About
Current Issue
Past Issues
Events
Become a Member
Advertise
Contact






GO



Submit an Article
The Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services released its report on February 15, 2012. Most media accounts interpreted the report's almost 400 recommendations to be about eliminating Ontario's $16 billion fiscal deficit. And sure enough, the vast majority of the recommendations involved...
Municipalities are continuing to look for better ways to understand and showcase their cultural resources, assets, and other related cultural information. One of the most sustainable ways of doing so is through cultural resource mapping. Cultural Resource Mapping is defined as "a systematic approach...
Accounting standards for all not-for-profit organizations in Canada with fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2012 have now changed. If they haven't already done so, management, boards of directors and audit committees of private and government not-for-profits need to make certain decisions...
In the nearly twenty years since the Class Proceedings Act2 became law in Ontario, class actions have become a fixture on the Canadian legal landscape. Class actions represent a vehicle where a group of similarly situated claimants can pool their resources to collectively pursue their action against...
Most municipalities in Ontario have a person appointed as the head of the municipal administration. Although titles may vary, such persons are generally known as chief administrative officers. They may also be called City Managers or Town Administrators and in smaller municipalities, the title clerk...
Mike Layton, son of the late NDP leader, Jack Layton, was elected as Toronto's youngest councillor in 2010 for Ward 19. In doing so, he paralleled his father's initial political trajectory as a city councillor himself. Prior to his foray into local politics, Mr. Layton was the Deputy Outreach Direct...
Why do parties compete for municipal office in two of Canada's three largest cities, Montreal and Vancouver, and not in Toronto? Historical, cultural, and institutional factors, as well as leaders' governing styles, explain much of the difference. Toronto is not the outlier: the overwhelming majorit...
Much has changed in Calgary since 1909 when its public transit system began as the Calgary Electric Street Car Railway serving a population of 30,000 people. Calgary is now home to over one million people with approximately 200,000 people living in the surrounding communities. Calgary Transit operat...
When it comes to combating climate change, much of today's efforts focus on reshaping our dependence on gas-powered cars and making renewable energy a bigger part of the power grid. But the buildings that define our society are long overdue for overhaul. Within 15 short years, buildings around the w...
In 2011, we passed a major milestone that went generally unnoticed. The first wave of the Baby Boomers, born in 1946, reached the retirement age of 65. Over the next five to seven years, an additional 80 million Baby Boomers are expected to exit the workforce. Currently, organizations have many pote...
With environmental conservation and sustainability gaining importance in the urban green agenda, city administrators are looking for innovative ways of addressing the complex challenges of infrastructure, including the delivery of utilities. Partnerships between local governments and the private sec...
In the summer of 2004, the Department of Infrastructure and Communities and its minister were asked to implement Prime Minister Paul Martin's promise to transfer a portion of the federal gas tax to municipalities as part of his New Deal for Cities and Communities. The following is my personal accoun...