Author: Casey Vander Ploeg
With the rise of the information economy, expanded global trade, and increased international economic competition, big cities have been catapulted to a new level of importance. There is now a need to shift the focus from federal-provincial relations to provincial-municipal relations in Canada. Rationale for Renewal seeks to do that, concentrating specifically on western Canada’s six big cities.
The paper revolves around one important rationale: the sustainability of cities. It calls for a partnership between big cities and their provincial governments, asserting that the former will not be able to address present and future changes based on the current governance relationship. The paper provides a roadmap to the cornerstones of how to build this partnership, and the rationale behind these cornerstones.
Authored by the Canada West Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst, Casey Vander Ploeg, this discussion paper is part of the Foundation’s Western Cities Project, and intends to synthesize previous Canada West Foundation research that applies to creating partnership between big cities and their respective provincial governments.