New Year’s Day
at Toronto City Hall

Quite a few visitors, not as many as in the year before, braved the snowstorm to visit City Hall and to shake hands with their Mayor, David Miller - and a number of councillors – in the spacious rotunda of Toronto’s architectural marvel and to enjoy some of the refreshments that were offered afterwards. Really concerned citizens came to talk of their concerns and wish the Mayor a Happy New Year, as tradition established long ago.

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and sixth largest government. It is home to a population of about 2.6 million people, but feels much bigger with its adjoining satellite cities all around. As the economic engine of Canada, Toronto maintains a status of being one of the greenest and most creative places in North America. In the past three years, Toronto has won more than 70 awards for quality, innovation and efficiency in delivering public services, but times are tough and taxes have to go up to maintain this status. Toronto’s government is dedicated to prosperity, opportunity and liveability for all its residents, so the official public relations state, which is much repeated by Mayor Miller, who is hard pressed to promise what he might not be able to deliver, unless more money flows into the cities coffers, much more money.

Much of the city’s success can be attributed to the city’s creative and culturally diverse residents.

For the second year in a row, Toronto’s quality of living was ranked 15^th in the world by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. The 2007 Quality of Living Survey also placed Toronto second in North America – after Vancouver.

A study published in December by the Conference Board of Canada ranked Toronto as the second best Canadian city in which to live, after Calgary. The study looked at the performance of 27 cities in the following categories: economy, health, society, housing, environment, innovation and education. Toronto’s young, diverse and culturally rich population also helped the city make the ‘top 20 list’ of great cities in North America.

Many more polls and studies by and large substantiate these views. Standard & Poor’s Industry Report Card ranked Toronto as one of the top ten economic centres in the world – joining Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, New York City, Paris and Yokohama – and could be serving as a model for other urban centres. We would love to believe that our city really is in such good shape and will continue to be looked upon as such a wonderful place to be in the future.

The successes in securing a New Deal for Toronto, improving access to its waterfront, laying out a bold plan to tackle climate change, revitalising major infrastructure and keeping the streets and public places clean and beautiful are what makes Toronto a city that is liveable, prosperous and provides opportunity for all. All this requires relentless hard work and the participation of all citizens.

The April edition of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment Magazine) put Toronto second only to Chicago as the 2007 North American City of the Future. Not too shabby, eh? I hope we are all aware of what we got and are willing to make a few contributions to keeping it that way, even if it means to give up a few conveniences and a few bucks. Properly distributed it does not have to hurt so much. May be even the councillors can abscond from giving themselves yet another raise? rka