Community Economic Development and Metropolitan Governance: A Comparison of Montreal and Toronto‪.‬

In the context of globalisation, both Toronto and Montreal have had to face major challenges resulting from changes in the international economy. These changes have been accompanied by various effects such as the decline of the manufacturing sector, increases in unemployment rates, the reshaping of social programs, and the downloading of responsibilities from higher levels of government to intermediate and lower levels. In both agglomerations, various development strategies have been initiated as a reaction to these effects. At the community level, organisations have mobilised to produce innovative approaches to respond to social exclusion. Among these approaches, Community Economic Development (CED) practices aim at making increased linkages between economic and social development. At the municipal level, new programs have been implemented to support economic development by stimulating the private sector. Finally, at the metropolitan level, new structures have been put in place to promote a better co-ordination between municipalities in relation to the private sector in order to maintain or increase the positions of Montreal and Toronto in the new continental marketplace.