The economic dimension ot metropolitan government :recent reform proposals in Toronto, Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is concerned with the changing role of urban governments in local economic development, the growing importance of metropolitan regions in the globalised economy discussing the economic dimension of metropolitan government reform and focusing on the case of Toronto. Toronto is not a national capital, it is a provincial capital, which in a federal system carries some of the characteristics of a national capital; and also Toronto is flow Canada's undisputed national metropolis, and so displays some of the economic characteristics of a capital city. In this context there is need on the one hand for large-scale units that can be global players, and on the other, for small units that can be flexible and responsive. This conclusion leads to reorganization proposals for a two-tier system in which the upper-tier body is very large in area but light in functions, and the lower-tier units are fashioned along the lines of 'reinvented government'. In the case of Toronto, such a structure was envisaged but not implemented, hut in view o the substantive work of the Great Toronto Area task force it may well be only a matter of time before such a plan is revisited