On May 25, 2022, IMFG Visiting Scholar Gerard Turley presented on the story of Ireland’s new residential property tax, covering the background and country context, design features, implementation, and reform lessons.

On June 14, 2022, IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow Hsi-Chuan Wang presented his ongoing research on informal settlement policies in two capital cities in the global south: Accra, Ghana, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both countries experienced significant financial system reform, economic liberation, and far-reaching public sector restructuring in the 1990s. Since that time, Accra and Buenos Aires have taken different approaches to housing and infrastructure provision in informal settlements. The findings suggest that the perceptions and approaches toward low-income residents changed in both places at the national and local levels between the 1980s and 2000s. Moreover, compared with Accra, Buenos Aires has undertaken a wider range of policies and strategies to improve settlements, especially after the economic depression in the early 21st century. This difference in approach can be partly attributed to different governance structures in the two cities.

On Wednesday, October 19, 2022, our expert panel examined what the “Strong Mayors” policy actually means: what difference will it really make? Is it a sea change or a tempest in a teapot? Will strong mayors actually mean stronger cities?

On November 29, 2022, IMFG Post-doctoral Fellow Robert Stewart discussed how Green Investment Banks can play a role in supporting key municipal investments.

On Tuesday, December 6, 2022, the CAOs of York, Peel and Durham regions outlined their current fiscal situations and provided a fiscal outlook. They explored their region’s COVID-19 response, and set out some future goals, including in the context of complex intergovernmental relationships across the GTA and with the provincial and federal governments.

Don Iveson, former Mayor of Edmonton and Chair of Canada's Big City Mayors’ Caucus, made the case for regionalism on January 17, 2023. He was was joined by Jen Nelles from the Oxford Brooks Business School and Zack Taylor from Western University who discussed ideas around regional coordination and highlighted some of the findings from their research.

On April 13, 2023, IMFG held a Toronto book launch to discuss "Sustainability, Citizen Participation, and City Governance" with Hoi L. Kong and Alexandra Flynn

IMFG graduate fellow Celia Wandio discussed the origins and importance of affordable housing acquisition programs, specifically the City of Toronto’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition Program.

On May 18, 2023, a panel of experts brought examples of different revenue sources used in cities around the world. They told us what works, what doesn’t, and what could be applied to Toronto.

On May 30, 2023, IMFG graduate fellow Kaela Sanborn-Hum discussed corporate investment in single-family housing after the 2008 financial crisis, with a focus on Roofstock, an Oakland-based proptech startup, and described Roofstock’s strategies to introduce retail investors to the single-family rental market through proprietary technologies.