As part of Ontario 360’s Transition Briefings, IMFG Manager of Programs and Research Tomas Hachard and IMFG Director Enid Slack write about how an incoming provincial government can tailor municipal governance and provincial-municipal relations to address major policy challenges that require significant intergovernmental cooperation.
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New IMFG and Urban Project paper reviews the current state of provincial-municipal equalization transfers in Canada and suggests ways to improve their design. Arguing that no province provides adequate equalization for municipalities, the authors take a critical look at the mechanics of such a transfer, and how it should ideally operate. Issues that first need to be resolved range from determining how local needs are calculated to ascertaining how municipal fiscal capacity is measured. Slack and Bird conclude with some suggestions for what is needed to devise fair, efficient, and transparent provincial-municipal equalization systems.
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New IMFG Paper explores whether development charges impede housing affordability and finds they actually improve it once a larger municipal context is considered.
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New IMFG paper examines the eviction crisis in Toronto and illustrates the need for improved cooperation between municipalities and the province on policies that control rental housing.
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A new IMFG paper looks at evolving Canadian municipal relationships with Indigenous Peoples and calls attention to an urgent need to review Indigenous-municipal relationships across Canada.
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User fees are one of the principal funding mechanisms for a range of municipal services, from water and waste management to transit and recreation. New IMFG paper explains why user fees are a good source of revenue for municipalities, how they are employed in Ontario, and how to navigate the trade-off between efficiency and fairness.
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New IMFG paper explores how the development of Toronto’s Pearson Airport catalyzed informal regional governance and planning processes in the Toronto area.
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Over the past decade, most major cities have received some new revenue sources. Yet, little is known about how cities actually use them or how they have benefitted. This paper reviews data from the municipal financial statements of the largest city in each province to investigate how Canadian cities are employing their revenue sources and whether more sources lead to more revenues and better services in cities.
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