Maytree Conversations

Election day in Toronto is October 25. You’ll be voting not only for mayor, but also for your City Councillor and School Trustee.

The City of Toronto has created a great site with all the information you need. Visit Toronto Votes for all of your election information needs.

Who can vote?

You can vote in the City of Toronto municipal election if you are:

• Canadian citizen, and
• at least 18 years old, and
• a resident of the City of Toronto, or
• a non-resident owner or tenant of land in the City of Toronto or their spouse, and
• not prohibited from voting under any law.

Some specific sections/information you might want to review:

• Figure out what ward you live in.
• Find out who is running for City Councillor in your area.
• Find out who is running for School Trustee in your area.
• Figure out where you can vote.

Can I vote?

If you are eligible to vote and have missed the October 15 deadline to be added to the voters’ list, you can still vote. Simply show up to your voting place with acceptable identification and you can be added to the list when you go to vote.

Examples of acceptable identification (PDF 569 Kb).

Really, if you’re not on the voters list, all you need is a driver’s license with your current address.

And, just in case you fall into the category of “still conflicted/dismayed/undecided when it comes to the Mayor’s race” or other races, CBC’s Metro Morning will be taking calls on tomorrow’s show. So, listen in, or call with your questions/comments!

This is an opportunity to exercise a key leadership trait – listening.

It will help your campaign.

In June, Maytree invited leaders from across the GTA to participate in a conversation: A City for Tomorrow: Creating Prosperity and Building Equity.

Participants sat down and collaboratively answered the question: What can the city do to deliver on our vision? They were asked what the city should stop, start and continue doing.

Here’s some advice based on what we heard.

CONTINUE – Fan Mail

In spite of what you read, the city is doing some things right. People appreciate council’s support for equity and diversity, the way you (incumbents) champion communities through agency support and space. Thank you also for your enthusiasm for arts and cultural events and green initiatives. And, we’d be remiss to mention your support for Transit City.

Download the PDF for a complete list of what the city should continue doing.

STOP – Enough Already!

Stop the drama at City Hall – please.

Residents are really tired of the bickering, fighting and partisanship at Council. And, while you’re at it, please stop permitting residential and big-box commercial sprawl, hiking up TTC fares, overfunding the police and raising taxes to do it!

Download the PDF for a complete list of what the city should stop doing.

START – Issues to Consider

Mostly, people want to be able to move around the city easier.

They’d like public transit that is more accessible and efficient, a cycling network with access to more bike lanes and models for financing transit.

Add to the list – more affordable housing, increasing community involvement in schools, parks and libraries, improving city planning to connect to community and improving the waterfront.

We also heard loud and clear that residents should be able to vote in municipal elections regardless of citizenship. If people live in the city, they deserve a ballot.

Download the PDF for a complete list of what the city should start doing.

This is an opportunity for a new kind of leadership.

Impress us – and see you at the polls on October 25, 2010.

Addressing the participants at a School4Civics networking event on September 15, Alan Broadbent argued that election campaigns should be an opportunity to put forward a compelling vision. However, the current municipal election campaigns, particularly in Toronto, are more focused on the negative, on what we should do less of, instead of how we can build a great city.

At the same time, he pointed out that it is important to be realistic. There’s only so much a mayor or councillor can do.

It is an unfortunate truth that cities are the invisible level of government and provinces have complete control over what cities can do. They can dictate obligations and responsibilities; they can even dismiss elected mayors and councils. They limit the sources of revenues for cities to property taxes and fees, but prohibit them from collecting the big, growth related income and sales taxes. This lack of powers and financial clout is a real problem. Our cities are trying to succeed with one hand tied behind their back.

This matters because we expect our mayors and councillors to have a vision of the city that we can move forward with and build on. But they are denied the access to the critical tools that allow them to get there (to build transit system we need, housing we need, etc.).

However, this shouldn’t excuse the lack of vision.

Fortunately, there has been a rise in civil society groups that are transforming the way people operate within the city. These groups are acting as catalysts for community conversation and engagement. Good examples include:

• Better Ballots
• People Plan Toronto
• Jane’s Walk
• The Tower Renewal Project
• The Toronto City Summit Alliance
• organizations like Maytree, Metcalf, Atkinson, the Wellesley Institute, and Laidlaw which support equity and prosperity across the region

No matter how the politics go, as long as we have a strong, resilient fabric of organizations like these, and engaged and concerned residents, we can be very hopeful that we have a wonderful ability to keep growing this city and making it great.

Listen to Alan’s speech here:

(Run-time: 20:08)

Download the mp3 (right-click to save to your computer).

Alan is the author of Urban Nation: Why We Need to Give Power Back to the Cities to Make Canada Strong.

This morning, Alan Broadbent presented on the Cities Centre breakfast panel: On the Outside Looking In? The Many Mysteries of Governance in the City of Toronto.

Alan spoke about three key issues currently facing the City of Toronto:

1. City Council Size vs. Structure: is Council too big, or is the problem a lack of organization and discipline?
2. Who Votes: should non-citizen residents of the city be permitted to vote in municipal elections?
3. Money: in terms of revenue, should large cities be treated like mature orders of government?

