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• Urban Governance


  The manner in which power is exercised in the management of a city’s economic and social resources for development
• On a national scale, The Worldwide Governance Indicators project of the World Bank defines governance as: the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised
• Three Primary components at any scale

  • Authority
  • Decision-making
  • Accountability
• Civil Society also referred as the third sector has traditionally been understood as organizations with social mandates that operate in the pursuit of a public interest
• Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) include

  • Community groups
  • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
  • Labor unions
  • Indigenous groups
  • Charitable organizations
  • Faith-based organizations
  • Professional associations
  • Foundations
• Citizens tend to have more trust in civil society than they do in governments
• Toronto City Council has direct responsibility for the City’s services
• Toronto’s City Council composition changed from the Mayor and 44 Councillors to 25 Councillors in 2018
• The Mayor of Toronto is the only member of Council elected by voters from across the City
• Each Councillor in Toronto is elected by voters in one of 25 wards
• The term of office for the Mayor and Council in Toronto is four years
• The role of Council in Toronto includes representing the public, developing policies and programs, determining services provided, ensuring accountability and transparency, maintaining financial integrity, and carrying out duties under relevant Acts
• Responsibilities of Toronto City Council

  • Water treatment and sewers
  • Parks and recreation centres
  • Libraries
  • Garbage collection
  • Public transit (TTC)
  • Land use planning
  • Traffic and parking
  • Police and fire services
  • Paramedics
  • Homeless shelters
  • Childcare and more
• City of Toronto’s governance model

  • Relies on a balance between City Council, Public Service, and the Public
• Public Service


  • The staff of the City and most agencies provide objective, professional advice to Council and its agencies, implement Council’s decisions, and follow City policy, standards, and principles of effective public service
• The Public


  • Play an essential role in ensuring the effectiveness of decision making by identifying issues, providing input and feedback, partnering with the City, making ideas and recommendations known, and communicating with staff, Councillors, and the Mayor
• Roles of the Public

  • Identifying issues for Council and staff consideration
  • Providing input and feedback on services, reports, and policies
  • Partnering with the City to deliver programs
  • Making ideas and recommendations for improvement known through protests, deputations, voting, participation in public meetings, surveys, advisory bodies etc.
  • Communicating with staff, Councillors, and the Mayor
• Accountability Officers in City of Toronto

  • Four Accountability Officers and an Open and Closed Meeting Investigator
• Democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them, directly or indirectly, through a system of representation, usually involving periodically held free elections
• Dictatorship: a government organization or group in which absolute power is concentrated, and who governs through autocratic rule, control, or leadership
• Concepts of Governance

  • Canada as a Keynesian Welfare State
  • Creative Capital and the Creative Class
  • Neoliberalism
  • Production of City Public and Private Service/Space
• Empirical Case Studies

  • “Common Sense” Revolution in Toronto
  • Privatization in Toronto
• Canadian Cities in Transition

  • Pre-1945
  • 1945-1972
  • 1972 to Present
• Welfare State


  A concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens
• Major welfare state programs in Canada

  • Social Assistance
  • Canada Child Tax Benefit
  • Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement
  • Employment Insurance
  • Canada and Quebec Pension Plan
  • Workers’ Compensation
  • Public education
  • Universal Healthcare
  • Social housing and other social services
• Keynesian Welfare State

  3 Functions: Equal Opportunity to participate in the labour market, Provide a Social Safety Net, Support the Formation of Trade Unions
• The state must ensure adequate levels of demand through the transfer of money
• Governments provide conditions for full employment and direct support of the unemployed is necessary to maintain aggregate demand
• Tax in good times, spend in bad times (smooth out the “business cycle” of boom and bust)
• Human capital is the stock of knowledge, habits, personality, and social attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value
• Human capital theory


  Recognizes that not all labor is equal and that the quality of employees can be improved by investing in them; the education, experience, and abilities of employees have economic value for employers and for the economy as a whole
• Human capital theorists argue that an educated population is a productive population
• Creative Capital/Creative Class


  A specific type of human capital, i.e., creative people working in high-tech sectors, financial services, legal and health care professions, and business management
• Creative Class location decisions

  Based on a place being innovative, diverse, and tolerant
• Creative Class wants to live in "creative centres" for

  Artistic, cultural, technological, and economic activities
• Neoliberalism


  A policy model that transfers control of economic factors from the public sector to the private sector
• Characteristics of Neoliberalism

  • Need for sustained economic growth, confidence in free markets, emphasis on minimal state intervention, commitment to freedom of trade and capital
• Joseph Schwartz, Professor of Political Science at Temple University: 'Neoliberalism is a form of capitalism in which the state deregulates the economy, destroys unions, decreases taxes on the rich and corporations, and defunds public goods, while repressing and policing the poor, particularly people of color'
• Neoliberalism has advanced since the mid-1990s in Canada
• Toronto's Planning Initiatives driven by

  Competitiveness within the global economy