Province holds all the power in cities’ affairs
You need not look as far away as Toronto if you want to confirm the perception that Canada’s cities remain the playthings of the provinces.
The drama created by Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s reduction of Toronto city council seats in the middle of a civic election has come to symbolize the provincial-municipal power struggle.
It hardly ranks as much of a struggle, though, with provinces not just holding all the cards, but making up the rules as they go.
That same dynamic appeared in Saskatchewan last week with the announcement by the provincial government that the speed-camera pilot project in Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw had become permanent.
The Saskatchewan Party government also announced a much smaller portion of the revenue from speeding fines issued through the cameras will be headed back to the municipalities where the alleged violations occurred.
The justification for the speed cameras when first introduced was supposed to be safety, not money, as proclaimed by both the province and the cities. So the irony of a dispute over revenue is as rich as the province’s general revenue fund now that some of the speed-camera money is heading there.
While mayors and councils are fuming, there’s no indication this decision came out of nowhere like Ford’s move. The result, of course, is the same with the province making the final decision and grabbing the cash.
Sometime this fall, the province will likely make a decision on the 2020 municipal elections. An overlap of the next scheduled provincial and municipal elections, currently set to take place five days apart, has prompted the province to seek a solution to avoid the conflict.
Fights over jurisdiction are practically ingrained in a system like Canada’s.
One option Premier Scott Moe’s government is considering is bumping the municipal elections from 2020 to 2021, extending council terms from four years to five.
If the province chooses that route, it will go against the expressed wishes of rural and urban municipalities. The Sask. Party government is consulting civic officials, in stark contrast to Ontario, but ultimately it will also make the decision about how democracy will work at the municipal level in Saskatchewan.
As with changing the number of wards in the middle of a municipal election, extending the terms of councils would be unprecedented in Canada. Fights over jurisdiction are practically ingrained in a system like Canada’s, but the system was established when Canada was a much different nation.
Canada has shifted from a mainly rural place (about 80 per cent in 1867) to one where most people now live in cities (more than 82 per cent and growing). Cities were understandably an afterthought 150 years ago, but they remain astonishingly impotent today.
Does a system where cities operate at the mercy and, occasionally, the whim of higher governments still make sense?
Mayor Charlie Clark likes to refer to Saskatoon as the engine of Saskatchewan’s economy, but the city’s civic government struggles with little power or financial might despite its sterling record for managing money.
Sure, Saskatoon is opening two new bridges next week, but it’s only able to do that thanks to provincial and federal money. The province sets a cap for how much money the city can borrow, kind of like a parent might do for a child with a billion dollars to spend.
The road to acquiring more power for any level of government at the expense of another is filled with Saskatoon-style potholes. All governments are loathe to surrender control or money.
Civic officials who feel behind-the-scenes negotiations fail to produce adequate results could always try a cheekier approach, such as a plebiscite on, say, expanded tax powers. It would not be binding on the province, but it would send a people-power message. And it has been 15 years this fall since Saskatoon last held a plebiscite, which used to be a regular feature of elections and a catalyst for voter turnout.