Listen to a summary of Alan’s speech:

(Run-time: 5:39)

Download the mp3 (right-click to save to your computer).

Alan is the author of Urban Nation: Why We Need to Give Power Back to the Cities to Make Canada Strong.

We argued in our last blog post that, yes, immigration was an important issue because immigrants are a key to our city’s prosperity. A subsequent CBC Metro Morning discussion brought this conclusion from Matt Galloway: “Suddenly… people are now talking about the future of the city… and they perhaps didn’t expect to be doing it in this way.”

We want to build on this sentiment and bring the mayoral campaign back into the realm of the actual issues.

Here are four issues that we would like candidates to debate and discuss:

Housing

The federal and provincial governments, uniquely among governments in the developed world, have lacked adequate housing policy and programs for over two decades, and the market has abandoned the lower end. (There used to be two families chasing each unit of low income housing, and now there are seven.) It is in the cities that this lack is felt most strongly, but cities lack the fiscal resources to rectify the situation.

Candidates for mayor should have a commitment to finding practical solutions to the provision of low income housing, either by acquiring new revenue tools or by removing many of the non-construction costs that comprise about half of new unit construction. They should also embrace a plan for the provision of mortgage or mortgage guarantees for immigrant families to help them buy homes, the second most important factor in successful immigrant integration (after finding the right job for which the immigrant has training and experience).

Transit

A comprehensive public transit system is not just an infrastructure matter, but it is a critical economic factor. It is through effective public transit that people connect to their work, school, shopping, leisure, and other economic goods. It is also a critical social good as well, as it permits people to connect to their place of worship, playing field, concert or gallery, building social cohesion and community engagement. Toronto, with limited funding, has good plans in Transit City, and the next mayor should embrace and expand on this vision.

City Branding

Positioning Toronto to the world is a vital job of the mayor and the city government. Toronto’s current motto Diversity Our Strength could become Toronto: For The World, a bold statement that looks outwards in invitation to the people of the planet, and inwards as a vision of equity to every citizen of the city. As Toronto raises its face to the world through Invest Toronto and other development initiatives, a new mayor should articulate a vision of welcome and inclusion.

All Torontonians Vote

The municipal vote should be extended to all residents, whether they are Canadian citizens or not. Giving people a say over who governs the policy and programs they consume is not just the right thing to do, it is an obligation of civil liberties and rights. Candidates for mayor should be very clear on their position on this important issue.

What is good for immigrants and low income people is good for all Torontonians. We need a mayor and councillors who not only accept that notion of equity, but who have ideas and plans to make it happen.

Further:

• Substance over style required in the next mayoral election (original Maytree piece from November 2009)
• Maytree Leadership Network priority issues areas
• Alan Broadbent on the City for Tomorrow

Maytree does not engage in politics, and does not endorse candidates in election campaigns. During the course of elections, though, there sometimes arises a statement or position that is so offensive to our values and mission that we feel compelled to respond.

Last evening (August 17, 2010) in a televised debate among Toronto mayoral candidates, Rob Ford spoke against immigration into Toronto. He said: “Right now we can’t even deal with the 2.5 million people in this city. I think it is more important to take care of people now before we start bringing in more people. There’s going to be a million more people, according to the official plan (which I did not support) over the next ten years coming into the city. We can’t even deal with the 2.5 million people. How are we going to welcome another million people in? It is going to be chaotic. We can’t even deal with the chaos we have now. I think we have to say enough’s enough.”

Maytree believes strongly that immigrants are a significant asset to Canada and to Toronto. In the case of Toronto, immigrants are a tremendously positive factor in building the economic, social and cultural fabric of the city which is now ranked among the leading cities of the world. While any great city constantly strives to improve the lives of all its residents, it is important to recognize the contributions of all who have helped build the city over its history. Immigrants and refugees have always stood shoulder to shoulder with other Torontonians as city builders. Whether they came to the city 100 years or 100 days ago, whether they came from 100 miles down the road or halfway around the world, they have shared and will share in the great achievement that is Toronto.

Moreover, a look at demographics shows that immigration will be tremendously important for Toronto and Canada in the near future. Our population is aging, and our birthrate (1.5 births per couple) is well below replacement level (2.1). Without immigration we will not have enough workers to fill jobs in the economy, our productivity will worsen, and the economy will decline. And in the modern economy, immigrants bring with them high levels of skills as well as relationships to foreign markets for Canadian goods and services. Curtailing immigration would be economic suicide.

People with a strong business orientation look upon a million new Toronto residents as a golden opportunity. They see houses to build, apartments to rent, groceries to be sold, entertainment opportunities, and a vibrant local commerce. Public officials should see more transit fares, more taxpayers, and more users of revenue generating services.

Immigrants and refugees have been great for Toronto, and will be vital to our future. A mayor of Toronto should not only understand that, but lead the way.

At the very least, immigrants should not be used as cheap fodder in a political campaign.

