CityTalk Canada

Last summer, Beth Sanders was getting ready to lead a new planning department for Jasper, Alberta when the municipality was evacuated due to wildfires. The fires ended up destroying about a third of the town. Beth joins Mary to talk about the challenges and opportunities of rebuilding, as well as lessons for other municipalities facing increasing threats from climate change. Beth is the Director of Urban Design and Standards for the Municipality of Jasper and the author of Nest City.

Murtaza Haider, Executive Director at the Cities Institute, and Carolyn Whitzman, senior housing researcher at the University of Toronto, dive deep into Canada’s pressing housing crisis. They discuss historical roots and the gap between income and soaring housing prices. The conversation touches on obstacles posed by local politics and groups opposing housing development. They propose innovative solutions like upzoning, regulatory reform, and the Housing Accelerator Fund's role in driving municipal changes to ensure affordable housing for all.

Festivals can be a great excuse to get out and see something new. But they can also be disruptive to local residents and businesses. So when do they help a place thrive, and when are they more trouble than they’re worth? CityTalk host Mary Rowe gets the perspectives of two guests who helped shape iconic downtown areas. Tim Tompkins was president of the Times Square Alliance in New York City from 2002 to 2020. He’s now director of the Sustaining Places Initiative at the NYU Marron Institute. And Mark Garner is executive director at Calgary Downtown Association. He’s the former CEO and executive director of Toronto's Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Association.

Leona Medley, Executive Director of the Joe Louis Greenway Partnership, champions equitable transportation and urban revitalization. Lanrick Bennett Jr., Toronto's official cycling mayor, advocates for inclusive cycling spaces. Eleanor McMahon, founder of the Share the Road Coalition, fights for safer cycling infrastructure in Ontario. Anneke Smit focuses on urban issues and cycling advocacy at the University of Windsor. They discuss the transformative power of cycling, the necessity of collaboration for urban connectivity, and the intersection of race and urban mobility.

The title of this episode is shared with a report recently released by the Canadian Urban Institute. It compiles the findings from thousands of community-level placemaking projects along with perspectives on placemaking from leading practitioners, including Jerome Barth of Belleville Placemaking (NYC) and Marc-André Carignan of Kollectif (Mtl.) featured in conversation with host Mary Rowe. Report author Jacquelyn West also discussed key findings with Bridget MacIntosh, a Toronto-based cultural strategist and contributor to the report.  Download a copy of Let's Talk About Placemaking here. 

Housing and infrastructure present challenges to nations across the globe. CUI's State of Canada's Cities Summit was pleased to welcome Alain Resplendy-Bernard, director of State Buildings for the government of France, as a special guest panellist. CUI board chair Cameron Charlebois also met Alain at our onsite studio for a deeper dive en français. Also, CUI researcher Jacquelyn West speaks to Monique Simard, board chair of Montreal's Partenariat du Quartier des spectacles, considered one of the most successful 'centre-ville' revitalizations in the world.  See and hear more about the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

Day 2 of CUI's State of Canada's Summit in Ottawa (December 2024) offered something new to attendees - walking tours of innovative project sites. Our microphones joined Brad Rodgers and Ana Bailao of Dream Unlimited for a tour of Zibi, a net-zero community being developed on the banks of the Ottawa River. Later, we joined Leanne Moussa and Kwende Kefentse along Ottawa's Laurier Avenue to hear about their community redevelopment initiative dubbed The Other Hill. See and hear more about the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

For the final episode gleaned from the State of Canada's Cities Summit, host Mary Rowe introduces a 'blue-ribbon' panel of housing experts recorded at the Beaver Barracks Housing Development in Ottawa. The discussion centres on the evolving roles and responsibilities for all orders of government in solving Canada's housing crisis. See and hear more about the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca. 

Bolstering Canada's local economies has become an instant priority in the wake of proposed actions by the Trump administration. Fortunately, we have no shortage of smart people with innovative solutions already in the works.  Canadian Urban Institute CEO Mary Rowe chats with Heather Hachigian, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Management at the School of Business at Royal Roads University in Victoria BC about the 'five pillars' of community wealth building solutions. See and hear more about this program at citytalkcanada.ca

Host Mary Rowe welcomes another 'tariff/no tariff' conversation with Doug Griffiths and Heather Thomson of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and frank talk about what could, and what shouldn't, happen in this moment of economic uncertainty (crisis? opportunity?) for communities across Canada.  See and hear more at citytalkcanada.ca.