much consultation with communities. The scope of issues over which the councils have discretion could be enlarged to include more substantive matters (for example, granting or withholding liquor licenses or patio extensions to restaurants). Membership on the councils could be expanded to include people who are not elected officials. The result would be similar to what exists in some other jurisdictions, such as New York City’s Borough of Brooklyn. Those who resist such proposals fear they would create another level of municipal government, thus making an already complex situation more complicated. Public hearings Public hearings need to be The Toronto City Council includes seven Standing Policy taken seriously, and held before Committees on: Community Development and Recreation , agencies’ positions are set. Economic Development, Government Management, Licensing and Standards, Parks and Environment, Planning and Growth Management, and Public Works and Infrastructure. There are also a large number of administrative bodies working in areas such as city planning, waste management, transportation services, children’s services, and public health. To these are added other agencies, committees, commissions, and quasi-judicial tribunals, such as the Parking Authority and the Police Services Board. These bodies all hold regular meetings at which citizen participation is encouraged, to varying degrees. As well, extraordinary meetings are held on selected, important topics. For example, the Toronto Transit Commission recently held hearings on how to improve its services, and the Planning Department held meetings to solicit feedback on a plan to harmonize the City’s zoning by-laws. These hearings afford citizens an opportunity to participate in city governance, whether as individuals or as members of advocacy groups. Of course, enthusiasm for such involvement requires that citizen voices are taken seriously, at the earliest possible time, and that both the availability of the hearings and the results of their deliberations are widely publicized. 3 Citizen membership on City agencies Some of the standing committees, agencies, commissions, and Are more citizen representatives boards include ordinary citizens as members. But the membership needed in City agencies? of citizens is too often quite limited. For instance, only one of seven members of the Police Services Board is a citizen. There are no citizen representatives on the Toronto Transit Commission. The Board of the powerful Metrolinx agency is almost entirely composed of representatives from the business community. A way to enhance citizen participation in governance would be to include a significant number of citizens in all such agencies and to draw them from a broad range of communities of interest. Transparency Citizen participation in City agencies, whether as members or in Transparency is not consistent hearings, is encouraged to the extent that the activities of these across City agencies. Should bodies and their decisions are known.