In his first public address since taking office in July, Toronto City Manager Peter Wallace shares his perspectives on the City’s finances, and on the opportunities and challenges to achieving key social, economic, city-building, environmental, and governance objectives.

This presentation focuses on the policy processes involved in implementing the Clean Water Act (2006), and outlined the practical and policy challenges of setting up the Toronto and Region Source Protection Authority with the involvement of municipal and non-municipal stakeholders.

In an era when all large cities are struggling to maintain balanced budgets and pay for increased services and infrastructure, Is Your City Healthy? is a timely publication that explores the elements of fiscal health, how we measure it, and why it is important.

His Worship Mayor Don Iveson of Edmonton is joined in conversation with Professor Richard Florida on a number of topics and issues related to the Role of Big Cities in Canada. This event is part of the Big City, Big Ideas series, which features global leaders in urban and regional policy.

Rapid developments in digital innovation and in the availability and application of large-scale data sets create opportunities both for new economic activities and jobs, and for new and cheaper ways of delivering city services. They also hold out possibilities for new ways that governments can engage with citizens, while at the same time raising concerns about data privacy.

Are infrastructure financing tools underutilized when it comes to planning for smart growth? Do we run the risk of undercutting “smart growth” efforts if we assume infrastructure financing tools to be growth-neutral?

The Indian Planning Commission was one of India's leading public economic institutions. The dissolution of the Planning Commission by the present government in New Delhi and its replacement by the Niti Aayog raises important questions for economic policy, explored in this panel event.

This talk surveys the fiscal impacts of rising police salaries for Ontario's municipalities, then goes on to present research about best practices for controlling costs.

Conventional wisdom and the literature in urban planning suggest that high density built form is preferable to low density because it is more environmentally sustainable and results in lower hard infrastructure costs. This presentation entertains the other side of the argument: that high density built form can increase soft infrastructure costs.