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.

  • 1954  There is no permanent accomodation or more land available in Long Branch, and I don't know where these people can live. Perhaps Metro, which now has the responsibility of housing, can do something about this situation. 
  • 1963  Billed as "Tory night in Metro," the event was described by a party spokesman as a "means to get the ball rolling". . . .
  • 1975  "It's a step that has to be pursued," Scarborough Mayor Paul Cosgrove said. "I'm impressed the're looking at this." He said if Metro must rely on public transit, then the city can't afford to be brought to a halt because of "labor strife." 
  • 1982  When she lived in California, Friesen was used to being asked where she bought pieces she wore. In Metro, she says there's much more restraint. "In Toronto, women will notice what I'm wearing, but they won't come flying over. In California, I was always getting stopped on the street."
  • 1997  Instead of doing away with Metro and keeping the six cities, Premier Mike Harris decided to do away with the six cities and have one city council for the whole of Toronto. 
  • 2005  "We're very, very careful and we're the cheapest league in Metro," says volunteer league president Don Montgomery. Part of the problem in analyzing minor hockey finances is lack of detailed financial disclosure, says Toronto forensic accountant Charles Smedmor. 

• 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.

  • 1964  It reports that sales in Halifax County (which includes the whole of the Metro Area) as 2% above the potential for a market of that county's population. 
  • 1975  You say, what else is new? Not much - well, there are more blacks in Metro today than there were a decade ago (the result no doubt of some deracifying of Canada's immigration policy) but relations between white and black cannot be said to have improved; in fact with a larger black population they are more likely deteriorating. 
  • 1986  "The victim could have been any cab driver in metro, and most drivers, deep inside, cannot help wondering if they might be next," she said. 
  • 2005  "I know tonnes about metro (Halifax) and lots of people in metro know me," he said. "It's very much part of the discovery process, is listening to people outside of metro." 
  • 2016  Four days after Tyler Richards was found dead in a Halifax home, his father and brother were arrested with unregistered, restricted firearms. [...] A source, who spoke to the Chronicle Herald on condition of anonymity, confirmed a number of family connections that shed new light on at least two of the recent fatal shootings in metro. 

• 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)  

  • 2008  The Fraser Valley Regional District has lobbied against Metro officials' move to abandon the process of seeking a replacement landfill in the Interior for Cache Creek and diverting almost all of the Lower Mainland's garbage to the yet-to-be-built WTE plants. 
  • 2015  A study by University of B.C. geographer Dan Hiebert shows the problem is worse in Metro Vancouver than in Montreal and Toronto. It’s the unintended consequence of Metro becoming a popular destination for those who gained a Canadian passport through the business-investor immigrant program. [...] Statistics Canada data shows the upscale neighbourhoods in Metro where more than 30 per cent of adults are reporting poverty have a high proportion of immigrants, writes Hiebert. 
  • 2016  Why is Premier Christy Clark fiddling while the Metro Vancouver real-estate market burns, frying to a crisp the homeownership dreams of non-millionaires? [...] Martyn Brown was chief of staff under former Liberal premier Gordon Campbell, Clark's predecessor. Brown is calling on the government to do something about runaway prices in Metro's hyper-inflated housing market. 

• 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.

  • 1960  WINNIPEG METRO The metropolitan form of government for Greater Winnipeg received approval from the Manitoba Legislature by a 47-6 vote. The metro government will exercise authority over more than 450,000 persons, almost half of the province's total population. 
  • 1962  Canada's second experiment with metropolitan government scarcely seemed controversial when Winnipeg put the scheme into effect a year ago. The Metro did not follow Toronto Metro's example of taking over the police or fire departments or the school systems.
  • 1989  Manegre said Northwestern customers' consumption Wednesday of natural gas in the metro Edmonton and central Alberta area was 96 per cent of the daily gas consumption record set during last February's blizzard. 
  • 1996  That means trust -- Spruce Grove has to trust Edmonton not to gobble up all the pie. Edmonton has to trust that people selling Fort Saskatchewan will also point out the virtues of River City. Establishing that trust and user-friendly business policies in metro may be harder than establishing peace in Bosnia. 
  • 2016  Moncton stays strong by standing together Citizens everywhere in Metro, via social media, in their way aided the police in their search.