“Toronto is 179 years old. It's time to treat it like an adult” (Toronto Star, March 2013, A8). In addition to authoring this quote, Rosario Marchese, a Toronto MPP, introduced a private member's bill into the Ontario legislature exempting Toronto from the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). Aaron Moore's well-researched book, Planning Politics in Toronto: The Ontario Municipal Board and Urban Development is a great opportunity to test the validity of Marchese's position on this matter.
Under the umbrella of local political economy (LPE) theory, Moore selects urban regime and growth machine as the most appropriate theoretical approaches to support his study. However, he adds that “While neither theory may be directly applicable to Toronto, their shared understanding of the role of the economy, institutions, and actors’ behaviours in the United States apply north of the border” (16). Then a rationale as to why these two theories provide “stronger evidence” (18) than a single theoretical perspective is offered by the author.
After the theoretical framework has been laid out, Moore acknowledges that “capturing the entire scope of powers and jurisdiction of the Ontario Municipal Board and its history of development is beyond this chapter” (37). To overcome this hurdle, four research questions are offered, which can be summarized as follows: To what degree does the existence of the OMB affect the behaviour of planners, developers, neighbourhood associations and politicians in relation to the politics of Toronto's urban development?
Moore then conducts an inventory of selected appellant bodies within North America, which is helpful but he is quick to point out that “despite these similarities, the differences between the OMB and other provincial and state bodies demonstrates just how powerful, comparatively, the board is” (44). An interesting observation from Moore's data is that “while the outright rejection of a proposal by city planners by no means assures victory for the city during an OMB hearing, it does substantially improve the city's chances of winning an appeal” (69). Overall, Moore surmises that the 2000–2006 OMB Toronto appeal decisions he analyzed diverge from the politics of urban development in the United States because the OMB does exert a degree of influence in the politics of Toronto's urban development.
Eight case studies to enable readers to become familiar with the players that influence and, in many cases, determine what gets built in Toronto are well presented. Moore contends that Toronto developers are not as committed to using their resources to fight electoral battles, because if a council is anti-growth, the developer can appeal to the OMB, which is not the case in many other Canadian or American jurisdictions. Moore finds that Don Harron's quote, “Don't let them shove another high rise up our Annex” (127), is the anthem for many Toronto's middle-class residents’ associations. The final two cases studies, One Sherway and Lowe's, offer contrasting outcomes that Moore views as “pivotal for understanding local politicians’ behaviour in Toronto” (165).
In the final chapter, Moore asserts that “the most important factor altering the politics of urban development in Toronto is the existence of the Ontario Municipal Board” (171). The OMB's absence, according to Moore, would result in municipal councilors employing political calculations to determine what developments to support or oppose. Can we therefore compare the OMB to the Senate? An appointed chamber to “insert reason and logic … to curb the decision-making authority of local politicians in Ontario” (184)? Notwithstanding the OMB's ability to erode the influence of local politicians’ discretion over urban development, some flexibility still rests with city councils. However, if a developer or a neighbourhood association is dissatisfied with a city council decision, an appeal to the OMB to adjudicate the case can be filed. Often, if an OMB decision runs counter to a group's interest, then cries of the OMB hollowing out the role of elected officials will echo across the city, especially since the OMB, unlike an elected council, is not directly accountable to the electorate. Furthermore, the book's case studies provide sharp insight into the degree to which decisions affecting many citizens across Toronto are often shaped by small groups of people with varying levels of accountability for their decisions. Perhaps we should examine more carefully the decision-making processes that give such significant influence to so few people.
Aaron Moore's book is an excellent road map to help make sense of the intersection of powerful interests wielding their influence in the arena of urban development. The use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies along with the eight cases combine to offer a robust and scholarly study of urban politics in Toronto. This work provides an essential understanding of an area of urban decision making that has been understudied. Now we have a scholarly work that will be of great interest to academics, practitioners, and general readers searching to know who towers over Toronto's urban development.
