Hon. Donna Dasko: Honourable senators, before I begin my comments today, I wanted to congratulate Senator MacAdam. I also wanted to say that today is also a special day for me. This is the fifth anniversary of the date I was appointed to the Senate along with my dear colleague Senator Dalphond; I want to recognize you too. I would say to her that I have appreciated every single day here — or just about every day — in this chamber, and it is a great privilege to be here. I just wanted to mark that.

This is not the topic of my discussion tonight, however fascinating it might be. I rise today to add my voice to Senator Simons’ inquiry on the challenges and opportunities that Canadian municipalities face and to the importance of understanding and redefining the relationships between municipalities and the federal government.

In the course of this inquiry, we have heard from honourable senators that over 80% of Canadians live in our urban areas, that they are engines of economic growth and that municipal governments are on the front lines of dealing with the vital issues of the day. We’ve heard from colleagues with personal experience in municipal politics and intergovernmental relations, and we’ve heard creative ideas for reform. There’s much food for thought.

Today, I want to focus mainly on issues related to the topic of civic governance, particularly as it concerns my city of Toronto. Today in Toronto, in the middle of a mayoral election, polling shows that the top issues for voters are housing, the cost of living, city infrastructure and taxes, crime and gun violence and transit and traffic. Good governance and cooperation between Toronto and the other levels of government are parts of the solution.

Nevertheless, a series of events in recent years has highlighted the vulnerability of my city to decisions taken at the provincial level. By extension, every municipality in this country is similarly vulnerable to the provincial decisions I will describe, given the disadvantageous constitutional status of cities in this country.

Let me explain: In 2016, the City of Toronto redrew its city ward boundaries, increasing the number of wards from 44 to 47 in advance of the 2018 municipal election. This decision was based on an independent consultant’s nearly four-year review, which highlighted the city’s unprecedented growth — particularly in the downtown core — and concluded that an increasing number of wards was needed to achieve effective representation where every vote would have equal weight — known as voter parity. The recommended 47-ward option would achieve voter parity by the 2026 election, as the consultants had told us, and the 2018 election was thus set in motion.

The new Government of Ontario had other ideas, however, none of which were shared with Ontario or Toronto voters during the provincial election campaign leading up to election day on June 7, 2018 — five years ago tomorrow, Senator Dalphond. Rather, it was announced after that election in July, and implemented in September of that year, that the number of wards would be cut from 47 to 25 for the October 22 municipal election. What a shock it was to the city with 242 candidates now fighting for half the seats with one month to go, and what a blow that was for democratic representation and civic autonomy.

But there’s more. Fast-forward to another June election in Ontario, this time in 2022, and yet another blow to civic democracy: Again, with no mention of it in the provincial campaign itself, the newly re-elected provincial government passed Bill 3, known as the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, which gives special powers to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa to organize the political and bureaucratic structures of city hall, hire and fire top city officials, write the budget and more.

As well, another piece of provincial legislation, Bill 39, gives the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa the ability to put through bylaws in areas — get this — related to provincial priorities with the support of only one third of city council. As Toronto councillors and many others in my city and elsewhere have said, this bill clearly invalidates the will of voters and reduces the democratically elected city council to a tool for an agenda of another level of government. It is, without question, undemocratic.

Colleagues, if Canada’s largest city can be subject to these actions by a provincial government, any city in this country can find itself in the same situation — I’m thinking of Edmonton, and others. As creatures of the province, under our Constitution, municipalities have no inherent powers other than the ones given to them by the provincial legislature. We often focus on the deleterious impact of this situation on fiscal arrangements, which disadvantage Canadian municipalities. But we can see from my Ontario examples how civic governance — and, indeed, democratic structures themselves — are also at risk.

Our constitutional arrangements are at the root of the problem. However, the courts have consistently supported these arrangements — even the controversial decision of the Ontario government to cut the number of wards in Toronto in half during the 2018 municipal campaign. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-4 that Ontario was within its constitutional rights to do this. That is a very close decision, but still, that’s what the courts said. And the constitutional situation of the cities vis-à-vis the provinces is highly unlikely to change in the near future since the provinces have no desire to give up control.

