What’s New at IMFG

The Toronto Star quoted IMFG Director Enid Slack on how cities are on the frontlines of the pandemic response and the need for a fundamental change on which level of government pays for the various services provided by cities.

The Canadian Press cited a 2019 IMFG Perspectives paper, Transit in the Greater Toronto Area: How to Get Back on the Rails, by Matti Siemiatycki and Drew Fagan in an article about the costs of building transit in Canada.

IMFG contributor Adam Found appeared on Municipal World’s podcast to discuss  his latest IMFG paper on how it is possible for development charges to improve housing affordability.

The Globe and Mail mentioned the Provincial-Local Equalization in Canada paper in a column, citing that “a province-to-municipality equalization program ‘… is an essential element of a fair and efficient system of local public finance.’”

IMFG Director Enid Slack and IMFG Manager of Programs and Research Tomas Hachard discussed the challenges of a “visible tax” like the property tax in St. Albert Today as part of their “Bridging the Municipal Funding Gap” series. It was reprinted in the Toronto Star.

IMFG Director Enid Slack and the late Richard Bird were cited in The Economist on their work on property tax reform in Ontario for an article on China’s new property tax.

IMFG Director Enid Slack publishes a new paper called “The Rise of Megacities and Multi-Level Governance” as part of the Forum of Federations’ occasional paper series.

IMFG Director Enid Slack appeared on Kitchener-Waterloo’s CKGL 570News to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of regional amalgamation.

The 2020–2021 IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow, Julie Mah, was featured in a CBC online story about her paper on Evictions in Toronto where she called for more collaboration and data sharing between the province and the city.

As part of the “Beyond Local: Bridging the Municipal Funding Gap” series, Airdrie Today quoted IMFG Director Enid Slack on how municipal responsibilities are changing while revenue sources remain the same.