DCHP-2

Metro < Metropolitan As cities expanded rapidly after WWII, existing governmental structures proved inadequate to provide necessary services and coordinate infrastructure. Several cities in Canada, beginning with Toronto in 1953, produced a variety of regional governance solutions. These regions continued to use the name of the original city, preceded by the modifier metropolitan, as in Metropolitan Toronto or Metropolitan Halifax. Metropolitan was often clipped to metro and used to refer to these populated regions as a whole, or to their governance systems, which varied from city to city in terms of their history, their powers, and the services provided. As their regions became more densely populated, these metropolitan areas sometimes unified what had been two-tier governance systems, dropping the term metropolitan. For example Toronto (1998) and Halifax (1996) are both again known simply as cities, although they now govern the large area once known as metro. DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• 1 n. — dated

  Metropolitan Toronto.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In 1953, the Province of Ontario created the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, which instituted a senior layer of government for the city of Toronto and surrounding villages, towns and townships. In 1998 (see the 1997 quotation), the provincial government abolished this two-tiered system, and created the single-tiered City of Toronto (see City of Toronto reference), which took over the same area. The "Greater Toronto Area" (GTA), a term in use since the 1980s, is even larger, and includes the City of Toronto and the four adjacent regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel and York. The abbreviation Metro began to be used quite soon after the creation of Metropolitan Toronto (see the 1954 quotation) to designate the amalgamated communities that made up the Toronto area.
  Use of the noun Metro to designate the City of Toronto is now declining.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "Metro" (1), which is described as a former name for Toronto, and Gage-5, s.v. "metro" (4), which is marked "Cdn"

  See also: metro  

  • Metro Toronto is no longer in use today. The current term is GTA, Greater Toronto Area.

• 2 n.

  Metropolitan Halifax.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — Metro may refer to the communities surrounding Halifax harbour, where services were co-ordinated through the Metropolitan Authority from the late 1970s. All municipal governments in Halifax county were amalgamated to produce the Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996.

• 3 n.

  Metropolitan Vancouver.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — Metro Vancouver is a regional governance area that encompasses the City of Vancouver as well as other municipalities, an Electoral District and a First Nations reserve. Previously known as the Greater Vancouver Regional District, the name was changed to Metro Vancouver in 2007 (see Metro Vancouver reference).

  See also: postal code (meaning 1)  

• 4 n.

  any other greater urban region in Canada.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — Other cities in Canada apply the term metro to various regions centred on cities, including Edmonton, Winnipeg and Moncton. However, these regions do not all provide the same governmental services.