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CBC Calgary: Enid Slack on How Canadian Municipalities Face Similar Fiscal Strains

Global Radio: Enid Slack on the Challenges Facing Municipalities

Toronto Star: 13th Annual Toronto City Manager’s Address

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  • The reality of sub-national taxation in conflict-affected states: The incidence and implications of informal taxation

    Taxation is at the centre of the relationship between state and society. In conflict-affected countries, it can be especially critical to rebuilding infrastructure and ensuring sustainable peace and development. When policymakers and international donors approach the task of rebuilding fiscal systems, they often do so with a narrow conception of tax reform in mind – one that is often based on the experience of developed countries.

  • Are You Serious? The Governance of Metropolitan Sydney

    Sydney is Australia’s largest metropolis with 5 million people, growing towards 7-8 million by mid-century. It faces serious challenges of infrastructure and service provision, environmental management, and spatial inequality.

  • Legacies of the Megacity: Toronto’s Amalgamation 20 Years Later

    Campbell Conference Facility Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    In 1998, Metropolitan Toronto and its six lower tier municipalities were amalgamated to form the City of Toronto. The decision to amalgamate was controversial then, and continues to be contentious to some today. Two decades later, what can we say about the megacity merger? Did it achieve its goals? Are Torontonians better served by one large government than the previous two-tier model? Looking forward, what lies ahead for regional governance in the GTHA?

  • Promise and Peril in the Smart City: Local Government in the Age of Digital Urbanism

    Campbell Conference Facility Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    The recent swell of interest in smart cities draws attention to the way the city of the future will be designed, built, and run. Increased use of technology in municipal servicing and governance holds tremendous promise to increase community engagement, create efficiencies in service production, better manage scarce resources and increase sustainability. At the same […]

  • Building a Better Budget Process in Toronto

    Canadiana Gallery 14 Queen's Park Crescent West, Rm CG-160, Toronto, ON, Canada

    The City of Toronto’s 2018 municipal budget cycle is in full swing. Council’s Budget Committee has begun debating $12 billion worth of city spending based on a seemingly endless supply of financial reports compiled by staff. Making sense of the numbers is remarkably difficult, even for the closest City Hall watcher. To lift the veil, […]

  • Democracy from the Bottom up: Unlocking the Potential of Community Councils

    Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Room 108N 1 Devonshire Place, North House, Room 108N, Toronto, ON, Canada

    In a number of cities around the world, community councils give local residents the power to get directly involved in local matters facing municipal government. In Toronto, City Council will soon consider the boundaries, mandates, and powers of its four community councils, which were created in 1998 to address the perceived lack of direct access […]

  • Financing Infrastructure: Who Should Pay?

    Editors Richard Bird and Enid Slack and chapter author Matti Siemiatycki discussed the key themes of IMFG’s new book, Financing Infrastructure: Who Should Pay?, followed by a reception and book signing. Politicians and citizens universally agree that Canada’s urban infrastructure urgently needs work. But few cities have room to raise additional revenue, and the federal and provincial […]

  • The Public Acceptability of Taxation: Implications for Canadian Cities

    Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Room 108N 1 Devonshire Place, North House, Room 108N, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Aversion to taxes presents a major policy dilemma for elected governments: voters want governments to deliver goods and services but are deeply suspicious of their efforts to raise taxes. When are citizens willing to support major changes to tax policy? IMFG’s 2017-2018 Postdoctoral Fellow Matthew Lesch discussed a new study on whether and how Canadians are likely […]

  • Returning to the Golden Rule of Balanced Budgets: The Institutional and Political Economy of Restricting Public Deficits and Debt

    The “golden rule” of public finance states that over an economic cycle, governments should borrow only to invest and not to fund current spending, and that the current budget must always balance or be brought into surplus. In Ontario, all municipalities are subject to legal borrowing limits, with special exceptions for Toronto and York Region. […]