It's Time to Build a Toronto Charter

Who Decides the Future of Toronto?

Image: Ryerson Centre for Urban Research and Land Development Report Feb 28, 2019

⭐ Toronto's Official Plan should matter. After years of public consultation and expert planning, the Province should not be able to fundamentally undermine or rewrite Toronto's Official Plan without the City's agreement.

⭐ Partnership builds better cities. Ontario and Toronto each have important responsibilities. Lasting decisions about land use, zoning and neighbourhood growth should be made together, not through unilateral action.

⭐ It's time for a Toronto Charter. Canada's largest city deserves a modern governance framework that protects long-term planning, respects public consultation and gives residents confidence that the future of their neighbourhood will not change overnight.

It seems like a simple question, but it sits beneath almost every debate about housing, transit, parks, employment lands and public space.

For decades, Toronto has wrestled with the same challenge. We are Canada's largest city and its economic engine, yet we remain governed as a municipality whose long-term plans can be fundamentally altered by another order of government.

This is not a new conversation.

Former Mayor David Crombie argued that Canada's largest city needed a governance model that reflected its size and national importance. Former Mayor John Sewell continued that conversation after amalgamation, advocating for stronger municipal authority and a true city charter. David Miller championed a New Deal for Cities, recognizing that Toronto's responsibilities had outgrown its powers. More recently, City Council has again debated whether Toronto should pursue Charter City status.

Different people. Different political views.

The same question.

Has Toronto reached a point where it should have greater authority over its own future?

I believe the answer is a firm yes.

Every city is built from its Official Community Plan. It is not simply a planning document. It is the city's constitution for growth. Every mayor, every councillor and every planning decision begins there. It establishes where neighbourhoods will evolve, where employment lands will be protected, where parks and community facilities belong, how transportation networks connect people, and how housing fits into a complete community. It is a living document that undergoes public consultation and neighbourhood engagement.

An Official Plan is intended to provide certainty because cities are not built in four-year election cycles. They are built over generations.

Yet today, Toronto's planning framework can be changed through provincial legislation. Governments change. Priorities change. Projects move forward or are redirected. Public lands are repurposed. Zoning can be overridden. Years of consultation and planning can be displaced by decisions made outside City Hall.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with any individual project is almost beside the point.

The larger question is whether Canada's largest city should have the ability to protect its own long-term vision.

Ontario has responsibilities that belong at the provincial level. It funds healthcare and education, builds provincial transportation networks, manages the justice system and supports the broader economy. Those responsibilities affect every community across Ontario.

Toronto has a different responsibility.

Our responsibility is to build a great city.

That means balancing housing with employment. It means planning schools before classrooms are full, protecting spaces for healthcare before clinics are overwhelmed, ensuring electrical capacity exists before thousands of new homes are occupied, and creating parks, libraries and community spaces that grow with the population. It means making decisions that will still make sense fifty years from now.

Most of all, it means making decisions that will still make sense fifty years from now.

Independent cities around the world understand this. They are trusted to govern their own land use because land use is the foundation of city building. While provincial and state governments establish broad policy objectives, cities are responsible for implementing a coherent vision through their Official Community Plans. Stable planning frameworks create confidence for residents, businesses and investors alike.

Vancouver has long recognized this principle through the Vancouver Charter. While it remains provincial legislation, it acknowledges that a city of national significance requires a governance framework different from other municipalities.

Toronto deserves the same conversation.

A Toronto Charter should recognize that the Official Community Plan belongs to the people of Toronto. Fundamental changes to long-term land use planning and municipal zoning should require the agreement of both governments, not the unilateral decision of either one. That would not weaken Ontario. It would strengthen the relationship between the Province and its largest city by replacing uncertainty with partnership.

This is not about politics. It is about governance.

Good planning depends on stable rules. Stable rules produce better neighbourhoods. Better neighbourhoods create stronger cities.

Toronto has become one of the world's great urban centres.

Its governance should reflect that reality.

Cities are built over generations.

Their governance should be too.

See: Charter City Toronto

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