Berkeley Planning Journal

In the past decade, the Canadian city of Toronto has undergone radical internal shifts in its socioeconomic geography and governance structure while simultaneously emerging on the world stage as an extremely livable and financially successful city. These trends have been accompanied by growing poverty concentrated in the inner suburbs at the municipality’s boundaries. In 2006, the provincial government passed the Stronger City of Toronto for a Strong Ontario Act explicitly recognizing Toronto as a mature order of government requiring commensurate responsibilities and fiscal authority. This paper critically examines the impact of this act on municipal efforts to reduce inner suburban poverty in the wake of the Toronto’s new place in Canadian federalism.