In his keynote speech at the Maytree Leadership Conference on June 17, 2010, Alan Broadbent encouraged participants to voice their vision for the future of the city. It is up to them, he said, to tell the candidates in the upcoming municipal election what changes they want to see. In fact, candidates will look at it as a gift, to be given “a clear idea of the communities we wish to inhabit, some idea of how to achieve it, and our support in assembling the components needed. They will no longer have to wonder what we want them to do.”

Read Alan’s speech.

Has the traditional conference format been rendered obsolete? I believe so. The tweeting, buzzing, texting, bbm-ing, blogging and general techno-chatter going on in the world keeps us in perpetual contact with each other. (I know I’m not the only one who checks my BlackBerry before I brush my teeth in the morning.) A single meeting to exchange ideas and find solutions seems almost like a teaser these days.

This year’s annual Maytree Leadership Conference was not a traditional conference. It was a conversation. A verbal drumroll leading up to the October 25 municipal election.

We wanted this year’s conference to be different. Because 2010 is a municipal election year, we included the issues, the candidates, and an opportunity to imagine what the City could be. We replaced the workshops and speeches with an invitation. An invitation to our network to set the agenda for the morning and participate in the planning process.

Members of the Maytree Leadership Network were invited to participate through:

• reading the conference blog
• signing on to the webinar series
• contributing questions they wanted to ask mayoral candidates
• attending a pre-conference event
• voting on the final list of questions

And, (the crescendo) showing up in person on June 17 at the Toronto Reference Library.

It was there that participants had the chance to further reveal, develop, exchange and transform ideas about their collective vision for Toronto, discuss what the city should do about it, and think about what they would do personally.

We created a Wordle, depicting (by size) which words were most popular in our collective vision for the city.

Most importantly, participants connected in person. (Is there a word yet for that open-mouthed smile of delight people exchange when they meet in person for the first time after months of e-mailing?)

Then there was the job interview. Three of the leading mayoral candidates – Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi and George Smitherman interviewed by the feisty and fabulous Jane Farrow. If you’d like to know which candidates think non-citizen residents should get the vote, what they’re planning to do about priority neighbourhoods and taxes, or who each of their favourite Toronto-based artists is – watch the video.

The buzz continued right out of the room and I’d say you had to be there to really get it. But you can get some of it. Catch the chatter on the live blog reported by the talented on-site Citizen Journalists.

We still have another four months before we vote. So: keep talking, asking questions, expecting answers and connecting. Let’s continue this conversation in our communities. And let’s make Toronto the best city we can imagine.

Fixing how we elect our city council was the concern of hundreds who turned out on June 1 at Hart House to hear mayoral candidates tell Toronto where they stand on reforms identified by Better Ballots.

This multi-partisan organization (with 15 collaborative partners including the Maytree Foundation, Canadian Urban Institute, Toronto City Summit Alliance and Toronto Community Foundation) previously held four Town Hall meetings across the city asking residents for feedback on fourteen options (via the ballot, of course).

The results are now available and one clear winner is I Vote Toronto’s call for a municipal vote for permanent residents, with 9 out of 10 in support.

The idea, championed by Maytree, got a big boost at last night’s event, presented jointly with the Emerging Leaders Network and the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation. Both George Smitherman and Joe Pantalone declared themselves clearly in support, while Pantalone previewed his position with an earlier platform announcement.

For her part, Sarah Thomson called for a referendum on the question. Further consultation was also promised by Smitherman, who wants to hold a commission studying municipal electoral reform.

And indeed, the problem is not small. Low voter turn-out and a lack of diversity are among the problems Better Ballots seeks to address.

The commitments made at its mayoral forum are a good start.

Cities have many responsibilities and expenditures, but do they have matching revenue streams? What challenges does the City of Toronto face to pay for services? What other revenue tools are available? How do other cities finance services?

Issues of finance are always important to cities. Every year at budget time, we hear that the City is having trouble balancing its budget:

• What services are we going to cut?
• Are we going to reduce library hours? Are we going to cut recreation centres?
• How high will property taxes go?  Are we going to raise them 3%? Are we going to raise them 10% and go into double digit increases?
• How are we going to make up the deficit?

Every year the problem somehow gets solved.  Property taxes go up a bit.  The city raids its reserves a little bit more.  This year the City found some savings at budget time that helped.

Can the City go on this way? Is this a sustainable way to budget?

In her May 26th webinar, Dr. Enid Slack, Director, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, helps us understand how the City of Toronto will finance its services in 2010.

Watch the webinar: Paying the bills in the City of Toronto.

Dr. Slack walks us through an overview of where Toronto gets its money, what it spends that money on, what the roles of the provincial and federal governments are. Finally, she spends some time outlining the major fiscal challenges facing the City and what the City can do.

What can the City do?

Ultimately, the City needs to control its own destiny. That means allowing the City access to broader taxation tools, including perhaps a portion of sales or income taxes.

View the webinar to learn more about how your city raises money and pays for the services you need.

Also, read more about Budget and Finances in Toronto.