New paper from the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance argues better pricing is needed to link those who benefit with those who pay for municipal infrastructure.
Toronto, November 9, 2017 – IMFG is pleased to announce the release of a new paper, excerpted from the new book Financing Infrastructure: Who Should Pay?
The poor state of municipal infrastructure is the subject of frequent complaint in Canada. The municipal infrastructure deficit is estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars and there is little doubt that municipalities, on average, have underinvested in infrastructure. Authored by IMFG Director Enid Slack and Almos Tassonyi, this new paper examines how municipal infrastructure is funded in Canada and explores why user fees are the best way to link those who benefit from infrastructure with those who pay for it.
About the Authors
Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, and an Adjunct Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Enid has been working on municipal finance issues in Canada and abroad for 35 years. She has published books and articles on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, development charges, financing municipal infrastructure, municipal governance, municipal boundary restructuring, and education funding. In 2012, Enid was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities.
Almos T. Tassonyi is Executive Fellow and Director of the Urban Policy Program at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. He is an Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, and a Research Associate at the International Property Tax Institute. Almos has worked extensively in government for more than 30 years. He co-authored a book on property tax reform and has written articles, papers, and book chapters on municipal fiscal health, budgeting, property taxation, and fiscal decentralization.
About the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG)
The Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance is a research hub and think tank that focuses on the fiscal and governance challenges facing large cities and city-regions. It is located within the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.
For more information, please contact:
Selena Zhang | Manager, Programs and Research
Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
selena.zhang@utoronto.ca | www.imfg.org