AGORA — The Toronto Deliberation Stack

A plan to change how Toronto listens to and deliberates with its residents, built on the principle of subsidiarity — decisions made by the smallest group close enough to be affected.

Decisions move up to bigger groups only as needed, along a ladder from individuals to small neighbourhood groups, to neighbourhoods, wards, the city, and beyond. AI is used only narrowly, as a labeled rehearsal tool for organizers or to cluster and summarize real input — never to simulate opinion as if real, decide anything, or fake agreement. It is designed to roll out in three stages: a small real pilot on a live civic issue in a few wards, a standing city-wide rotating citizens' council, and eventually a fuller tested ladder including bolder ideas like direct votes or lottery-selected decision bodies.

This program has not been ratified. Nothing here is a promise, and no real deliberation, recommendation, resource decision, or vote has occurred.