The City of Toronto is on the move, Mayor Mel Lastman told members of the Scarborough Chamber of Commerce in his fourth Annual State of the City Address on May 29, 2002.

It gives me great pleasure to tell you today that the state of our City is strong - and Toronto is on the move.

Today, the province is back in the transit business to the tune of $110 million a year for the next 10 years - and the federal government found $76 million to help the red rocket get through 2002.

Today, we are expecting $90 million in provincial cultural grants for attractions in Toronto - and talks are on-going for similar federal funding.

Today, there is $1 ½ billion committed by all three levels of government to fund the infrastructure of our waterfront revitalization - a $12 billion, 46 kilometre development that will transform Toronto's waterfront into a gateway to the world. Action is finally taking place.

Today, the entire country is talking about giving cities a new deal.

What a difference a year makes.

This time last year, Toronto was in dire straights. We were facing a possible recession.

The provincial and federal governments were steadfast in their refusal to give us funds for the TTC - and everybody thought that I was crazy for keeping up the pressure on queen's park and Ottawa for TTC funding.

Crazy like a fox, perhaps. Let's do a little math.

$1.1 billion plus $76 million plus $90 million plus $1 ½ billion adds up to more than $2 billion, $760 million - and that's just the start. There's $90 million more coming from the federal government and this chapter isn't closed yet!

I have to thank the Toronto City Councillors with us here today for their hard work, their dedication and for a job well done.

But I couldn't have done it without your help.

A year ago, I asked you to get involved. I asked you to write letters to your MPs and MPPs. I asked you to join me in demanding a new deal for cities like Toronto.

You responded.

In March, Charles Baillie, Chairman and CEO of the TD Bank Financial Group told the country - and I quote - that Canada's cities are "shamefully underfunded."

Gordon Nixon, the CEO of RBC financial group, echoed those sentiments earlier this month.

"We need to provide our decaying cities with the means to invest in their roads, public services, housing, transit, airports and cultural institutions," he said.

Finance minister Paul Martin may have said it best when he quoted me on why we need a new, sustainable source of revenue.

"Property taxes were meant for snow removal and garbage collection," he said. "they were not meant to take on the vast range of social programs that cities face today."

All three men are right - although I'd stop short of describing our City as "decaying."

We may be "shamefully" underfunded, but Toronto continues to be a City that's on the move.

Last year, 5 major international corporations set up shop in our City and another 56 expanded.

Our biotech sector alone grew by 30 per cent - that's part of the reason that Toronto was selected to host the biotech 2002 conference - an event which will attract 17,000 people.

The medical industry in our city employs over 80,000 people and spending on pharmaceutical research and development has doubled in the past eight years to reach an all-time high of $1.5 billion.

And Toronto continues to have the fourth highest concentration of commercial software businesses in the world with more than 5,000 information technology firms that collectively bring in $30 billion a year.

Toronto is booming! There are probably more cranes on our skyline today than there have ever been before!

What brings all these people and companies and business to Toronto?

A KPMG study entitled "competitive alternatives" said Toronto is 12.1 per cent more cost-competitive than any of the major cities in the united states.

A survey by Princeton, New Jersey's Boyd co. found Toronto to be more affordable for high-tech investment than any U.S. city, period.

The Conference Board of Canada has ranked Toronto among the leading Canadian cities in terms of gross domestic product growth.

And according to the final report of the now-defunct GTSB, Toronto has not only entered the new economy; it is leading it.

The good news is that all of this trade, commerce and business activity makes for a healthy and vibrant economy.

The bad news is that City Hall still doesn't see one cent of it.

While the cost of salaries and services climb with inflation, our source of income remains flat.

Unfortunately, it is inevitable that property taxes will keep going up - as our residential property tax rate did this year.

We are still dependent on the regressive property tax. This is our only source of income.

If the province treated us the same way it treats Mississauga or Vaughan or the rest of the Municipalities in the GTA, our 2002 property tax increase would have been 1.63 per cent, not 4.3 per cent. It would have been below the cost of inflation, and better than any other City around.

