A proposal to partially sell off a long held public asset, Toronto Hydro, could turn the private sector’s gain into consumers’ pain. This study finds that selling off part of Toronto Hydro would result in the City of Toronto ceding the control it now has over electricity prices, hydro service reliability, and environmental stewardship over green energy innovation in the face of catastrophic climate change.
Municipalities and urban development
Winnipeg City Council is currently considering a development fee to ensure that suburban growth in our city pays its fair share of city-wide infrastructure needs.
Such fees are nothing new: municipalities surrounding Winnipeg levy them as do most major Canadian cities.
Winnipeg developers are up in arms and do not want to pay the proposed development fee. In this stance they are being consistent with the historic position of the industry in our city, an industry that has had significant influence over Winnipeg City Hall, especially in promoting costly suburban sprawl.
Book Review
Although Carlo Fanelli’s book Megacity Malaise: Neoliberalism, Public Services and Labour in Toronto is not about Winnipeg, it offers many insights applicable to Winnipeg and to other Canadian cities. Fanelli is a former Toronto civic employee who looks at civic issues from the point of view of city employees and their unions. His central argument is that the fiscal problems confronting Toronto and all major Canadian cities are not caused by over-spending on civic services nor by excessive union wage demands, although this is what is typically claimed.
“Sharing economy” giants such as Airbnb — a multinational online short-term rental “home sharing” platform — have grown immensely in popularity over the past few years.
This fall Winnipeg City Council will determine the future of waste and recycling collection in our city. Current contracts with Emterra Environmental and Progressive Waste Services will expire in 2017. At least eight private companies have expressed interest in putting forward a proposal, and it will be up to council to select from the various applicants. While garbage is generally not a “sexy” topic, there are many reasons why the public should be paying attention.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba office interviews Social Enterprise participants from Build and Manitoba Green Retrofit. Great stories and great ideas.
The issue of development fees has made headlines again as the consultant hired to take on another study of growth financing in Winnipeg, Hemson Consulting Ltd., completed its second and last engagement session on August 18. The primary purpose of the engagement was to educate stakeholders on the method for calculating growth charges. Key stakeholders have been defined as primarily Winnipeg’s development industry.
Since late 2014, twenty-six families in Winnipeg’s inner city have been living in a new, supportive social and affordable housing complex called WestEnd Commons. The innovative development was retrofitted in the 100-year-old St. Matthew’s Anglican Church building. Church and community leaders worked for years to build the affordable family housing complex in Winnipeg’s low-income West End neighbourhood. In addition to reduced rents, WestEnd Commons has a vision to create community and increase social inclusion in this inner city neighbourhood. Read full report above.
Provincial government policy can be designed to punish those in poverty, or to reduce poverty. Both approaches have been tried in Manitoba, the first in the 1990s and the other more recently. We can compare these approaches by examining Winnipeg’s inner city.
The province has invested widely in community development and “place-based” approaches to renewal and poverty reduction, with many positive results. Place-based approaches such as these are now being adopted in communities across the country as research shows that residents overwhelmed by poverty need complementary supports and resources close to home. Innovative, grassroots, community-led initiatives make a difference and are a wise public investment. Take the West Broadway neighbourhood as an example.