Last fall this message appeared on a billboard at Victoria Park & St. Clair.  It is also the conclusion of a report by Community First Toronto that argues suburban communities of Toronto are not getting their fair share of capital funding.

Since amalgamation nine years ago, the City of Toronto has reallocated funds away from the suburban communities of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough to fund projects in Toronto and East York.

The inequity prompted Michael Kilpatrick, Chair of the Scarborough Communities Association to present the Mayor of Toronto with a bill for taxes paid but services not rendered.      Download full report...

The report’s analysis depicts a capital budget process heavily favoring the center of Toronto at the expense of suburban communities.  This benefit extends not only to major capital initiatives such as the waterfront development or the Sheppard subway, but to a core group of capital items including parks & recreation, libraries, planning & development, corporate facilities & services, parking & transportation, water, sewer & public works, and neighbourhood services.

One of the more telling aspects of the report is  seen when it isolates the capital budget set aside for community facilities.  As the graph shows Toronto’s allocation of funds for community facilities bears little resemblance to where people actually live.   Not only is there a disproportionate amount of resident’s tax dollars going to central Toronto, but the shift in funding away from suburban communities is continuing to grow under the current Mayor’s administration.

The report argues that the chronic under-funding of Toronto’s suburban communities has far-reaching implications, impacting not only practical issues involving the adequacy of community infrastructure, but the political legitimacy of a government that favours one area of Toronto at the expense of another.
 
Moreover, the growing separation between Toronto’s ‘have’ and ‘have-not’ communities does not portend well for race relations when one considers Toronto’s communities are stratified along income and culture.  In the hope of making a better life for their children, many newcomers end up living in poverty when they first arrive in Canada (1).   Given that most new immigrants settle in Toronto’s suburban communities, where the United Way (2) has highlighted the growing suburbanization of poverty, the inequitable treatment among Toronto’s diverse communities lays the foundation for resentment that is neither conducive to community building nor relations among new and established cultures.  Toronto’s claim that it fairly reflects and promotes Canada’s tattered cultural mosaic can no longer be taken for granted.

If the governance of an amalgamated city is to be effective in a Canadian setting, it must be guided by a set of principles that include equity.  Not only would this go a long way towards improving the quality of community life, but it might also enhance Toronto status as a world class Canadian city.

1.  Canadian Immigration Policy for the 21st Century, ed. C.M. Beach, A.G. Green and J.G. Reitz, (2003)
2.   Poverty by Postal Code: The Geography of Neighbourhood Poverty 1981-2001, United Way of Greater Toronto/Canadian Council on Social Development (2004)