Metropolitan Toronto, usually called Metro, was a two-tier regional government created by the Ontario legislature in 1953 that joined the City of Toronto and 12 surrounding suburbs for area-wide services. It took effect in 1954 and lasted until the province amalgamated the remaining municipalities into a single City of Toronto on January 1, 1998, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
The arrangement was a compromise. The suburbs wanted to keep their own councils, while the city and the province needed a way to pay for roads, sewers, and water in a region that was growing faster than any single town could finance. This article follows the idea from the 1953 report to the 1967 reorganization.
Why a federation was proposed
After the Second World War, suburban townships such as North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough filled with new houses before they had the sewers, water mains, and schools to serve them. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes Toronto in that period as a city that “shrunk at the core and burst at the seams,” a phrase it uses in its biography of Frederick Gardiner. Full amalgamation with the suburbs was resisted by many of them.
The Ontario Municipal Board held hearings on the question from 1950 to 1951, according to the Wikipedia article on Metropolitan Toronto, a secondary source that compiles the legislative record. Its chair, Lorne Cumming, released a report on January 20, 1953 that rejected full amalgamation. Instead he proposed a metropolitan government to supply strategic services while the existing municipalities kept the rest. The Canadian Encyclopedia confirms the outcome in one sentence: in 1953, on the board’s recommendation, the province joined the City of Toronto and its 12 suburbs into a metropolitan corporation.
The 1953 Act and the first council
The enabling law was titled An Act to provide for the Federation of the Municipalities in the Toronto Metropolitan Area for Certain Financial and Other Purposes, and is usually called the Metropolitan Toronto Act. Sources do not agree on the day it passed. The Wikipedia article gives April 2, 1953 and says the first council met on April 15, 1953. Other summaries read in preparing this article give April 7 or April 15 for the Act itself, which suggests that the second date refers to the first meeting. The year, 1953, is not in doubt.
The council was not elected as a body in the early years. According to the Wikipedia compilation, it consisted of the chair, the mayor of Toronto, Toronto’s two most senior controllers, nine senior aldermen from Toronto, and the mayors and reeves of the 12 suburbs. The first chair was Frederick G. Gardiner, a lawyer who had been deputy reeve of Forest Hill. The Canadian Encyclopedia says he was persuaded to take the post in 1953 and retired from it in 1961. The City of Toronto’s list of mayors and chairmen gives his term as 1953 to 1961 and names William R. Allen as chair from 1962 to 1969. The province appointed the first chair, and the council chose later ones.
The thirteen members
| Type | Members in 1953 |
|---|---|
| City | Toronto |
| Towns | Leaside, Mimico, New Toronto, Weston |
| Villages | Forest Hill, Long Branch, Swansea |
| Townships | East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York |
The City of Toronto Archives lists the Metropolitan Toronto council minutes as running from 1953 to 1995 and its by-laws from 1953 to 1997, and notes the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board records from 1946 to 1974. The departments that generated records include roads and traffic, works, welfare and housing, parks and property, and planning. That list shows the range of work that Metro took on over the years.
What Metro did
The Wikipedia compilation says the first Metro responsibilities were arterial roads, major water and sewage facilities, regional planning, public transportation, the administration of justice, regional parks, and housing as needed, while municipalities kept fire, business licensing, public health, and libraries. It dates the merger of the police forces to 1956.
Several projects of the 1950s show the new reach. Metro paid for and built the Gardiner Expressway, which is named for its first chair. In October 1954 Metro Council created the Ontario Hurricane Relief Fund two days after the storm, and Metro helped expropriate 349 flood plain properties, according to the Ontario Heritage Trust. The City of Toronto’s online exhibit on island housing records that the Toronto Islands were transferred to Metro in 1956 to become regional parkland.
Limits and reorganization
The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that Metro was a political compromise. Few responsibilities moved entirely to the regional level, so the two tiers often competed, and in some cases hindered urban development. Its example is water: Metro sold it wholesale while the local municipalities handled local delivery.
The encyclopedia dates a comprehensive reorganization to 1966, which cut the number of member municipalities to six. The Wikipedia article places the change in 1967 and adds that the council grew from 22 to 32 seats, with the 1966 election held under the new structure; it gives the City of Toronto and five boroughs as the result, and says that seven small towns and villages merged into their neighbors. The two sources differ by a year, probably because the election preceded the legal change. The encyclopedia also records that Metro councillors became directly elected in 1988, and that the model was copied in Ottawa-Carleton, Hamilton-Wentworth, and Greater Winnipeg.
Frequently asked questions
When was Metropolitan Toronto created?
The Ontario legislature passed the enabling Act in spring 1953 and the new government took effect in 1954. Sources vary on the exact day the Act passed, with April 2 the date in the secondary compilation.
Which municipalities joined?
Thirteen: the City of Toronto, the towns of Leaside, Mimico, New Toronto, and Weston, the villages of Forest Hill, Long Branch, and Swansea, and the townships of East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York.
Who was the first chair?
Frederick G. Gardiner, appointed by the province, who served from 1953 to 1961 according to the City of Toronto and the Canadian Encyclopedia.
When did Metro end?
On January 1, 1998 the province amalgamated the seven remaining local governments into one City of Toronto, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Related reading
- Etobicoke: history of the former municipality
- North York: history of the former municipality
- Scarborough: history of the former municipality
- East York: history of the former municipality
- Toronto neighbourhoods: how the districts grew
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, Metropolitan Government
- City of Toronto Archives, Historical Records: Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, 1953 to 1997
- City of Toronto, Mayor, Reeve and Chairman (list of mayors and Metro chairmen)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Fred Gardiner”
- Ontario Heritage Trust, Hurricane Hazel background paper
- City of Toronto, online exhibit “Your Home, Our City: Island Housing”
- Wikipedia, “Metropolitan Toronto” (secondary compilation, used for the Cumming report, the Act’s passage, council makeup, and 1967 details and marked as such in the text)
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Metropolitan Toronto: The 1953 Federation of 13 Municipalities. http://localhost:8210/blog/metropolitan-toronto-1954
MLA: “Metropolitan Toronto: The 1953 Federation of 13 Municipalities.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, http://localhost:8210/blog/metropolitan-toronto-1954. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Metropolitan Toronto: The 1953 Federation of 13 Municipalities.” Last modified October 23, 2026. http://localhost:8210/blog/metropolitan-toronto-1954.
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