Even outside the drama of the Ontario situation, the so-called normal status of municipalities is fraught with disadvantages. As noted by University of Toronto Professors Enid Slack and Tomas Hachard, municipalities have a semblance of authority in several policy areas but have little power to make changes unilaterally. They have inadequate revenue sources and inadequate fiscal flexibility to meet their responsibilities. There’s often unclear and overlapping jurisdiction among the three levels of government, and much of Canada lacks appropriate regional governance structures, which hinders cooperation.

Even though cities are involved in an increasing number of policy areas — climate change, health care, economic development, immigration and public safety, to name just a few — their role in politics and policy-making is underappreciated, and their voices are under-represented.

In a 2022 paper entitled A Seat at the Table: Municipalities and Intergovernmental Relations in Canada, Professor Tomas Hachard of the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance at the University of Toronto outlines a series of reforms that would work to include municipalities in federal and provincial policy‑making and collaboration to improve policy outcomes.

These reforms include, first, beefing up the capacity of municipalities to participate effectively in intergovernmental relations through investment in staff, municipal associations and increased regional coordination.

The second reform is increasing municipal involvement in provincial policy-making. With the range of issues involving municipalities, it’s not enough to silo them into one provincial ministry. Future models might involve a council for provincial-municipal relations or a set of intergovernmental councils focused on specific policy issues.

A third idea is eliminating unfunded mandates where governments are tasked with responsibilities they cannot afford through, for example, explicit or implicit downloading of costs to municipal governments. This seems to happen to municipalities all the time. In Toronto right now, for example, the city is picking up costs of immigration settlement and highway maintenance, which fall outside of their areas of jurisdiction. Ending unfunded mandates might be achieved through agreements that require consultation on the fiscal impacts of legislation and promises that resources will be provided to take on new responsibilities.

Hachard’s fourth proposed reform is strengthening trilateral relations. Again, recognizing that so many issues cross jurisdictions, trilateral agreements can be helpful in policy areas such as economic development, mental health and so many others.

These four reforms would give municipalities the voice they need and help achieve positive outcomes for citizens.

Still, it takes goodwill on the part of policy-makers and politicians to embrace such ideas and, essentially, it takes goodwill for provincial politicians to give up control. When it comes to my great city of Toronto and its future relations with Queen’s Park, I’m not sure that will happen. With the prospect of a new mayor, with different priorities and different approaches from our provincial government after the municipal election on June 26, it’s hard to be optimistic about future cooperation. I sure hope that I will be proven wrong on that score.

I began with comments about the issues which concern people in my city: housing, the cost of living, city infrastructure, taxes, crime, gun violence, traffic and transit. Good governance and cooperation across three levels of government are a big part of the solution. Politicians have to understand that it’s not a zero‑sum game. By sharing power, working together and giving municipalities a voice, the result is good politics, good policy and a stronger democracy. Thank you.

Senator Dasko: I will.

Senator Dasko: Senator Omidvar, that is an excellent question. I don’t have a great answer because I have not studied this in an international scene. But I think everybody in this room is aware of the battles and struggles, especially between our municipalities and our provincial governments.

In our chamber, we have municipal politicians, former mayors and those who have been intimately involved with municipal politics, and they have worked these corridors. They know what the issues are, and these are truly difficult issues to deal with.

My point here is you can win if you get along with the other levels of government. You don’t have to fight them. It can be a win-win game. When I see politicians, for example, federal and provincial, in the province of Ontario, they can get along quite well, or they can fight. It depends on the political situation, but I’ve noticed that it is possible for the two levels to get along very well, and that is to the benefit of everybody, including them.

We’re not going to change the constitutional situation of this country with respect to jurisdiction. I think we’re stuck with what we have, but we can do a much better job, and I think that’s the point I would like to make. Thank you.

(On motion of Senator Clement, debate adjourned.)