This provides a basis for understanding the importance of amalgamation and local services realignment, or LSR, in helping to define the landscape. Then I want to review amalgamation and LSR from Toronto's point of view and from a broader perspective. I'll look at the opportunities and the challenges. I will end with some strategies on what we can all do to ensure that Ontario's cities thrive. I think we have to understand the new role of cities clearly to appreciate just how important they are in the world economy today.
Cities are now the economic engines of nations.
Briefly, in the last quarter of the twentieth century there was a complete transformation of the nation state model. Advances in telecommunications and information technology created a need for continual innovation and transparency in order to be competitive in such a changing world. Innovation is the natural domain of cities. Cities are the places where ideas meet, synthesize and emerge as practical applications. They are the natural frontier of the new economy.