Building a Better Toronto

Early last week, Mayor David Miller and city council launched a website called Building a Great City, outlining some of council’s achievements over the past three years and detailing the priorities that will be shaping municipal action in the upcoming years.

As easy as it may be to discard this website as a piece of political campaign posturing for the upcoming municipal elections in November — or even as a poorly-designed attempt at assuring Torontonians that they are still important in light of a new federal government that doesn’t seem to realize the city exists — the new website is an important step in making the residents of Toronto realize that their municipal government has been working hard over the past three years and good things have come from this hard work.

Highlighted as city council’s main priorities are nine key issues:

• Get a new deal for Toronto.
• Foster a clean and beautiful city.
• Make progress on the waterfront.
• Create stronger neighborhoods.
• Make housing affordable.
• Improve the planning process.
• Promote better public services.
• Improve the business climate.
• Initiate more citizen involvement.

I can’t comment significantly on all the priorities, but I will outline a few significant achievements by city council over the past three years and a few suggestions as to where to go from here.

Get a new deal for Toronto. The new City of Toronto Act, drafted late last year, was an important step in making sure that Toronto gets the recognition it deserves as one of the largest business hubs in the country. Coupled with the new gas tax and transit funding agreements, Toronto is slowly getting back some of the money it pumps into the Canadian economy every year. Looking forward, Mayor Miller needs to continue to push the federal government — which is already starting its campaign to ignore the largest city in Canada — to realize that without Toronto, our nation has a lot to lose.

Foster a clean and beautiful city. While Mayor Miller has shown dedication to the environment in through his litter reduction campaigns and the 20-Minute Toronto Makeovers, he has shown considerable slip-ups when it comes to the re-acclamation of public space. Without the efforts of the TPSC, the ill-conceived postering by-law may have been passed, and the selling of advertisements in major public spaces like Dundas Square (and our transit system) has shown a propensity for fiscal duties rather than cultural responsibilities on the part of city council. Posters and street art don’t pollute a city, they give it flavor: give us back our public space.

Create stronger neighborhoods. If council has dropped the ball on any of their initiatives, it is definitely in this domain. With violent crime rising in the city, Toronto city council has decided to build the strength of its communities on the police force, rather than the people who can ensure the future of the community effectively: the youth. The Toronto Youth Cabinet introduced the ‘Recreation Not Ammunition’ Budget Campaign in 2004, and while some of the initiatives that Mayor Miller has introduced since then - including the particularly inspired but less aptly-conceived ‘Our Common Grounds’ initiative - have been reflective of the TYC campaign, there is a lot of work left to do.

Improve the business climate. The decision to create a large film studio complex near the port lands was one of the most important but under-reported decisions city council made all of last year. I don’t know anything about business in all truth, but a film studio complex will bolster already strong reputation Toronto has for shooting movies.

Initiate more citizen involvement. After too many years of a Mel Lastman-led city council that didn’t care about what Toronto’s citizens had to say, it’s heartening to see that Miller’s council has initiated the ‘Roundtables on City Issues’ as well as introduced the 311 service for public inquiries. The best thing the Mayor has done, however, is the ‘Listening to Toronto’ initiative that was one impetus for the new City of Toronto Act. I had the opportunity to assist in some of the Listening to Toronto sessions, and I will admit that although not all of them were remarkably productive, every member of the public that left the session felt inspired and empowered. Let’s hope Miller — or whoever wins the mayoral race this November — makes this a yearly event.