Search Results for: Forum Paper

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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In 1998, Metropolitan Toronto and its six lower-tier municipalities – Toronto, Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York, East York, and York – were amalgamated to form the new City of Toronto. The decision to amalgamate was controversial. Proponents argued that streamlining service delivery would yield major cost savings for the city and its residents. Opponents claimed that eliminating Metro’s lower-tier municipalities would diminish the quality of democratic representation.
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In the past few years, a growing numbers of urbanists, planners, technology companies, and governance experts have started to use the term “smart city.” Some define smart cities in terms of using emerging and established technologies to improve the performance of municipal systems. Others take a more expansive view that embeds these new systems in a broader vision of urban regions characterized by innovation-based economic activity, a highly educated labour force, and policy-making that leverages these new technologies to confront stubborn urban problems.
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A range of municipalities are considering or already using interlocal agreements in a variety of policy areas. Canadian municipalities with such agreements generally report high levels of satisfaction with them. Surprisingly, however, we find less cooperation between Canadian municipalities than we find in other parts of the world.
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Participatory budgeting is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Several Canadian cities are experimenting with participatory budgeting. This Forum paper describes participatory budgeting efforts in Toronto and elsewhere.
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The Indian Government’s decision to dissolve the Central Planning Commission in August 2014 marks an important watershed for India’s current government. This paper examines the newly established National Institution for Transforming India Aayog and its implications for India’s development policies.
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On IMFG’s tenth anniversary, panelists Enid Slack, Richard M. Bird, and Zack Taylor look at the past, present, and future of municipal finance and governance and give their progress reports: what have cities learned?
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Can and should municipalities borrow more? What is the role of public-private partnerships (P3s) in addressing the municipal infrastructure gap?
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