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1. Government spending varies widely across major Ontario municipalities

   Burlington spent nearly 17 per cent of tax-financed expenditure on “general government.” ...

2. GM layoffs highlight divergence between Ontario’s two biggest cities and rest of province

   The announced closure of the General Motors’ auto assembly plant in Oshawa will cause severe hardship for thousands of families. It’s horrible news. But if you’re determined to find a silver lining, there’s this—the major closure so ...

3. Ontario sweeps Drive Clean into the dust bin

   Premier Doug Ford once again injected some rationality into environmental policies in Ontario. In the latest foray, the province will end its “Drive Clean” program, a form of what’s generally known as Inspection and Maintenance (or I/M ...

4. The most tangible threats to cities are manmade

   Although best known to Canadians as Halloween, October 31 is also World Cities Day —a time to think a bit, between the candy and costumes, about why cities are important and some key challenges they face. Canada is an urban country, with ...

5. It’s time for Canadian cities to eliminate minimum parking requirements

   Last week was broadly positive for land-use and housing policy in North American cities. Along with Vancouver City Council’s decision to allow low-density neighbourhoods to add duplexes without rezoning, Cincinnati just joined a growing ...

6. Even homeowners want lower home prices—it’s time for governments to act

   Survey says large majorities of homeowners in Metro Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area want housing prices to stop rising. ...

7. Urban density doesn’t necessarily determine living standards

   Quality of living—sometimes called “liveability”—is a notoriously hard thing to define because, as individuals, we often don’t share identical preferences. Nevertheless, several organisations have tried to measure liveability across ...

8. It’s possible to build our way to housing affordability

   Housing continues to make headlines across the country, with many Canadians lamenting the high cost of homes particularly in our big cities. And yet, the best way to maintain broad affordability in prized housing markets is to build a ...

9. A lagging housing supply drives Ontario’s affordability woes

   The Wynne government almost exclusively targeted housing demand—not supply. ...

10. If Toronto millennials want more density, there’s plenty of room to grow

    Last November, the Toronto Region Board of Trade published a survey of young professionals (aged 18 to 39) where respondents expressed overwhelming support for higher residential density as a way of boosting the housing supply. Indeed, ...