What's in it for citizens and businesses of the new province?
If Toronto did become Canada’s eleventh province, what sort of structure would it have? What form of government would it have? While the ultimate form would be developed only over time, it seems fairly certain to have the following characteristics:

• The provincial government would be much like all other provinces, with multiple parties made up of the same ones that already exist.
• A separate city government would need to be elected to perform the different activities that go into city building.
• The real question is; how many city governments would be necessary. Two governments with the same boundaries would create considerable tension. Many studies point to the creation of smaller cities that can more accurately reflect the make up of the different areas of the city. London, England, one of the most successful cities of the world, has 32 separate boroughs, none with a population greater than 350,000.
• The province would probably have a constitution that defines the relationship between the cities and the province. Otherwise we would be back in the same position we are now with the cities as “creatures” of the province.

Toronto’s relationship with the federal government would not change in many important ways. Most importantly for Ottawa federal taxes of all types would continue to be collected by Ottawa. The main difference would be that Toronto would be fully represented at federal/provincial conferences. Toronto would deal directly with the federal government for grants and other intergovernmental affairs. This would eliminate the current problem of Queen’s Park deciding what Toronto’s share of federal cost sharing programs will be and if the federal money is even turned over to Toronto.

Ontario would no longer be able to use Toronto as a “cash cow” to siphon money out of the city to support the development of sprawl across the whole province.

Property taxes could be restructured to make Toronto an attractive place to do business again. This would allow the growth of new businesses that would like to be in the city but are not willing to pay the price imposed in large part by the provincial and federal governments using property taxes on business to finance programs that redistribute income.