This paper situates Canadian local governance practices within a review of international perspectives on the meaning and evaluation of governance quality. The author finds that Canadian authorities have construed local good governance largely in utilitarian terms, as the efficiency of service delivery.
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Detailing the development of municipal institutions, the original logic behind the city-county separation, and the eventual shift in institutional and municipal organization, this book demonstrates that urban and rural areas have always had a reciprocal relationship and that both play an important role in the strength of the national economy and the broader local community. Focusing on three case studies of separated cities and their counties that still retain strict city-county separation, former IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow Zachary Spicer reveals how this policy works, what problems it poses, and examines the best practices for addressing growth, development, and sprawl from a regional perspective.
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This paper evaluates the financial tools available to fund stormwater infrastructure (property taxes, development charges or cash-in-lieu payments, grants, borrowing, and user charges), and proposes user charges as the most appropriate.
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This report reviews tax increment financing (TIF) and land value capture (LVC), two alternative sources of revenue to support new infrastructure and development for which municipal funds are not readily available. It simulates a 30-year TIF implementation along the Sheppard East corridor in Toronto.
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This paper defines the terms Big Data, Open Data, Open Government, and Smart Cities and uses two case studies – London (U.K.) and Toronto – to examine questions about using data to drive economic growth, improve the accountability of government to citizens, and offer more digitally enabled services.
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The three main explanations for cost overruns and delays are technical challenges, over-optimism, and strategic misrepresentations. This paper looks at the root of persistent cost overruns on public megaprojects, and proposes ways to fix this problem.
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The Indian Government’s decision to dissolve the Central Planning Commission in August 2014 marks an important watershed for India’s current government. This paper examines the newly established National Institution for Transforming India Aayog and its implications for India’s development policies.
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While the financial situation of municipal employee pension plans in Canada is satisfactory overall, these plans involve significant financial risks and in some cases have experienced financial difficulties that have caused problems for municipal finances.
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