Premiers at the Council of the Federation meetings, which is officially a gathering of provincial and territorial leaders, at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ont., on Monday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
There’s a glaring absence at the Council of the Federation meetings this week: the mayors of Canada’s biggest cities.
On a certain level, this is not surprising. The Council is officially a gathering of provincial and territorial leaders. On the other hand, it illustrates the constitutional oddness of Canada, which sidelines mayors who represent millions while conferring prestige on leaders of much smaller jurisdictions.
For perspective, the City of Toronto had more people in the 2021 census than the three northern territories, the four Atlantic provinces and nearly half of Saskatchewan – combined. There are 31 cities more populous than Prince Edward Island.
This is not to say that all of those mayors should have come to the premiers’ gathering, which Ontario Premier Doug Ford is hosting through Wednesday in cottage country north of Toronto. Dozens of additional people would make for unwieldy meetings. But the mayors of the biggest cities deserve a regular seat at the main table.
If the median provincial population was used as an approximate threshold for an invitation to the Council of the Federation, the mayors of Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton would all be at the meetings in Huntsville. Vancouver also has a claim. It is smaller, because it did not amalgamate, but indisputably a top-tier city.
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It’s true that some mayors have been invited to a social event associated with the meetings. Anyone involved in politics or business knows that informal face-time can be invaluable, but this arrangement carries a strong whiff of the adults conducting business before joining the kids for a party.
The argument against including big-city mayors at the meetings is that their concerns are channelled by their premiers. There are problems with this view, though. A premier’s outlook has to encompass their whole province while a mayor is singularly focused on urban issues. Also, provincial priorities don’t necessarily align with municipal ones – see the use of bicycle lanes as a wedge issue by the governments of Nova Scotia, Ontario and Alberta.
Another argument is that there is no need to include mayors because cities have no standing in the constitution, which treats them as creations of the province and allows premiers to do pretty much what they want. This is true, but also corrosive to democracy and politically unsustainable. Even if constitutional change is infeasible, it’s time to start establishing political norms that confer respect on cities, making it unthinkable for premiers to abuse their power.
Big-city mayors are not always popular or universally loved. There will always be someone who believes their leadership is misguided, but that is not a reason to sideline them from the meetings that matter.
City leaders represent a lot of people, very directly. They preside over billions of dollars of spending, are key to addressing the country’s housing challenges and feel first-hand the effects of its immigration policies. They are the level of government closest to millions of urban Canadians, a cohort that is growing quickly.
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The absurdity of elevating the importance of lightly populated provinces over dense cities will only seem more strange over time.
Canada’s constitutional reality includes some quirks that are essentially impossible to change – and equally impossible to defend. For example, New Brunswick’s 776,000 people are represented by 10 senators while Alberta’s 4.3 million residents get six senators. But disparities can also reveal themselves in more subtle ways, including who gets a seat at the table and who is listened to.
If bringing a few of the most important mayors into the Council of the Federation is unpopular among some premiers, remind them of the G7. The international group formed at a time when its members held much of the world’s economic clout. Inviting other leaders to the annual summit – India’s Narendra Modi was one such guest when Canada hosted the G7 this summer – acknowledges that the world has changed.
When Canada formed it was largely rural. But now cities are vital to its future. They are where most Canadians live, the bulk of the nation’s wealth is created, its culture is incubated and its future thinkers are nurtured.
Mr. Ford missed an opportunity to recognize this change by inviting leaders of Canada’s biggest cities to the table in Huntsville. The next meeting is a chance to fix that mistake.