Centre for Civic Governance

The Centre for Civic Governance works to support community leadership meeting today’s social and environmental challenges: climate change, Canada’s increasing equity gap, and shifting social trends. At the Centre for Civic Governance, our goal is to strengthen Canadian communities through sharing best practices, providing tools for locally elected leaders, and progressive policy analysis. We strive to provide knowledge and information to make real and positive social change.

Poll: Municipal Governments are Under-Funded

A poll commissioned by the Federation of
Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has found that there is consensus across Canada that
municipal governments are under-funded. The poll showed that 90% of people believe that the federal government
should provide financial support to assist municipal governments with
infrastructure issues and did not see property taxes or spending cuts as
reasonable sources of revenue for municipalities. Additionally, 68% of those
polled supported the idea of the GST being raised to 6% if the extra funds
raised were transferred to municipalities. Read the full polling results here.

Our Centre for Civic Governance conducted a poll in BC and Ontario on municipal and school board issues in 2007, with similar results. To see those findings click here.

Ontario’s Greenbelt in an International Context

This April 2008 report, put out by the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law & Policy, explores the lessons learned from five other greenbelts in Europe and North America and makes recommendations for how to sustain a viable and healthy greenbelt in Ontario that can withstand inevitable development pressures. Click here for the report.

Livingstone Urges Bottled Water Boycott

According to an article published by Reuter’s UK, London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, is urging citizens to boycott bottled water. On February 26th, 2008, the mayor launched his ‘London on Tap’ campaign.

Read the article here.

Whistler 2020

Whistler 2020 is Whistler’s long-term sustainability plan and integrated community sustainability plan. It outlines the goals and vision of the communities and lays out the strategies for getting there. Check out the website here.

Comprehensive Guide for Municipal Sustainability Planning

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association published the Comprehensive Guide for Municipal Sustainability Planning which could be used by any community undertaking their Integrated Community Sustainability Plan. The guidebook provides information on five phases of sustainability planning:

  • structuring the process;
  • creating a shared understanding of sustainable community success;
  • determining and analyzing strategy areas for success;
  • action planning; and
  • ongoing implementation and monitoring.

It also includes a number of tools that municipalities might find helpful as they embark on Integrated Community Sustainability Planning.

The guidebook can be found here.

Clinton Climate Initiative: C40 Cities

The Clinton Climate Initiative Large Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) has a website dedicated to what cities can do to fight climate change.  The site features best practice case studies in a number of different areas such as waste, energy, green buildings, transport, etc. from all over the world as well as a climate solutions section.  Check out the website here.

Indicators of Well-Being in Canada

The government of Canada has created a website of statistical measures of well-being in Canada. The data are organized around 10 indicator areas such as learning, housing, family life, leisure, health, and the environment. Each indicator area includes an overview section highlighting the most important trends and statistics as well as a complete listing of all the statistics in a downloadable format. Check out the website here.

 

Climate Change Policy Inventory

The Canada West Foundation has released a report designed to provide background
information about what is currently being done in Canada to address climate
change. The report provides a summary of different policy initiatives at the
provincial and national level, including cap and trade systems, carbon sinks,
carbon tax, alternative energy investments, public transportation developments,
and idling reduction policies, among others. The report, entitled Building on our Strengths, concludes that
the approach to implementing climate change policies in Canada needs to be more
measured, targeted, and coordinated and that there needs to be a tighter link
between targets, program announcements, and public spending.

Searching for the Good Life in a Carbon Neutral BC

The
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office released a discussion paper
on Feb. 7 entitled Searching for the Good Life in a Carbon
Neutral BC: Meeting BC’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets with Fairness and
Equity. This highly readable paper looks at BC’s climate change plan
through a social justice lens to determine possible policy instruments the
government might employ to ensure that climate change policies do not
exacerbate social inequalities. Local government officials may be particularly
interested in the section entitled Sustainable Communities and BC’s Quality of
Life.

Vancouver Debates Plastic Bag Ban

On January 31, 2008 Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson led a motion to look at Vancouver’s options for reducing and phasing out the use of plastic bags in the city. However, council voted to move the debate to the Metro Vancouver Board instead and Stevenson now fears the motion will get lost in the shuffle. Read an article about the initiative here.

Greener Footprints

Greener Footprints is a BC-based organization dedicated to helping consumers, retailers, towns and councils go plastic bag free.  The website features steps for councils and towns to take to ban plastic bags as well as tips for customers and retailers.  You can even order reusable bags on the site.

Radio Ecoshock

Radio Ecoshock, a Vancouver-based show on co-op radio, has a website which is a compilation of talks by experts on a huge range of topics. Experts include James Howard Kunstler, Ross Gelbspan, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, George Monbiot, and Mark Jaccard among many others. Topics include food, peak oil, climate change and climate change solutions, transportation, and water.

Click here to browse the website.