I’m live blogging today from the State of Cities Summit in Ottawa, where Jen Angel and I are presenting the National Infrastructure Assessment. We had a lovely welcome dinner with guest speaker Gregor Robertson, our new Minister of Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada (and my former cycling mayor from Vancouver days!) and today we are presenting with lots of other urban experts. And I get to catch up with friends doing amazing work across the country.
Dr. Karen Chapple presented the results of a project about local impact called Learning from What Works, which awarded several organizations such as Tamarack Institute, the New Brunswick Community Development C, She emphasizes scaling up and scaling deeper to change perceptions. Ana Bailao (CEO Build Canada Homes), Colleen Volk (CEO, CMHC), David Miller (Managing Director, C40 Centre and C40 Cities), and Omar Siddique (Head of Ottawa, UN Habitat Canada) spoke about innovation and local solutions. Omar urged the development of urban development plans at the national level, which he would like to see for Canada, since other OECD countries have them. David discussed how C40 is helping international cities connect and learn from each other on the dev
elopment of solar energy, building codes and sustainable housing, and responses to climate change. Both Colleen and David emphasized the value of connection and collaboration between different players, and the importance of local governments, people and institutions in building for the future. Ana noted that Build Canada Homes aims to partner, provide bridge loans and de-risk affordable housing projects to make them more attractive to investors.
In a lightning round session on moving from pilot projects to a broader scale, Rionel Comia from the City of Edmonton discussed the Affordable housing Investment Program, which aims to be the first investor in affordable housing in the city. Before creating this program, they eliminated single family zoning (allowing 8 units/lot in these areas) and parking minimums. They have Affordable Housing Investment Guidelines, having built over 6,000 units of affordable housing since 2019, and their City Land Assets for Long-Term Housing Development policy makes use of municipal surplus land. The funding can be used by Indigenous organizations, for supportive housing, or for repairs to existing housing–their non-market housing supply has grown by 30%. Dina Graser (Canadian Alliance for Transit-Connected Housing) discussed the transit-oriented displacement that is common in cities like Hamilton. In response, the City of Hamilton put policies in place to protect and maintain rental stock and tenant protection bylaws, and the CATCH Fund (a revolving fund) was developed to bring public and private investment into affordable housing development in the TOD corridor. CATCH is expanding across the country now.
In a housing on breaking down housing bottlenecks, Carolyn Whitzman (Senior Housing Researcher/Adjunct Professor, School of Cities, U of T) introduced the panel and asked the good questions. Deana Grinnell (Executive Vice President, Real Estate, Canada Lands Company–and SCARP alumna!!) spoke about the new urgency in housing and efforts to repurpose surplus federal sites for housing, including working with Build Canada Homes, building about 4,000 homes with a housing consortium–40% of the homes affordable as part of a mixed-income model to support long-term affordability. Margaret Pfoh (CEO, Aboriginal Housing Management Association) spoke about decades of genocidal policies, and the approach of building more and investing better in on-reserve and off-reserve housing across Canada. The Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy (originally launched in 2022) has just been updated this year and shows the impact of non-profit housing associations. Tsering Yangki (Executive Vice President, Real Estate Finance and Development, Dream Unlimited Corp.) noted that we accept that real wage growth is almost non-existent in Canada and we want sustainable, resilient, and sovereign growth in Canada, but also income growth; and we don’t have the data we need to determine what types of housing to build. To build permanent affordable housing, we need to partner with local non-profits. Stephanie Shewchuk (Director, Housing Policy, Royal Bank of Canada) spoke about areas of discomfort and disagreement in determining how organizations can line up on their goals and projects. New financial tools, blended finance approaches and others could contribute to affordability. Brandon Searle (Director of Innovation and Operations, UNB Off-Site Construction Centre) discussed barriers to modern methods of construction, including lack of skilled workforce, procurement and contracts processes, and the disconnect between policy developers and financial tools that didn’t focus on the end user/person who will be living in the home (instead focusing on the investor). He noted that in order for MMCs to result in more affordable housing, these barriers have to be addressed.
Jennifer Barrett (Managing Director, Programs, Planning and Policy, Canadian Urban Institute) moderated a session on improving communities. Dr. Alexander Caudarella (CEO, Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction) discussed local government employees’ administration of life-saving medication to people after an overdose (e.g. librarians in Saskatoon), and extending their program across the country. Eric Rosand (ED, Strong Cities Network) noted that they think of municipalities as convenors of spaces like community centres, and libraries to allow communities to thrive and feel safe. He also noted that partnerships between universities and local governments have been really successful in allowing students to get to know local residents and ease some of the tensions that can come up. Sam MacLeod (General Manager, The Spire Arts and Community Hub) talked about the transformation of a church in to a performing arts hub and community facility, and spoke of the importance of preserving and updating these types of spaces, which is much cheaper than building new. Sam noted that they had three years of operational funding when they started, limited financing for modern lighting and sound systems, but they are still running.
A Made in Canada lightning session featured Andre LeBlanc (Senior Associate, Social Ventures, Community Sector Council of Newfoundland and Labrador), who talked about acquisitions and transitions of companies to social enterprises or co-ops, giving them conditional loans and connecting them to external financing. One company aims to provide more affordable transportation options for people in central NL. Another coffee shop in Port Rexton which transitioned to a worker co-operative which functions as an employment incubator, and another is a cultural foundation for Indigenous peeople which created a culturally-informed childcare centre and community hub. Amy Robinson (LOCO BC) showed that local businesses recirculate about $66 from every $100 into local communities, about 8 times the local impact of international companies. They brought together a consortium of small businesses, property manager, leasing agents etc to figure out how small businesses can be located in developing neighbourhood rather than being priced out.
