Cities lack seat at table
To the rest of the world, Toronto is a big city; indeed, a metropolis. The people who live here aren’t so sure, however. Yes, we all know Toronto’s a major urban centre, but a metropolis?
Perhaps our reluctance to own up to our status has something to do with the fact that, politically, cities in Canada are treated like bad children. The legislative framework in which the country operates puts cities at the bottom of the heap, wholly dependent wards of the provinces.
This bizarre and regressive state of affairs was the subtext of a panel that kicked off the first full day of the 10th international Metropolis Conference yesterday. The session, held yesterday in the bowels of the Metro Convention Centre, featured a gaggle of mayors from around the world. Our own Mayor David Miller was on hand for the gabfest, as was Larry Campbell, the soon- to- be- ex- mayor of Vancouver recently appointed to the Senate. The visitors were rather taken aback to discover that Toronto exists within such narrow constraints.
“ I was amazed,” admitted the former mayor of Sao Paulo, Marta Suplicy, now vice- president of the Brazilian Workers’ Party. “ The Brazilian constitution gives lots of freedom to the mayors in Brazil.”
For example, she explained, cities can levy their own sales tax, service tax and property tax. On the other hand, many of Sao Paulo’s 11 million inhabitants live in poverty worse than anything we know here in Toronto. But as Campbell pointed out, “ Cities have to play a role. We cities have to push the federal government. Cities in Canada are being increasingly recognized as a level of government, rather than a creature of the provinces.”
There was general agreement, however, that in matters relating to immigration, it’s the cities that bear the brunt of the problems, though they have little input to public policy. Kent Andersson, the vice- mayor of Malmo, Sweden, railed against federal immigration policies based on national averages. These figures bear little or no relationship to reality, he said.
“ There’s a high degree of autonomy in Swedish cities,” Andersson said. “ But we don’t have a seat at the table right now.” The mayors also discussed the vexing issue of recognizing the professional qualifications of immigrants. Everyone in Toronto has met a cab driver who was a brain surgeon back home in Iran, but whose training isn’t valid in Canada. Though much of the blame lies with the self- regulating professions, governments have not been as aggressive as possible in forcing them to respond.
Still, it was abundantly clear that cities everywhere must deal with issues of diversity. Toronto may bill itself as the multiculturalism capital of the planet, but that might be overstating the case. To a greater or lesser degree, the whole world has become a melting pot, or is it a cultural mosaic? But at least one delegate, lawyer and former police services board chair Susan Eng, wasn’t overly impressed with what she saw.
“ The focus is on us helping them ( immigrants) not to upset us,” she complained. “ That’s an idea of the ’ 50s. We in Canada, especially in Toronto, are more advanced. If you’re going to discuss diversity, at least you could make the panel diverse.” As Eng pointed out, of the eight members of the mayors’ panel, all were white and only two were women.
“ We need to start from the mindset of diversity,” Eng said. “ We should take advantage of what immigrants bring to the Canadian world view. Think of what they can contribute. They help Canada connect with the rest of the world. But we’re always waiting for someone else to do things for us. We just sort of stumble along; we don’t dare think big in Toronto.” With more than 1,000 delegates from 45 countries, this year’s Metropolis conference is devoted to immigration, integration and everything in between. Sessions continue until Friday. Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@