When Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne denied Toronto the right to levy highway tolls , cities across Canada took notice.

Big-city mayors have been arguing with growing urgency that, if they are to cope with the rising demands being placed on them, they need more reliable sources of income. Late last year, Toronto Mayor John Tory summoned up his courage and made a move to secure one such source. Tolling the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway would have brought in millions to maintain the highways and build better public transit. Ms. Wynne made approving noises, then turned around and shot the idea down.

That was bad news not just for Toronto but for all major cities. It showed that, even when a mayor puts his political future on the line by doing something bold to shore up his city's finances, his overseers in the provincial government can thwart him. It exposed for all to see just how pathetically subservient cities are to senior governments.

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Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson says that cities sit at the kids' table. In constitutional terms, they are creatures of provincial governments. If they want more money to cover the growing costs of roads, transit, housing and a dozen other needs, they go begging to the premier. The tolls decision, he told me on the phone, is another sign of "the challenges Canadian cities face compared to many other cities around the world that operate more like city states and have more ability to chart their own course."

Many U.S. cities have hotel taxes, sales taxes and other revenue to help fund operations. Canadian cities rely heavily on property taxes. Edmonton has been raising them regularly to help pay for housing, transit and other needs, but they are highly visible , and there is a limit to what taxpayers will tolerate.

Provincial governments, of course, help cities with grants and transfers , but their generosity comes and goes. Cities, Mr. Iveson says, need stable funding.

Calgary's Mayor Naheed Nenshi once complained to me that, although his city has more people than five Canadian provinces, "I have the exact same decision-making authority and powers at my city council as the mayor of, you know, Rosebud, Alberta."

Mr. Tory famously said that he feels like a little boy in short pants when he goes up to Queen's Park for help. Because he leads the junior government, he is in short pants a lot. This week, fresh off his tolls setback, he was pressing Ms. Wynne's government to help Toronto with daycare costs.

Standing at his side, Toronto budget chief Gary Crawford said that a growing city has to shoulder all sorts of demands – from providing clean water and picking up the garbage to running shelters and supporting child-nutrition programs – all the while maintaining a balanced budget. "This work is getting harder and harder every year," he said. "That is why our city council was so amazed to hear the province of Ontario deny us recently the right to take control of our finances."

It has every right to be amazed. Ontario brought in legislation a decade ago to expand Toronto's powers, among them the power to bring in new taxes. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs says that the act sets out "a broad, permissive legislative framework for the city that gives it more tools commensurate with its size, responsibilities and significance."

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Now this. Peter Wallace, the city manager, wrote that tolls were understood to be part of the city's "tool kit." Now, as a result of the cowardly Wynne decision, "Toronto's dependence on provincial revenue authority and capacity is further entrenched."

This was not what big-city mayors had hoped for when five of them released an open letter in December asking for more control over their destiny. Mr. Tory, Mr. Iveson, Mr. Nenshi, Jim Watson of Ottawa and Gregor Robertson of Vancouver said that, "Our request is simple: Give us the tools to do the job and the accountability that goes with them and we'll build great cities for the benefit of all Canadians."

It's not too much to ask.