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Canadian cities have long called for access to more tax revenues. This paper argues that additional taxes are appropriate for major cities, describes the advantages and disadvantages of potential new taxes, and estimates the revenue from a city income tax, a city sales tax, and a city fuel tax for eight Canadian cities.
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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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IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow Abigail Friendly compares the use of LVC in two cities – São Paulo and Toronto – with a focus on acquiring local benefits and services such as park improvements, childcare and recreational facilities, and social housing.
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In this presentation, Professor Karel Martens discusses the consequences of “the accessibility turn” - arguing, first, that the assessment of accessibility is not merely an option, but a moral obligation for transportation authorities, and second, that the focus on accessibility inevitably requires these authorities to explicitly address questions of fairness.
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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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Participatory budgeting gives the public the right to propose, deliberate, and vote on a part of the city budget. Does participatory budgeting actually improve democracy, transparency, and accountability, or is it simply another consultation tool in disguise?
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This video features Josh Lerner, Director of the Participatory Budgeting Project, in conversation with Shelley Carroll, Alex Mazer, and Peter MacLeod. Participatory budgeting gives the public the right to propose, deliberate, and vote on a part of the city budget. Does participatory budgeting actually improve democracy, transparency, and accountability, or is it simply another consultation tool in disguise?
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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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