Mayor's Agenda Item Respecting Local Democracy and Cities Date: November 5, 2024 To: City Council From: Mayor Olivia Chow RECOMMENDATIONS The Mayor recommends that: 1. City Council receive this report for information. SUMMARY AND COMMENTS The recent provincial Bill 212 seeks to overturn the decisions and work of our locally elected Toronto City Council. If passed, the Bill means one government would, at tremendous cost to the taxpayer and without collaboration, undo another government's work. As Mayor, it is my responsibility to stand up for the decision-making authority of City Council and the expertise of our professional public service which supports that decision-making. As such, I am working with City Staff to review the City's options and will provide recommendations on this item prior to the City Council meeting on November 13, 2024. SIGNATURE Oliva Chow Mayor Respecting Local Democracy and Cities
Provincial Overreach and Toronto's Infrastructure - by Councillor Dianne Saxe, seconded by Councillor Amber Morley Ward: All *Notice of this Motion has been given. *This motion is subject to referral to the Executive Committee. A two-thirds vote is required to waive referral. Recommendations Councillor Dianne Saxe, seconded by Councillor Amber Morley recommends that: 1. City Council direct the City Manager to write to the Premier of Ontario and to all Ontario municipalities protesting the overreach in Bill 212 and asking the Province to respect municipalities' jurisdiction to manage competing claims for its own infrastructure and to withdraw the proposed section 195.2 of the Highway Traffic Act. Summary Toronto, with a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, is the fourth-most populous city in North America. Our population, our economy and our government are larger than those of every Canadian province except British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports, and culture and is one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Toronto is the economic engine of Ontario, providing a large subsidy every year to other parts of the province, as well as to other parts of Canada. Toronto provides a disproportionately large share of the revenue of the provincial government. City Councillors are the closest level of government to our constituents, and most reliably represent the interests of local residents and businesses. The City of Toronto owns, pays for, maintains and operates most of the infrastructure that allows this goose to lay its golden eggs, in an environment of overwhelming and competing demands. Managing and allocating this public infrastructure so as to appropriately balance these competing demands is a central function of municipal government, and essential to allow us to do the jobs we were elected to do. With Bill 23, Doug Ford took hundreds of millions of dollars out of the city'…
#ICYMI for #BikeTO
CC23.1 - Respecting Local Democracy & Cities - #MayorOliviaChow secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
MM23.14 - Provincial Overreach and Toronto’s Infrastructure - #DianneSaxe, seconded by #CllrAmberMorley secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
We’re finally putting up a fight!
