Megacity Malaise

This study is among the first of its kind in Canada to document how municipal governance, labour-management relations, and public services have been transformed in the City of Toronto over the period 1954 to 2014. It begins with a theoretical analysis of the transition away from Keynesian to neoliberal-inspired public policy at the urban and regional scale, drawing attention to how public finances, intergovernmental transfers and labour relations with municipal employees in the city of Toronto have been remade in the context of the 2008-10 Great Recession. As headquarters to the largest financial institutions, banks, largest municipal government, the nation’s largest employment centre and largest municipal union, Toronto provides a vivid portrait of municipal restructuring in Canada. These changes reveal both broader administrative and public sector labour-management relations trends emerging at the urban level throughout Canada, as well as community-based responses to the deterioration of social services. My analysis is informed by firsthand experience as a former employee of the city of Toronto, municipal trade unionist and academic. Grounded in a critical political economy approach, my methodology involves participant observation and includes: a synthesis of the academic literature, analyses of municipal budgeting, interviews with municipal employees, textual evidence from community-based organizations, media reports as well as applied public policy proposals, which draw together both the qualitative and quantitative data. A mixed methods approach enabled me to carefully detail the social interactions and strategies used by community groups and civic workers as they struggled to understand and respond to demands for concessions, as well as relate struggles specific to Toronto to those in municipalities across Ontario and beyond. In this regard, I was able to collect and interpret data that integrates the specificities of local public administration and trade union struggles to a broader overview of municipal relations in Ontario with senior levels of government.
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