Search Results for: Municipal Expenditures
Video | 2020
Global Check-Up: How Has COVID-19 Affected Municipal Fiscal Health?
Many Canadian municipalities have taken hits to their budgets due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But what has the effect been on municipalities around the world? Have municipalities in different countries fared better than others? What accounts for any differences? What needs to be done to ensure municipalities bounce back?
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Video | 2020
Municipal Finance and COVID-19 in Canada: What Comes Next?
In this video, a panel examines the continued impact of COVID-19 on municipal finance. How are municipalities preparing for their 2021 budgets? What impacts are they anticipating from COVID-19? What steps are needed at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels to safeguard the fiscal health of municipalities?
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IMFG Paper | 2020
Power and Purpose: Canadian Municipal Law in Transition
Zack Taylor and Alec Dobson
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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Special Projects | 2019
Summary Report for City of Toronto-TTC Transit Expert Advisory Panel
Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance
In May 2019, the City of Toronto and TTC established an Expert Advisory Panel to provide input and advice to inform the City and TTC’s engagement with the Province on Ontario on the Ontario-Toronto Realignment of Transit Responsibilities Review. IMFG was engaged to help design the panel and facilitated panel discussions on various topics relating to the current state challenges of transit in the Toronto region, role of transit in city building, integrated mobility, governance, and funding.
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Book | 2019
Funding the Canadian City
Heather Evans, Lisa Philipps, Enid Slack and Lindsay Tedds
This collection of papers by leading experts, emerging scholars, and policy makers in the field of municipal taxation and finance sets out the financial challenges facing municipalities in Canada today and examines various practical means of navigating these challenges.
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Presentation | 2019
Sharing the Costs of a Growing City: The Case for Development Charges
Adam Found
New development is essential to supporting a growing city but it also leads to added costs for municipal governments. New housing developments often require new or expanded infrastructure, including roads, sewers, and water treatment plants.
There is ongoing debate on how cities should pay for this growth-related capital. Some argue that user fees and property tax revenues are sufficient to cover these costs, and that development charges on developers will likely result in increased housing prices.
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IMFG Paper | 2019
Does Local Government Autonomy Promote Fiscal Sustainability? Lessons from Illinois
Matthew Walshe
Whether institutional constraints are desirable is a debate that may alternatively be framed as one over the merits of local government autonomy. This paper contributes to this debate by empirically analysing the effects of local government autonomy on several outcomes, including the size of government, the ownsource revenue mix, and fiscal sustainability.
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Video | 2019
Toronto’s Future: Who’s Paying? The 7th Annual IMFG Toronto City Manager’s Address
Chris Murray, Toronto’s City Manager, is a former planner who thinks of the future in terms of decades, not years. In this video of his address, Toronto’s Future: Who’s Paying?, he discusses the “elephant in the room” when it comes to municipal government: what kind of city are we leaving behind for future generations?
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Search Research Archive
Toronto Star: 13th Annual Toronto City Manager’s Address
November 25, 2025
Global Radio: Enid Slack on the Challenges Facing Municipalities
October 21, 2025
CBC Calgary: Enid Slack on How Canadian Municipalities Face Similar Fiscal Strains
October 18, 2025
