Eric Lombardi –
Ontario has drifted into a dysfunctional relationship with its municipalities. The province increasingly steps into matters that should be local, then leaves cities with muddled authority and blurred accountability.
Toronto offers the clearest examples. Bike lanes, Ontario Place, the Science Centre, even major city-shaping decisions like the future of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre have all been pulled into provincial politics. Whatever one thinks of individual cases, the broader pattern is hard to miss. Queen’s Park does not just set broad rules or provincial priorities. It increasingly makes decisions that belong to cities.
That is a problem, not only because it disrespects local governance, but because it weakens accountability. When the province intervenes in local issues, cities lose control without losing responsibility. Residents trying to sort out who is actually in charge blame local governments for decisions they did not fully make, while the province can step in dramatically without fully owning the consequences.
This pattern is not confined to Toronto. The same dynamic exists across Ontario, even if it’s less visible. Municipalities are expected to support housing growth, maintain infrastructure and shape growing communities, but do so with limited autonomy and constant dependence on senior governments. Too often, they must go cap in hand to Queen’s Park and Ottawa for money to build basic infrastructure.
That is not a mature way to govern a province as urbanized and economically important as Ontario.
The solution starts with a simple principle. If municipalities are expected to deliver local infrastructure and support growth, they need more stable funding and clearer authority. The province should govern provincially; cities should govern locally. The fiscal relationship should reflect that division.
One practical step would be to allocate municipalities a portion of provincial sales tax revenue. That would give cities access to a broader and more stable revenue stream, one that grows with population and economic activity instead of forcing them to rely so heavily on narrow, unpredictable tools. Cities would also benefit from municipal development corporations, wider use of tax increment financing (borrowing against future property tax revenue), and more flexibility within the property tax system.
This would not solve every problem overnight. But it would begin to treat municipalities like serious governments rather than administrative creatures that must constantly negotiate for the ability to do basic long-term planning.
It would also help reduce overreliance on development charges, which have become an increasingly awkward way to fund city building. They raise the cost of new housing and are not a particularly good tool for paying for broad city-wide goods like parks, libraries, and major long-term infrastructure. More importantly, they fluctuate with the market, while infrastructure needs do not. That is one more reason cities need a more stable fiscal base.
But the deeper point here is not just about revenue. It is about the kind of province Ontario wants to be.
We now have the worst of both worlds. Municipalities are too weak fiscally to function with confidence, but the province is too willing to meddle in local matters to allow for clean accountability. The result is overlap, confusion and political theatre where there should be practical government.
A healthier model would draw clearer lines. The province should set broad standards, fund responsibilities that are truly provincial, and reverse or properly funding the old downloading that left municipalities carrying obligations without the means to sustain them. Municipal governments should have clearer authority over local planning, local infrastructure and civic decisions, along with revenue tools that better match those responsibilities.
That would be better for democracy and better for delivery. Residents would know who is responsible for what. Cities could make decisions with more confidence. The province could spend less time micromanaging local controversies and more time doing the things only it can do.
None of this is glamorous; it is just practical. Ontario has grown too large, and its cities have become too important, to keep governing this way. A new deal with municipalities would not eliminate conflict between levels of government. But it would create something we badly lack today, a system in which responsibility, authority and revenue point in the same direction.
Eric Lombardi is exploring a run for Ontario Liberal Party Leadership. Learn more at ericforolp.ca.
