Search Results for: Governance

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown into relief a range of health, social, and economic challenges for municipalities in the Greater Toronto region. These challenges – such as lack of affordable housing, income inequality, the need to spur economic development, and the impact of climate change – all spill across municipal boundaries and need to be addressed through cooperation and coordination at the regional scale.
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Across Canada, and particularly in Toronto, calls for increased municipal autonomy and the protection of municipal authority in the Canadian constitution have been getting louder. These issues have become no less significant following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, which has revealed the limits of municipal powers and financial resources, while also demonstrating the importance of provincial and federal support for municipalities in difficult times.
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Zack Taylor and Alec Dobson examine the state of municipal empowerment by presenting an overview of municipal law in Canada’s 10 provinces. They identify similarities and variations within and among the provinces in how they articulate the provincial-municipal relationship, municipal powers and jurisdiction, the organization of municipal institutions, and financial powers.
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This report from Ontario 360, the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, and the Urban Policy Lab explores the relationship between the Province and Ontario’s 444 municipalities – how it has become so intertwined and why the time has come for a reassessment that ensures Ontarians receive the highest quality, most effective, and most efficient services from their governments.
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This paper explores the place of municipalities in Canada’s democratic system and constitution, arguing that their status in Canada’s constitutional order ought to be recognized and secured.
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This paper examines the current state of property tax policy across Canada and finds that municipalities and provinces are facing a number of shared challenges and questions, including: whether to apply progressive property tax rates, the volatility of property taxes, the benefits and drawbacks of using property tax incentives to attract businesses, and the role of provincial property taxes
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To tackle our modern challenges – population growth and changing demographics, climate change, aging infrastructure, congestion, and poverty – Toronto and the region‘s success decades from now will hinge on how we work together.
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IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow Nick Lombardo presented on New York’s experience and drew lessons for how different levels of government can cooperate – or not – to provide large-scale infrastructure in cities today.
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