The City of Toronto Act proclaimed Monday provides Canada’s largest city with broad new powers and significant new legislative freedoms. The act grants a wide range of new powers, including the ability to regulate store openings on holidays, set environmental standards for new developments and license apartment buildings. The city can now also establish minimum densities for development, set architectural design standards and encourage economic development through tax incentives.
I believe this is the first time in Canada that a municipality can actually implement real tax incentives for economic development.