1998 Amalgamation
Amalgamation occurred in 1998 when six municipalities comprising Metropolitan Toronto – East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York, and the former city of Toronto – and the regional municipality of Metro Toronto were dissolved and amalgamated into a single municipality called the City of Toronto (colloquially dubbed the "megacity") by an act of the Government of Ontario. This created the current City of Toronto. The new City of Toronto became the fifth largest municipality in North America after amalgamation, trailing Mexico City, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The merger was proposed as a cost-saving measure by the fiscally conservative provincial government under Mike Harris. By the year 2000, the new city realized savings of $136.2 million (CDN) per year from amalgamation, and had incurred one time costs from amalgamation totalling $275 million (CDN). However, in 2007, Barry Hertz reported in the conservative national newspaper National Post that cost savings never materialized. He also noted that government staff had grown, with the city employing 4,015 more people in 2007 than it did in 1998 Before amalgamation 73% of the expenses taken over by Toronto came from Metro Toronto, and were thus already integrated programs. Additionally, municipal affairs minister Al Leach touted it as a measure that would produce a stronger, more unified Toronto better equipped to compete in a global marketplace.
The amalgamation was widely opposed in Toronto and the other municipalities. This amalgamation was despite a municipal referendum in 1997 that was overwhelmingly against amalgamation, which resulted in over three quarters of voters rejecting amalgamation, with one third of eligible voters participating. Mayor Mel Lastman of North York, and Barbara Hall of Toronto both campaigned against the merger, as did former mayor John Sewell. Subsequently, Mel Lastman defeated Barbara Hall to become the first elected mayor of the megacity. However, the municipalities in Ontario are creatures of the provincial government, which decided to go ahead with the merger despite local opposition. Opposition parties in the local parliament engaged in a unique form of filibuster, tabling thirteen thousand amendments to the amalgamation bill, which lasted two weeks, but did not prevent passage of the bill.
Despite amalgamation, many organizations and individuals continue to prefer the names of the old municipalities instead of using "Toronto". For example, Canada Post mail standards use Etobicoke instead of Toronto for addresses in Etobicoke. Similar standards apply for addresses in the former Scarborough and North York. When dealing with utility companies, one often has to give the name of one of the six municipalities when inquiring about service. This was done because amalgamation resulted in duplicate street names that are disambiguated only by referring to the former municipalities.
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