Metropolitan Toronto

Prior to the formation of Metropolitan Toronto, the municipalities surrounding the central city of Toronto were all independent townships, towns and villages within York County. After 1912, the city no longer annexed suburbs from York Township. At times, the suburbs asked to be annexed into Toronto, but the city chose not to do so.

In 1924, Ontario cabinet minister George S. Henry was the first to propose a 'metropolitan district' with its own council, separate from the city and the county, to administer shared services. He wrote a draft bill, but the government chose not to act on it.[1]

The Great Depression saw almost all of the towns and villages of the county become insolvent. When that happened, they were financially taken over by the province. In 1933, Henry, now the premier, appointed a formal inquiry into forming a metropolitan district. A proposal was made for Toronto to provide several of its services to the suburbs as well. The inquiry died with the defeat of Henry in 1934.[2]

In the 1930s, a Liberal Ontario government named the first minister of municipal affairs, David A. Croll, and introduced a draft bill to amalgamate Toronto and the built-up suburbs. The draft bill faced strong opposition in Toronto and was withdrawn. The government then started its own inquiry into issues of the suburbs surrounding Toronto. Through consensus, it came to the conclusion that a metropolitan municipality was the best solution. The inquiry reported in September 1939, and its conclusions were put aside for the duration of World War II.[2]

Two factors changed in the 1940s. A Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCO) government was elected in 1943, with a changed policy, intending to promote economic growth through government action. Also in 1943, the first Master Plan was adopted in Toronto. It recognized that future growth would take place in the vacant land of adjacent suburbs. Planning would have to take into account the whole metropolitan area.[3]

Forest Hill reeve Fred Gardiner, who was politically well-connected to newly elected PC premier George Drew, now promoted the idea of ambitious new programs to lay the capital infrastructure for growth. In 1946, the province passed the Planning Act, which required each urban municipality to have its own Planning Board. A Toronto and Suburban Planning Board was founded, under the chairmanship of James P. Maher, and the vice-chairmanship of Fred Gardiner. The Board promoted specific projects, and also promoted a suburban 'green belt', a unified system of arterial roads and the creation of a single public transit network.[4]

The Board was ineffective. Projects such as a bridge across the Don River Valley and the Spadina Road Extension (the basis for the later Spadina Expressway) were rejected by the local municipalities. Gardiner, elected as chairman of the board in 1949, wrote to Premier Leslie Frost that only a unified municipality could measure up to the problems. In 1950, the City of Toronto Council voted to adopt an amalgamated city, while nearly all of the suburbs rejected the amalgamation.[5]

From 1950 until 1951, the Ontario Municipal Board held hearings on the proposal, under the chairmanship of Lorne Cumming. The Board worked until 1953, releasing its report on January 20, 1953. Cumming's report proposed a compromise solution: a two-tiered government, with the formation of a Metropolitan government, governed by a Metropolitan Council, to provide strategic functions, while existing municipalities would retain all other services. He rejected full amalgamation, citing a need to preserve 'a government which is very close to the local residents.'[6]

The Frost government moved immediately and on February 25, 1953, introduced the bill (An Act to provide for the Federation of the Municipalities in the Toronto Metropolitan Area for Certain Financial and Other Purposes[7]) to create the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The new municipality would have the power to tax real estate and borrow funds on its own. It would be responsible for arterial roads, major sewage and water facilities, regional planning, public transportation, administration of justice, metropolitan parks and housing issues as needed. The municipalities retained their individual fire and police departments, business licensing, public health and libraries.[8]

The council would have its own chairman, selected by the province initially, then to be elected by the Council itself after 1955. Premier Frost convinced Fred Gardiner, who still preferred amalgamation, over the metro scheme, to take the job. Gardiner was well known to Frost through the Conservative Party, was well-off, was felt to be beyond personal corruption. Gardiner accepted the position partly due to his friendship with Frost, and he demanded that he retain his corporate connections. He also felt that the job would be "bigger than anything he had tried before." The bill to form Metro was passed on April 2, 1953. The Gardiner appointment was announced on April 7.[9]

In Canada, the creation of municipalities falls under provincial jurisdiction. Thus it was provincial legislation, the Metropolitan Toronto Act, that created this level of government in 1953. When it took effect in 1954, the portion of York Township not yet annexed by Toronto, as well as all of Scarborough and Etobicoke Townships were incorporated as part of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, and seceded from York County.

Metropolitan Toronto Council had its inaugural meeting on April 15, 1953, and was made up of the Metro chairman, Frederick Gardiner, who had been appointed by the province; the mayor of Toronto; Toronto's two most senior controllers; nine senior aldermen from the City of Toronto; and the twelve suburban mayors and reeves.[10]

Metro Toronto was composed of the City of Toronto, the towns of New Toronto, Mimico, Weston and Leaside; the villages of Long Branch, Swansea and Forest Hill and the townships of Etobicoke, York, North York, East York, and Scarborough.

Metropolitan Toronto had planning authority over the surrounding townships such as Vaughan, Markham, and Pickering, although these areas did not have representation on Metro Council.

Gardiner was Metro chairman from 1953 until the end of 1961. During his tenure, Metro built numerous infrastructure projects, including the opening of the first subway line, start of construction of the second subway line, water and sewage treatment facilities, rental housing for the aged and the Gardiner Expressway, named after Gardiner. Metro also amalgamated the various police forces into one in 1956. It was a period of rapid development of the suburban municipalities of Metro. The population of Metropolitan Toronto increased from one million to 1.6 million by the time he left office.[11]

As a result of continued growth, the province reorganized Metro in 1967. The seven small towns and villages, which were no longer any denser than the surrounding areas, were merged into their surrounding municipalities. This left the City of Toronto and the five townships, which at this time were re-designated as boroughs (all but East York were later incorporated as cities). Long Branch, New Toronto, and Mimico were absorbed back into Etobicoke; Weston was absorbed into York; Leaside into East York; and Swansea and Forest Hill, into Toronto, resulting in an unusual final situation where none of the municipalities outside the city were ever entities founded as distinct historic urban settlements in their own right. The reorganized Metropolitan Toronto adopted a flag and decal using a symbol of six rings representing the six municipalities.

