This panel discussion features remarks from Enid Slack, Richard M. Bird, Jean-Philippe Meloche, and François Vaillancourt.

Today, American cities generally have more independent authority and fiscal autonomy than their Canadian counterparts. Home Rule status and other legal rights provide municipal governments with significant authority to govern their own affairs without constant state intervention. Yet, in the age of devolution, has federalism really worked to support the service delivery challenges of American cities?

Excessive borrowing by local and regional governments is an important source of macroeconomic instability in monetary unions. Credit markets often indulge this behaviour (lending too much at excessively low interest rates) if they expect national officials to bail out struggling local jurisdictions. Drawing on cross-national and Canadian data, Kyle Hanniman discusses the role and limits of fiscal federal institutions in shaping these bailout beliefs.

IMFG, along with the School of Public Policy and Governance, the Department of Geography and Planning, Urban Strategies, and Global City Indicators Facility, presents the first lecture in the series, "Big City, Big Ideas," entitled Hudson Yards, NYC: The History, Challenges and Opportunities of North America’s Largest City-Building Development.

Professor Michael Smart presents the findings of his recent IMFG Paper, which explores the impacts of business property tax reform in Ontario between 2001 and 2004.

In recent years, the City of Toronto’s use of Section 37 has come under greater scrutiny. In particular, critics question how the benefits are determined and distributed. Using data compiled on Section 37 agreements from 2007 through 2011, this presentation seeks to answer that question.

The Canadian water and wastewater deficit has been estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Drawing upon the political, economic, and technical history of the Southern Ontario water sector, IMFG Graduate Fellowship winner Lesley Herstein explores how short-term decision-making has often resulted in greater municipal expenditure over time on water assets.

As the city region expands and the number of actors increases, governing transportation becomes more and more complicated. Scott Sams discusses whether an effective, accountable, and coordinated transportation system can be achieved without resorting to amalgamating all existing transit authorities into one.

Although the metropolitan areas of Mumbai, Dehli, and Kolkata contribute a major chunk to the growth and income of India, only 52 per cent of urban households have tap water, only 741 out of 1000 urban dwellers have access to toilets, and 77 per cent of the urban households are covered by closed surface drainage. Faced with these major challenges, can Indian cities find the revenues they need to improve services?