Toronto Board of Control

The Board of Control of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a part of its municipal government until it was abolished in 1969. It served as the executive committee of the Toronto City Council, consisting of four councillors elected city-wide and presided over by the Mayor. Beginning in 1904, the Board of Control was directly elected by the city's electorate. Each voter could vote for up to four candidates, and the four with the most votes were elected. By tradition the controller who received the most votes would get the powerful budget chief position.

Under the Municipal Act, the Board of Control had the following duties and powers:

With respect to the first three items, the board's actions could only be overturned by a two-thirds vote of the council.

From 1896 until 1904, the Toronto Board of Control was an executive branch of Council, chaired by the Mayor. It handled all daily business of Council and reported to Council.

In the early 20th century, elected Boards of Control were introduced as a reform measure for all cities in Ontario. The board was designed to be the equivalent of a cabinet for municipal governments. It had certain specific duties such as issuing tenders and appointing department heads. In Toronto it often did not function as such. Since the controllers were elected separately from the mayor, there was no guarantee they would be allied. Moreover, since controllers contested city wide elections they were often seen as the natural contenders for the mayoralty and as challengers to the incumbent mayor. Many controllers thus had a self-interest in blocking the mayor from succeeding. Relations between the Board of Control and council were also sometimes difficult, with the Board often acting as an independent council at odds with the larger body.

In 1961 the provincial government allowed cities with more than 100,000 people to abolish the Board of Control. Toronto City Council voted to do so in December 1968 after a long debate. The move was opposed by Mayor William Dennison along with three of the sitting controllers, but it was passed by a significant majority of council. The Board of Control was replaced with a new executive committee that would be composed of and elected by city council members. The size of city council was expanded by four to retain the same overall number of councillors.

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