The following are excerpts from a deputation I gave on Bill 103 at the Ontario legislature. The excerpts
concern the health and health promotion implications of the plan to merge all six metro Toronto
cities into a megacity of 2,300,000 people.
If you agree with these sentiments and wish to empower yourself, call our premier, Mike Harris at 416-
315-1941, or fax him at 416 315-3745. Its not too late...
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Deputation to the Committee Hearing on Bill 103
Legislative Building, Queens Park, March 3, 1997, 3:30 PM,
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Associate Professor of Community Health, University of Toronto
Overview
My name is Dennis Raphael and I am a professor of Community Health at the University
of Toronto. I am also a psychologist. I research the quality of life of communities with particular
emphasis upon the health and well-being of seniors, youth, and persons with disabilities. I am
here to talk about Bill 103 and why I see it as a threat to the health and well-being of the residents
of Metropolitan Toronto.
Size of Cities and Quality of Life
The first reason Bill 103 is a threat has to do with what we know about the health and
well-being of individuals who live in different sized cities. An extensive body of research has
documented that the health and well-being of individuals who live in larger cities are generally
worse than those who live in smaller cities. After an extensive review of all these studies,
Kirkpatrick Sale (1978) concluded:
Evidence of a poorer quality of life in larger cities abounds in the areas of mental and
physical health, education, crime, recreation, and cultural activities (excluding symphony
orchestras & opera companies). The traditional economic advantages provided by the
'agglomeration effects' (the benefits of having everything conveniently lumped together),
no longer are in evidence in giant cities.
In regards to illness and disease, the extensive review by Sale (in Human Scale, 1980) found:
The data consistently favour small cities: there are fewer pollution- and stress-related
diseases, lower death rates for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, markedly lower
incidences of bronchitis, ulcers, high blood pressure, alcoholism, and drug addiction.
Why would this be so? Mr. Sale states that once a city becomes too large (he sees cities of
more than 100,000 as becoming problematic, others argue for an optimal size of 250,000),
citizens lose the ability to influence local governments. Essentially, they lose their ability to
participate as partners in the democratic process. Urban authority Jane Jacobs, the author of the
classic Death and Life of American Cities (1990) argues that larger governments are more distant
and unable to respond quickly to local needs. Community psychologists find that a prime
component of health and well-being is a sense of belonging and community that larger cities are
not conducive to developing. In all of these scenarious, the lack of community belonging is
associated with feelings of powerlessness which then serves as a risk factor for the development
of malaise, illness, and disease.
All the published literature I have seen agrees with these conclusions. Extensive studies
done by Lee and Guest (1983), Appelbaum (1976), and Dahmann (1983) all reached similar
conclusions: Larger cities are related to lower quality of life. Let me repeat this: Larger cities are
related to lower quality of life. One of the most famous living authorities on cities, Ms. Jacobs,
has already testified to this committee on how Bill 103 bodes poorly for the people of Toronto.
Why would any rational human being want to risk destroying the number one municipality in
which to live in the world in light of all of these findings?
Community Quality of Life
In my own ongoing research I am asking residents in Metropolitan Toronto what makes
for a good quality of life and what is it about a neighbourhood or community that makes life good
for them and the people they care about. People of all ages speak of how responsive community
representatives, availability of free or low-cost community recreation and service facilities, quality
and well-cared for housing, public transportation, and safety and security improve their lives.
Also mentioned are the availability of medical care and local community health centres. Of almost
universal concern is the effects of cutbacks in services. Nobody thinks that amalgamation will
improve their quality of life. In fact, most people we have spoken to believe that the biggest threat
to their quality of life are the policies of this government, including Bill 103.
This should not be surprising. The World Health Organizations's Healthy Cities Project
(1995) has documented a number of qualities of a healthy city. These include a number of
characteristics that are directly threatened by amalgamation. These are: a safe, clean physical
environment of high quality (including housing quality); an ecosystem that is stable and
sustainable; a strong, mutually supportive and non-exploitive community; a high degree of
participation and control by the public over the decisions affecting their lives, health, and well-being; the
meeting of basic needs for all the city's people, and the encouragement of connectedness with the past.
