The Progressive Economics Forum

Last week, the City of Vancouver’s task force, the Greenest City Action Team, issued a plan for the city with short and longer-term goals and policy advice on achieving them. The report covers more than climate change, a good thing as it is important to identify win-wins that lead to improvement on other environmental, health [...]

UPDATE (September 29): Quoted by The Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, and Canadian Press
. . .
A recent inquiry for a NOW Magazine article has inspired me to use the July Employment Insurance (EI) figures, released this morning, to examine how this program serves Canadian cities. However, I begin with a national overview of [...]

I came across an interesting piece in YES! Magazine about a city in Brazil that took an innovative approach to poverty reduction and practically ended hunger by adopting a food-as-a-right policy. Here is their story in a nutshell (although I recommend checking out the actual article).

Belo Horizonte is the fourth largest city in Brazil with [...]

Lightning should surely have struck the offices of the Fraser Institute last week when it released a study co-authored by Mike Harris, the former Ontario Premier, on the supposedly declining state of the City of Toronto.
 
The study itself (“Is Toronto in Decline?”, available at http://www.fraserinstitute.org/researchandpublications/publications/5696.aspx)  was nothing to write home about.  It consisted solely of [...]

I recently took a crash course in the fascinating, challenging economics of municipal finance. I was one of the 6 members of the independent panel that was formed to review the City of Toronto’s fiscal situation. The panel issued its report last month.
Most progressive economists have long recognized the growing economic importance of cities, and [...]

With recession on everyone’s lips south of the border, how much longer can Canada hold out before we begin to feel the nasty effects in the Great White North? I am guessing that the Tories want to go to the polls now because they know the economy is slipping and they do not want to [...]

The current issue of Maclean’s features a typically provocative cover on “Real Estate 2008.” The “Buy? Sell? Panic?” headline caught my attention because I am currently selling a place in Ottawa and moving to Toronto.
The story inside Maclean’s is far more soothing, suggesting that there is no risk of a real estate crash in major [...]

While reading a recent issue of l’Aut’ Journal, I came accross a story claiming that the Montréal municipal police offers privately some of its services (e.g. bodyguards). Well, a rapid visit on the website of the municipal police verified that claim. In fact, there is a whole brochure on the site which details all the [...]

I was asked to submit a dream statement for a conference this weekend called Dream Vancouver. Here is my contribution:
My Vancouver dream is like those ones when you are there in your house and are doing stuff – but it is not really your house here on planet Earth. My Vancouver dream is a lucid [...]

As usual, the federal surplus has come in far larger than forecast: $14 billion for 2006/07. As legislated through the Tax Back Guarantee, all of the interest savings from this debt repayment will finance personal income tax cuts. Therefore, the 2006/07 surplus will reduce income taxes by $0.7 billion annually.
This tax cut will barely put a [...]

To put some figures on yesterday’s commentary about the social-service download to municipalities and low provincial-income taxes, I checked the latest Equalization tables (which are publicly available from Finance Canada).
In 2005/06, Ontario collected $22 billion of personal-income taxes. At national-average rates - an average dragged down by low-tax Alberta and by Ontario itself - Ontario’s [...]

Premier McGuinty has pledged to relieve Ontario municipalities of $1 billion in disability-support payments and prescription-drug benefits if his government is re-elected. Municipalities will continue to pay for a further $3 billion of provincial social-service programs.
During the Great Depression, Canada’s patchwork system of municipal relief proved totally inadequate. Subsequently, provincial governments established social-welfare programs and uploaded unemployment [...]

Further to my previous post, today’s Ottawa Citizen reports that Walter Robinson is stepping down as Larry O’Brien’s chief of staff.

On Tuesday, I testified before the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on the Economy, which is holding public hearings on joining TILMA. The Legislative Assembly is broadcasting the hearings and promptly posting the recordings.
To see my presentation, click “Video 1″ for June 5 and use the bar immediately below the screen to advance the time [...]

The Canadian Union of Public Employees released Steven Shrybman’s second assessment of TILMA at this year’s Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting. His first was for the Ontario Federation of Labour.
Alberta-BC trade deal will undermine Municipal authority
June 2, 2007 09:38 AM
Calgary – A legal opinion produced by Sack Goldblatt Mitchell sheds damaging new light on the recent [...]

Larry O’Brien’s train wreck of a mayoralty, which continues to play out on the Ottawa Citizen’s front pages, is an instructive microcosm of how things might look if the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) were running a government near you. O’Brien’s Chief of Staff is, of course, Walter Robinson, the CTF’s long-time Federal Director.
UPDATE (May 26): [...]

I tend to be supportive of proportional representation for the usual reasons. However, there are some significant advantages to electing federal MPs (or provincial MLAs) from geographic ridings: individual MPs represent, and are accountable to, a defined group of citizens; these citizens have “local” MPs to whom they can raise concerns and from whom they can [...]

It is good to see that the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association is paying attention to this issue:
AUMA Wants Full Consultation on new Alberta-BC Trade Agreement
Watch for upcoming public consultations on the recently signed Alberta-British Columbia Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA).

Some more interesting factoids about congestion charging as NYC contemplates on of its own. Critics are correct to point out the regressive aspects of congestion charges, that they have the potential to price out all but the most affluent. On the other hand, the poorest do not own cars and are much more reliant on [...]

Today’s Ottawa Citizen has a good editorial on the existence of two publicly-funded school systems in several provinces. The original concept of one system for Protestants and another for Catholics has evolved into a “public”, secular system and a “separate” system that teaches some Roman Catholicism but is also attended by many non-Catholics.
Many schools cannot [...]

As the National Union of Public and General Employees reports, the Ottawa and District Labour Council played a key role in initiating this investigation:
OPP investigation launched, thanks to Ottawa labour council
The question remains - why was it left to an outside group like the labour council to take the initiative?Ottawa (28 March 2007) - Thanks [...]

The Guardian on Livingstone’s latest for the city of London:
Cleaning up the Big Smoke: Livingstone plans to cut carbon emissions by 60%
· Londoners given 20-year target to go green
· Flights could drastically affect success of campaign
[...]

… is working nicely, says the Mayor:
Charging ahead
Ken Livingstone
February 16, 2007 2:45 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ken_livingstone/2007/02/of_course_the_catastrophe_didn.html
In 2003, congestion charging was introduced in the most clogged-up central area of London against a backdrop of almost universal media scepticism and many gleeful predictions of catastrophe.
Of course the catastrophe didn’t happen. London is now in the position of being the [...]

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan adds his two cents: good urban design, through higher densities and good public transit, needs to be part of the solution.

It’s time to talk about urban density
Tue 13 Feb 2007
As mayor of one of Canada’s biggest cities, Vancouver, I am frustrated with the nature of the debate on global climate change [...]

This article from the New York Times generally roots for congestion pricing in NYC. As someone who rides a bike to work, I tend to agree, though I am concerned that there would be a hit on some modest-income people who need a car to get to work or who live in areas that are [...]