Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he will declare Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto a 'special economic zone.'Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Doug Ford has increasingly grandiose ideas for Toronto, an urgent certainty that he knows best what the city needs that contrasts with his half-hearted attention to pressing problems facing the province as a whole.
The Premier wants to build a massive highway tunnel across Toronto and perhaps an artificial island for a new convention centre near the downtown. And on Monday he said he would designate the local airport a Special Economic Zone, which would allow him to bypass environmental regulations as he expands the site to accommodate jets.
Such zeal is conspicuously absent in response to northern mayors clamouring for two important highways to be widened, to make them safer. Mr. Ford’s government announced last week a series of minimal measures for Highways 11 and 17 that include better signs and more up-to-date information. The only effort toward expansion is preliminary design work on a very short stretch of highway.
Is Mr. Ford dreaming his big dreams in Toronto because the rest of the province is otherwise in such a good place? Have housing woes and the budget deficit both been brought under control? Is health care working great?
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The answer to all of these is a resounding no. The challenges facing the province are immense. And given Mr. Ford’s inability to tackle them over nearly eight years of government, it is irresponsible for him to take his eye off the ball.
For one, Ontario’s finances are in dire shape. Last month, the provincial government was projecting a $13.5-billion deficit for the current fiscal year. The budget watchdog is warning the province’s debt will rise to about $548-billion over the next four years – a whopping 28-per-cent increase.
This is not the time to be pouring money into quixotic infrastructure schemes.
Meanwhile, what does need to get built, isn’t. While housing starts grew in the first two months of the year, compared with 2025, last year the province downgraded to a “soft” target its goal of 1.5 million new homes by 2031.
Mr. Ford has taken aim at development fees and municipal charges, which is good, but has refused a recommendation from its own housing task force to make it easier to build multi-unit housing in residential areas. He argued that local mayors would not be willing to accept four-unit buildings in areas traditionally zoned for single-family houses.
Health care also needs attention. The Ontario Medical Association said at the end of last year that 2.5 million people in the province – about 15 per cent of the population – did not have a family doctor, and that number could double this year as physicians retire.
Marcus Gee: Doug Ford stomps all over Toronto, again
Mr. Ford’s fixation with Toronto has its roots in his time as a councillor there. Back then, his dreams for the waterfront were thwarted by others on council.
However, Canada’s constitutional framework gives Mr. Ford in his current role almost unlimited powers over municipalities such as Toronto, even though the city’s voters have rejected him again and again.
This is not to argue that Toronto’s government is doing a terrific job running the city. But council is closest to residents and has a greater understanding of their needs.
Earlier this month, when Mr. Ford floated the idea of taking over Toronto’s downtown airport, he referred dismissively to opponents living nearby and said “We can’t let the very, very few amount of people determine the future of our province and our city.”
This recalls New York City builder Robert Moses, who also thought his vision was superior to the views of locals. In defence of one of his infrastructure projects, he was heard fuming that “There’s nobody against this, nobody, but a bunch of, a bunch of mothers!”
One of those mothers, Jane Jacobs, helped lead the charge against Mr. Moses and is now revered as a champion of local democracy and good city-building.
Mr. Ford would be unwise to conclude that winning three majority governments gives him any unique insight into what would make Toronto great. He does not, and his ideas for improving the city reflect that. But Mr. Ford does have a mandate to govern the province; he should exercise it.
His choice is whether he wants to remembered as the sponsor of half-baked infrastructure schemes or as a leader who slayed the deficit, improved health care and unleashed a blitz of home-building.