Youthful mayors flex some muscle

Canada’s mayors are flexing their muscles.

They are riding a wave of success with the federal government on funding for transit and housing. They are younger and they are finding their collective footing.

But they know that co-operation and this roll they are on can come crashing down any time citizens head to the polls.

So, when the country’s big city mayors met in downtown Toronto Thursday, they were looking forward, plotting ways to enshrine and maintain funding for cities without having to continually go cap in hand to senior levels of government.

Canadian cities remain at a disadvantage compared to American and European cities, straitjacketed by a limited ability to raise funds, often reduced to the children’s table in dealing with Ottawa or the provinces, when, in fact, they are driving the economy.

Those gathered in Toronto represented more than half the country’s population and two-thirds of the country’s GDP.

“We are one of the most urbanized countries on the planet,’’ Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson told me. “We just don’t think of it that way because of the postcards.’’

Iveson, the chair of the big city mayor’s caucus, is the poster boy for this country’s younger, more powerful and more politically savvy mayors.

He was first elected in 2013 at the age of 34, with 62 per cent of the vote. In October, he was re-elected with 72.5 per cent support. He has company. Newly elected Montreal mayor Valérie Plante is 43. Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi is 45. Saskatoon’s Charlie Clark is 43. Winnipeg’s Brian Bowman is 46. The list goes on. They know real power can be wielded at the local level.

These are good times for cities. The federal Liberals have pledged a multi-year $20 billion fund for transit infrastructure, and $11 billion to upgrade and build housing. But this could all be ephemeral. So, Iveson and his fellow mayors are seeking to untap the full potential of Canadian cities, so they can properly build the quality of life that would allow them to compete with American and European cities for talent, entertainment and investment.

Right now, cities can raise funds through property taxes or user fees. A few cities, like Toronto, have a billboard tax or raise revenues through hotel taxes.

But the mayors are looking for measures that can allow them to raise revenue in perpetuity through legislation, or find some way that big cities are not dependent on the stars aligning perfectly for all three levels of government.

Many American cities, for example, can piggy back on state income taxes or sales taxes and through referenda can earmark a percentage of the revenue raised from those taxes to fund major infrastructure projects.

They also raise their own money through road tolls.

They need not be dependent on the state at all. No one need ask permission from a senior government or dig deep to match funding dangled in front of them.

Canadian cities are similarly seeking more autonomy and certainty when it comes to long-term planning.

To move in that direction, cities would need provincial governments to OK the shift, but Iveson believes it is a decision that should be left to citizens — citizens who trust their local government above all others.

Iveson said there is a global movement toward more autonomy for cities.

“When you see the anxiety and disillusionment with central government — witness the U.S. experience — there is more appetite for local decision-making, innovation and accountability,’’ he said.

Even in this golden era, there are roadblocks.

Toronto Mayor John Tory famously fumed about being treated like a “little boy in short pants’’ after Premier Kathleen Wynne slapped down his plan for road tolls.

Both the Quebec and federal governments tossed a little cold water on the post-election Plante euphoria by taking a step back from committing anything to her signature $6 billion Pink Line subway.

She remained undaunted when we chatted. She said there is unspent money in Ottawa’s infrastructure bank, a window for help remains open, but she knows she has to move quickly.

The message she has received from the two senior levels of government is that the priority is “mobility, mobility, mobility.’’

Even in Toronto, there is danger some federal infrastructure funding could be left on the table because, under federal rules, it is not being spent in time.

Strings, rules and lobbying limit autonomy.

We may yet be a long way from a city income or sales tax. But a step in that direction may have been taken Thursday.