Canadian Cities Ask For What’s Rightfully Theirs

Posted by Shayna Pollock on April 18, 2011

Canadian cities are home to 80 percent of the population, 74 percent of job growth in the last year, and 90 percent of immigrants. According to Torontoist, cities own, build, and maintain half of the country's infrastructure, but they only recieve 8 percent of the country's funding. In order to address the growing importance of Canadian cities and the necessity of a better tax distribution policy that will benefit cities, Cities Centre at the University of Toronto hosted a forum, "Cities and the Federal Election: Who Cares about 15 million Urban Voters," on the importance of appealing to urban voters. While sitting on the panel, Julia Deans, CEO of Greater Toronto Civicaction Alliance and a CEOs for Cities partner, called for increased urban representation and a consistent urban funding stream. The panel spoke on the need for city building investment in the form of housing, transit, infrastructure, and electoral reform while also emphasizing the growing importance of civic engagement. Ultimately, cities are Canada's future and it is time for them to receive proper investment.