The City of Toronto is a founding member of the Healthy Cities Movement and an
honorary member of the World Health Organization's European Healthy Cities Office. Does
anybody really believe that an amalgamated Toronto will be able to achieve the qualities of a
healthy city? The threat of amalgamation to Toronto citizens led to the following resolution being
moved and accepted by the Health and Wellness Working Group of the Toronto Mayor's
Committee on Aging:
Whereas local government is seen as most likely to meet the specific needs of seniors and
whereas larger governments are more likely to not meet the specific needs of vulnerable
groups such as seniors: The TMCA identifies Bill 103 as a threat to the health and well-being of Toronto
seniors, and therefore states it opposition to Bill 103.
This motion will be considered by the full committee tomorrow. (It was passed March 4.)
Democracy, My Past, and Toronto's Future
At a recent meeting of Citizens for Local Democracy, best-selling author John Ralston
Saul, another opponent of Bill 103, related that an assistant to Al Leach had asked Mr. Saul with
much gusto words to the effect of: "Don't you want Toronto to be like New York or Chicago?
Those are great cities!" Well, I grew up in New York and I also lived in Chicago. In both places,
many people had no idea who their city counsellor was. And many residents of Brooklyn,
Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island had no idea where City Hall was.
Was New York a great city for me? While it may have been great for the opera, classical
music, and theatre, and even at times for its basketball and baseball teams, it was also great for
crime, break-ins, racial hatred, poverty, illness, dirt and garbage. Chicago was a bit better, but
don't be caught downtown after dark, or on the South Side anytime.
If New York and Chicago represent the image of Toronto that this government and Bill
103 would have us aspire to, then the people of Metropolitan Toronto are in trouble. Many
would share my view that government members who wish to live in a New York or Chicago-like
Toronto, should move there rather than bring it here.
When I first came up to Toronto from New York City in 1973, I thought I had died and
gone to heaven. I still do. In Toronto, I know my City Counsellor, Metro Counsellor, and
Provincial MPP on a first-name basis. In a representative democracy who else can I and others
call upon to influence the government of the day? The mantra of this government that we have
too many politicians, begs the question: If we have fewer politicians then who do the people have
to influence how governments make policy? Should we leave this influence to big business?, the
market?, the global economy?, the Chamber of Commerce?
The problem is not politicians. I am very happy with mine, thank you. We need more like
them, not less. The problem is politicians who feel no need to be accountable to citizens, who
deny citizens the opportunity to meaningfully affect government policy, and who, already found to
be in contempt of the Ontario Legislature, and more recently found to be contempt of the Law,
continue to be in contempt of the people of Metropolitan Toronto. Bertolt Brecht said: What
good are cities, Built without the peoples' wisdom? Today, March 3, the people of Metropolitan
Toronto are speaking their wisdom. Listen to them and withdraw Bill 103 now!
Thank you.
References
Appelbaum, R. (1976). City size and urban life: a preliminary inquiry into some
consequences of growth in American cities. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 12, 139-170.
Dahmann, D. (1983). Subjective assessments of neighbourhood quality by size of place,
Urban Studies, 20, 31-45.
Jacobs, Jane (1990). The death and life of great American cities. New York: Vintage
Books.
Lee, Barret (1983). Determinants of neighborhood satisfaction: A metropolitan-level
analysis, Sociological Quarterly, 24, 287-303.
Raphael, D. & Steinmetz (1997). Community Quality of Life Newsletters, Vol. I, No. 1-2.
Toronto: Department of Behavioural Science.
Sale, Kirkpatrick (1978). The polis perplexity: an inquiry into the size of cities. Working
Papers for a New Society; 6, 1, Jan-Feb, 64-76.
Sale, Kirkpatrick (1980). Human Scale. New York: Perigee Books.
World Health Organization (1995). Twenty steps for developing a Healthy Cities Project.
Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
day contact: 978-7567
***********************************
That which is sure is not sure.
As things are, they shall not remain.
-Bertolt Brecht
***********************************
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Associate Professor
University of Toronto
Division of Community Health
Faculty of Medicine
Department of Behavioural Science
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8
Tel: (416) 978-7567
Fax: (416) 978-2087
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
***********************************
That which is sure is not sure.
As things are, they shall not remain.
-Bertolt Brecht
***********************************
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Associate Professor
University of Toronto
Division of Community Health
Faculty of Medicine
Department of Behavioural Science
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8
Tel: (416) 978-7567
Fax: (416) 978-2087
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
***********************************
That which is sure is not sure.
As things are, they shall not remain.
-Bertolt Brecht
***********************************
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Associate Professor
University of Toronto
Division of Community Health
Faculty of Medicine
Department of Behavioural Science
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8
Tel: (416) 978-7567
Fax: (416) 978-2087
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
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