Development in Metro Toronto generally unfurled outward smoothly from the City of Toronto into the surrounding boroughs with little leapfrogging, giving it the growth continuum of a single city. For example, most of the areas of the small inner boroughs of York and East York, were in effect, extensions of inner city Toronto and gradually transitioned into the more typical suburban areas of the outer municipalities[12] (which also had such inner-city areas where they bordered Toronto). Given that none of the boroughs originated as distinct settlements, they did not have their own downtowns. To give themselves an identity distinct from the City of Toronto (which was deemed particularly important after being reincorporated as cities), North York and Scarborough built planned city centres: North York City Centre and Scarborough City Centre respectively. This pattern was in contrast to other metropolitan areas like Hamilton-Wentworth, where suburbs such as Stoney Creek had historic cores and whose inner areas were well separated from inner-city Hamilton.

As the seats on Metro Council were reapportioned according to population, the council was now dominated by the suburban majority; but it continued to address suburban and inner city issues in equal measure.

In the 1995 provincial election, PCO leader Mike Harris campaigned on reducing the level of government in Ontario as part of his Common Sense Revolution platform, and promised to examine Metropolitan Toronto with an eye to eliminating it. However, in the end the Harris government announced what they saw as a superior cost-saving plan. The six municipalities of Metro Toronto would be amalgamated into a single-tier city of Toronto. This was a major break from the past, which had seen the core simply annex suburbs. Similar amalgamations were planned for other parts of Ontario, such as Ottawa and Hamilton.

The announcement touched off vociferous public objections to what the media termed the "megacity" plan. In March 1997 a referendum in all six municipalities produced a vote of more than 3:1 against amalgamation.[13] However, municipal governments in Canada are creatures of the provincial governments, and referendums have little to no legal effect. The Harris government could thus legally ignore the results of the referendum, and did so in April when it tabled the City of Toronto Act. Both opposition parties held a filibuster in the provincial legislature, proposing more than 12,000 amendments that allowed residents on streets of the proposed megacity take part in public hearings on the merger and adding historical designations to the streets.[14] This only delayed the bill's inevitable passage, given the PCO's majority. The amalgamation would take place effective January 1, 1998, at which time the new City of Toronto (legal successor of Old Toronto) came into existence.

The first chairman of Metropolitan Toronto, Fred Gardiner, was appointed by the province; subsequent chairmen were elected by Metro Council itself. The Metro chairman was, for many years, an ex-officio member of the council without having to be elected to Metro Council by constituents as either a local mayor, controller, alderman or councillor. Beginning in 1988, the position of chairman was chosen by council members from amongst its own members (excluding mayors who could vote for Metro councillors but could no longer run for the position).

As usual in Ontario municipalities, these councils were non-partisan, although in later years some councillors (and candidates) did identify themselves explicitly as members of particular political parties. Metro councillors were elected by plurality.

From the inception of Metro Toronto until amalgamation, there were six chairmen altogether:

• Fred Gardiner (1953–1962) – former Reeve of Forest Hill
• William R. Allen (1962–1969) – former member of the Board of Control for the City of Toronto.
• Albert Campbell (1969–1973) – former mayor of Scarborough
• Paul Godfrey (1973–1984) – former alderman and Metro Councillor for the Borough of North York
• Dennis Flynn (1984–1987) – former mayor of Etobicoke
• Alan Tonks (1987–1997) – Metro Councillor from and former mayor of the City of York

Metro Toronto wards established in 1988 were given names that contained the number of the ward, name of municipality and the name of the local communities:

• Metro Toronto Ward 1 – East York

• Metro Toronto Ward 2 – Lakeshore-Queensway
• Metro Toronto Ward 3 – Kingsway-Humber
• Metro Toronto Ward 4 – Markland Centennial
• Metro Toronto Ward 5 – Rexdale-Thistletown

• Metro Toronto Ward 6 – North York Humber
• Metro Toronto Ward 7 – Black Creek
• Metro Toronto Ward 8 – North York Spadina
• Metro Toronto Ward 9 – North York Centre South
• Metro Toronto Ward 10 – North York Centre
• Metro Toronto Ward 11 – Don Parkway
• Metro Toronto Ward 12 – Seneca Heights

• Metro Toronto Ward 13 – Scarborough Bluffs
• Metro Toronto Ward 14 – Scarborough Wexford
• Metro Toronto Ward 15 – Scarborough City Centre
• Metro Toronto Ward 16 – Scarborough Highland Creek
• Metro Toronto Ward 17 – Scarborough Agincourt
• Metro Toronto Ward 18 – Scarborough Malvern

• Metro Toronto Ward 19 – High Park
• Metro Toronto Ward 20 – Trinity-Spadina
• Metro Toronto Ward 21 – Davenport
• Metro Toronto Ward 22 – North Toronto
• Metro Toronto Ward 23 – Midtown
• Metro Toronto Ward 24 – Downtown
• Metro Toronto Ward 25 – Don River
• Metro Toronto Ward 26 – East Toronto

• Metro Toronto Ward 27 – York Humber
• Metro Toronto Ward 28 – York Eglinton