The East York-Riverdale Mirror

Each column has always been grounded in the basic premise that it is the people who live in a community who actually own it and who should have the final say in how it is managed and governed.

Notwithstanding current thoughts about municipalities being creatures of the provincial government, the reality is that East York as we know it came into being because people in the community wanted it to.

That is why, back in 1923, when the people of this community were given a choice as whether to join the city of Toronto or create their own independent municipality, they chose the latter with a vote of 448-102.

As a result, people in East York have always had a sense of connection to their community in a way not possible in Toronto due to the fact that the affairs of that city are controlled by an exclusionary elite.

So up until 1997, East York had its own school board, a world-class symphony orchestra, a unique library system with art and culture holdings under the control of the East York foundation, excellent community centres including Todmorden Mills, and an exemplary park system.

We had many long-standing events and traditions, such East York Canada Day, the Mayor's Blooming contest and others that through volunteerism helped build strong community spirit.

Our local government was made up of eight part-time councillors earning $24,000 a year (with one shared secretary) and a full-time mayor who earned around $72,000.

The fact was that right up to 1998, East York had a balanced budget, low operating costs and plenty of financial reserves for a rainy day.

In fact, after the last payment was to have been made on the East York Civic Centre that year, our property taxes were to go down.

Since amalgamation East York's experience has been one of loss beginning with our local government and board of education, along with far too many local institutions, such as our symphony orchestra.

It galled me 10 years ago, and still galls me today, that then Minister of Municipal affairs Al Leach promised then Mayor Michael Prue that no matter what happened after amalgamation, East York would be eliminated.

Since that promise was made we have seen the former borough split up, with Leaside and Thorncliffe Park merged into North York, and efforts made to remove the name "East York" from the municipal landscape.

We have seen our dedicated civil service split up and moved out of the community, along with most of the equipment used to keep our neighbourhoods running, such as our newly purchased garbage trucks.

Worse, we have gone from a balanced budget with no deficit to a huge deficit marked by annual tax increases, exactly as was predicted 10 years ago.

The ultimate loss, in my opinion, has been our ability as citizens to influence policy by being able to stand up in front of our councillors and mayor and make our case directly to them.

The current municipal government structure is simply too big, too cumbersome and too remote for the average person to negotiate within, with community councils and local consultations failing to provide a viable alternative.

The truth is that amalgamation has concentrated far too much power into the hands of too few people, particularly the city's managers and bureaucracy, without real accountability.

What is more shocking is that all of these facts were known before the amalgamation experiment was undertaken, but the choice was made anyway.