The following panel on this topic was moderated by Lisa Helps (Executive Lead Project Origination, BC Builds). Judith Bosire (Chief Economist, VanCity) discussed de-risking initiatives proposed by small businesses, especially efforts like partnering with a non-profit to build affordable housing. Moira Geer (CFO, Southern Chiefs Organizational Inc.) is working on the revitalization of the former Hudson’s Bay building in Winnipeg, which is 600,000 sq. ft. ahd has been completely shut since 2020. HBC gifted the property to Southern Chiefs in 2022 and it’s being converted into housing units, half of which are affordable, and geared towards housing Indigenous people. Community benefits also include local Indigenous people employed to work on the project. They have a Buy Canada policy–about 70% of their spending has been with Canadian suppliers. Their partner True Development North is also working on the redevelopment of Portage Mall into 200 units for First Nations people, with eventual ownership of the building by Southern Chiefs. These two projects represent a life-changing investment in Winnipeg’s struggling downtown. Ricardo Chejffec (Research Director, Institute for Research on Public Policy) discussed a project on decarbonization through Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, which just saw layoffs of 1,000 workers due to the tariffs, but is still focusing on the work of developing less polluting furnaces. His work on employment income shows that only about 34% of people who are unemployed actually receive benefits–and another insight is that workers from one type of industry can’t easily pivot into another (e.g. construction). Tabatha Bull (President/CEO, Canadian Council for Indigenous Business) noted that we need to enable Indigenous businesses so that they can respond to funding streams or procurement opportunities that come up. Her organization represents 2,700 organizations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
Donna Chiarelli (Director of Programs and Capacity Building, National Assets Initiative) noted that we don’t tolerate risks for bridges or other critical infrastructure but we don’t protect our natural assets in the same way. Forests and wetlands provide billions in stormwater services to our municipalities; her organization works with them to include natural assets as an infrastructure class. Over 140 local governments already have tools to develop natural asset inventories. Sadhu Johnson (Climate Co-Lead, Climate Ready Infrastructure Service) discussed the efforts of our largest cities to build more sustainably–but our small cities don’t have the resources to address it. The service integrates climate considerations into infrastructure decision making, e.g. developing solutions to surface flooding, focusing on energy retrofits in municipal buildings. Jan Kestle (President, Environics Analytics) talked about the data they’ve gotten from Statistics Canada, survey companies, and organizations that produce administrative data, and partnered with the CUI for Main Street, which brings community dashboards and analytics to local organizations. Wesley Correa (Director, Mastercard services) works with hundreds of government agencies around the world on payments (account to account, business to business, business to person, peer to peer), security (cyber intelligence, fraud mitigation), and analytics (use of data analytics, e.g informing urban planning and social service delivery by understanding spending dynamics, tracking and measuring the economic impact of local events and quantifying mobility and tourism across communities). For example for Games 1-2 and Games 6-7, home games for the Blue Jays during the World Series, there was a major increase in spending (27% more on restaurants, 45% on hotels)–Mastercard can show you the baseline spending without that event.
Alex Sarian (President and CEO, Werklund Centre) discussed an $80 M contribution from the City of Calgary and fundraising for half a billion for an urban space in downtown Calgary which built on the existing Olympic Plaza. It will have over a million square feet of arts/performance space both indoors and outdoors, the largest performing arts centre in the city. He discussed how more adults living alone means that cultural spaces become critical for the development of cultural identity.
Zita Cobb (CEO, Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies) discussed the Fogo Process of communities meeting up to decide the future of Fogo Island after the cod fishery collapsed. She talked about the over 5,000 communities across Canada held together by connective tissue, with one-third under 50,000 and one-third over half a million, and the rest in between. Shorefast developed an Economic Nutrition label that tells you what percentage of your money goes to the community, province, and country when you buy a product or service on the island, and what it’s being spent on. In her view our systems have lost their orientation in place, and lost their understanding of intrinsic value, with market values taking over–if we think of markets, government, and communities as forming the three pillars of society (Rajan, 2019). She describes the financial economy as over 5x the size of the real economy, overfocused on financial returns at the expense of the places where we live–they are not compelled to show up in places, so they don’t. Only 500 of the 5,000 Canadian communities have access to commercial banking–but banks make record profits from ignoring these places altogether. Many governments lack place-based mandates in manufacturing, transportation, community economic development, etc.–they assume sameness in a country of difference.
The final session was on how we can fund all the things we need in the future: Mary Rowe asked panelists variations of this question. Carole Saab (CEO of Federation of Canadian Municipalities) noted that the fiscal framework for Canadian cities is outdated. FCM’s existing Green Municipal Fund are small and can’t scale to what we need to solve major problems in Canada, but also the federal government initiatives never acknowledge the lack of capacity in communities to apply for major funding. Ehren Cory (CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank) contrasted infrastructure that pays for itself (e.g. broadband internet) versus cultural/arts spaces, which is typically supported through government. The Canadian Infrastructure Bank funds projects like EV charging stations where the benefits might happen but it’s a long time in the future–typically they invest about 1/3 of project funding with the rest from the privately sector. Jennifer Quinn (CEO, Nieuport Aviation) noted that Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto is backed with an infrastructure fund and charging fees, Trevor Anderson (Toronto Office Leader, Major Rail Projects, Arup Canada Inc.) noted that we have to be able to prioritize projects. Vic Gupta (CEO, Create TO) mentioned that institutional investors (e.g. pension funds) take a long view towards investments, but they still expect returns–Jen noted that they need stability and consistency if they’re going to invest.
Overall it was such a great event, and a real opportunity to meet people in affordable housing development, infrastructure development, sustainability and climate change, ecosystem services, and public engagement. So many interesting conversations were sparked, and I think will grow into more connections in the coming months.