4.3 per cent was more than any of us wanted to see. But it protected those City services - like police, fire and ambulance - that we have come to rely on.

Our 2002 budget protects snow removal services to keep our streets and sidewalks clear.

It protects shelter beds and keeps pools open in partnership with the Toronto District School Board.

It provides for 55 new firefighters who are essential to keep your insurance premiums down and maintain the levels of safety that our public currently enjoys.

This year's budget allowed for all of these things and more.

Toronto is already Canada's banking capital, our country's tourism capital and Hollywood's home away from home. Your City has fashion and food and manufacturing.

It is a transportation hub and a retail centre, all rolled into one.

Combined with new dollars from the provincial and the federal governments, Toronto is poised to become the premier City of the 21st century - and your address is about to become your calling card to the world.

We just unveiled our City's official plan for the next 30 years - a vision of growth for the future.

If you don't grow, you stagnate - but growth can't be at any cost.

We need developments that are compatible with our neighborhoods. We need transit to compliment our network of highways and avenues.

Take a look at the Sheppard corridor in North York; Yonge and the 401, Leslie and Sheppard. We need to repeat these City planning success stories right across the City.

Last month, we announced plans for a one-million square foot, $150 million major film studio to be built and paid for by Pinewood Shepperton studios on Toronto's waterfront. The project is progressing well.

43 acres of land have been set aside for this project dubbed "shoot City" which will add 7,000 direct and indirect jobs to an industry that already employs 28,000 people in Toronto.

We've committed to meeting the waste recycling targets set by the 2010 task force. Toronto will meet it's interim goal of 30 per cent waste diversion by 2003; three-stream garbage collection begins in Etobicoke in September and we'll have the whole City online by 2005.

I'm also committed to keeping Toronto safe.

At a time when most crime rates are falling, youth crime has increased by 40 per cent in the past 10 years.

We've got to turn that trend around - and through a combination of youth programs unveiled earlier this month and increased police enforcement by our anti-gang squad, I think we can.

Perhaps most important of all, am going to keep working with other big City Mayors from across the country on striking a fair deal from queen's park and Ottawa.

I'm optimistic that we will.

People are starting to realize that the future of Canada is in its cities.

A year ago, who would have thought that not one, but two Tory leadership hopefuls would speak out in favour of sharing the gas tax with Toronto - something I've been pleading for, for years now?

A year ago, how many of you could have predicted that Ottawa would recommend that we get long-term, sustainable funding and new fiscal powers?

Those were just two of the recommendations to come out of the Prime Minister's caucus Task Force On Urban Issues.

There's no doubt there will be many more.

This June, we're going to bring together civic leaders from across this City to help shape Toronto's future over the next five to ten years.

The Toronto City summit will be privately funded. It will be a two-day meeting of the minds of more than 150 dedicated and involved citizens who are a representative sample of this City.

We are going to look at some of the most important issues that make up a great City.

Issues like economic development, social equity, infrastructure and transportation.

Issues like new, sustainable sources of revenue.

Canadian cities are going to fall behind the rest of the world if the province and the federal government do what they have been doing.

You know that I strongly believe that Toronto is the greatest City in the world.

We've got the greatest citizens, the greatest businesses, and a waterfront with more potential than any other City in the world.

What we need to do now is build on this foundation.

We need to ensure that Toronto continues to be a great City in the years ahead - and by listening to each other and working together, I believe that we can ensure Toronto's role as the City of the 21st century.

I'm here today to tell you that I am going to continue fighting until we get there.

I'm going to keep up the pressure with the other big City Mayors to get a fair deal from the provincial and the federal governments.

I'd like to close by reassuring you that the state of our City is strong - and will be getting stronger.

Help me keep it moving in the right direction. Write to your MPs and your MPPs; demand a new deal for your City.

With your continued help, I know that we can get one.

Thank you.