Quote:
Originally Posted by 1overcosc
The current setup doesn't work for Ontario anymore. The GTA dominates Ontario politics to the point where everywhere else is an afterthought. And the GTA itself would work better as a city-state. Partition is win-win.
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Politically it may make sense. From economic and tax revenue perspectives, I don't think it would, at least not for the non-GTA regions.
People love to complain that Toronto "gets everything" but its economy -- and the provincial tax revenues generated within the city and GTA -- benefit the rest of Ontario to a high degree. The economic connections would probably remain over time, but funding for services and infrastructure in a "rest of Ontario" scenario would likely suffer, especially if split amongst sub-regional lines (e.g., the Southwest may be ok on its own but with struggles, Eastern Ontario would have big challenges, and the North would definitely be a 'have not' overall).
And I think determining the borders of a Toronto city-state would be fraught with concerns from the suburban areas (particularly to the north and east) that the original City of Toronto and maybe Peel Region would be too dominant, but there would be arguments that they're still better off if included. It would be a very messy thing to do.
EDIT: Look at Peel for instance, re: the debate about dissolving the regional government. When the plan was to do so, there were vastly different perspectives about that with Mississauga arguing that they've funded growth in Brampton and Caledon, and debate about how assets would be split, which municipality would owe the others, etc.. I think that would be hugely amplified if a division of Ontario was under consideration.