The Dynamics of Municipal Cooperation in Canadian Metropolitan Areas

This paper was prepared by IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow for the 44th Conference of the Urban Affairs Association in March 2014. It is part of a larger research project that examines the use of interlocal agreements in Canadian metropolitan areas. Over 200 inter-local agreements in six Canadian census metropolitan areas – Toronto, Saskatoon, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg – from 1995 to 2013 were collected and analyzed. This paper finds that municipalities within Canadian metropolitan areas are signing very few inter-local agreements, especially in comparison to large American metropolitan areas, and provides some preliminary explanations for this trend. Overall, it is argued that provincially imposed regional initiatives and central city annexation is why so few Canadian cities view inter-local cooperation as a solution to servicing dilemmas.