Moving Our Region: Transportation for the Future Session 1

Supported by Metrolinx

Move It: The Importance of Transportation in the Economic Growth of City-Regions

Around the world, there is a broad understanding of the role that strategic investments in transportation play in advancing metropolitan and national economies. In the current context of recovery from the global recession and the shift of economic power to city-regions, investments in roads and transit are more important than ever. We need new approaches to how these projects are conceived, funded, and delivered while, at the same time, reinvesting in existing infrastructure. Robert Puentes discussed these macro trends, their impact on transportation policy, and how infrastructure investments in our city-regions can establish a foundation for productive, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth.

SPEAKER

Robert Puentes is a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program and Director of its Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative. His work focuses on the broad array of policies and issues related to metropolitan growth and development. He is an expert on transportation and infrastructure, urban planning, growth management, suburban issues, and housing. Prior to joining Brookings, Robert was the Director of Infrastructure Programs at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. He holds a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia where he served on the Alumni Advisory Board and is an affiliated professor with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

Moderator: Rahul Bhardwaj, President and CEO, Toronto Community Foundation

IMFG is continuing its series from last year on Moving Our Region with three new lectures. These talks will focus on the importance of transportation infrastructure to the economy of the city-region, the private sector’s role in transportation, and revenue tools for funding transit. The series brings together noted transportation policy-makers, practitioners, and academics to discuss critical issues that will profoundly influence the future growth and prosperity of the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area (GTHA).