It’s nearly unanimous. We must be bold. Toronto has to lead. And we should not settle for half measures.
David Miller (Mayor of Toronto)
On Wednesday night David Miller called together 25 ‘urban thinkers’ for advice on a bottom-line for a provincial-municipal New Deal. Mentioned repeatedly by government officials from both levels, the idea is to create a new “City of Toronto Act” that changes the relationship between Canada’s largest city and the province. It’s about time too. As much as I like Toronto, it would be shortsighted of me to ignore its many deficiencies and the often glacial pace of change.
Call me cynical, but I doubt this will change much.
To be honest, when I read David Miller’s quote up top, the first thought that came to mind was “That’s nice David – but what are you going to do?” It’s one thing to say that you “must be bold” and that you “must lead”, but we’ve all heard these promises before. Where are the concrete actions? Why aren’t’ the waterfront projects moving forward? What is the city doing to resolve its systemic budget crisis (besides going cap-in-hand to the province for bail outs)?
So I ask you David:
“Where’s the beef?”