[URBAN NOTE] "Scarbexit? Scarborough resident calls for de-amalgamation"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Alicja Siekierska describes the activities of one man who hopes to restore Scarborough as a city separate from Toronto. I share in the general skepticism that there's a chance of this happening, but who knows? 2016 has been such a year, and a partial demerger did occur last decade in Montréal.

A disgruntled Scarborough resident is fed up with Toronto’s city council and is hoping a petition will help start the process of de-amalgamation.

Robert McDermott, a real estate agent in Scarborough, said he launched the “Free Scarborough Campaign” because amalgamation has been “a dismal failure” that has led to tax increases and declines in service. McDermott is calling for Scarborough to de-amalgamate from the city “to restore accessible, local government.”

Scarborough and surrounding Toronto municipalities merged to form the modern City of Toronto in 1998 after then-premier Mike Harris passed amalgamation legislation that was proposed as a way to save the province money. The controversial bill was heavily opposed at the time, and calls for de-amalgamation have resurfaced over the years since it was enacted.

“Property taxes in Scarborough have been continually going up and services have been declining,” McDermott said, adding the amalgamated council has fuelled division between downtown Toronto and the suburbs surrounding it.

“We’ve lost the ability to manage our own affairs, really. We’re being dictated by a centralized government in downtown Toronto.”

Online, McDermott’s campaign has failed to receive much traction, with just over 90 signatures on the online petition as of Tuesday afternoon. However, he said he has received about 3,200 signatures from going door-to-door in Scarborough. McDermott hopes to gather enough signatures by the end of 2017 to compel municipal and provincial officials to launch a referendum on de-amalgamation.