Our Work

As we strive to highlight the challenges and opportunities at hand to make Canada’s cities and regions better – socially, environmentally, economically – CUI relies on the creativity and imagination of people working to prod, provoke, and promote the best approaches to building better cities. We have recently gathered a range of commentary about The Way Forward for Canada, as you will read below.

The Way Forward for Canada is a new 2023 commentary series that will provide a venue for policymakers, urban professionals, civic and business leaders, community activists, and academics to learn, share, and dialogue with one another — from coast to coast to coast.

As we strive to highlight the challenges and opportunities at hand to make Canada’s cities and regions better – socially, environmentally, economically – CUI relies on the creativity and imagination of people working to prod, provoke, and promote the best approaches to building better cities. Here’s a note from our President and CEO Mary Rowe about The Way Forward for Canada.

Cycling organizations from across Canada are coming together in 2021 to participate in The Joy Ride Project and address the equity gap in cycling.

Deep lake water cooling (DLWC) provides cooling to more than 180 buildings in downtown Toronto through an extensive network of pipes and heat transfer facilities controlled by Enwave Energy Corporation. DLWC is now celebrated internationally and widely touted as “Toronto’s Green Calling Card” for its ongoing contribution to helping the City meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65 per cent by 2030.

Municipalities across Canada have been faced with some of the most challenging governance issues in the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the decisions most directly affecting the daily lives of Canadians have been made by municipalities.

By Anneke Smit, Hana Syed, Aucha Stewart, Terra Duchene, and Michael Fazzari

Jay Pitter, award-winning placemaker and CUI Senior Fellow, Equity-Based Placemaking, releases A Call to Courage: An Open Letter to Canadian Urbanists, with a toolkit of resources for responding to anti-Black racism in urbanist practices and conversations.

Now that we have seen how our cities truly function at their most vulnerable, what possible excuse do we have to not emerge solely committed to fixing them?

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie talks to CUI’s Kate Graham about the challenges of leading one of Canada’s largest and most culturally diverse cities during COVID-19

A new survey of 2,100 Canadians shows that our sense of connection to one another is changing due to COVID-19. And as CUI’s Kate Graham writes, we can expect that these changed relationship dynamics will impact what life post-COVID-19 looks like, and how we settle back in to a new normal

How do we respond to two crises, COVID-19 and climate change? Elliott Cappell provides insights into how cities can adjust the way they fund, design, and implement projects to consider resilience every step of the way – to achieve not only climate objectives, but also build a city’s capacity to respond to a variety of systemic shocks

In this analysis, originally appearing in First Policy Response, Selena Zhang and André Côté detail the quick and innovative ways Canadian municipalities have quickly responded to COVID-19 and propose principles that should guide cities in their continued response and recovery planning

The Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance’s Dr. Enid Slack and Tomas Hachard argue that in the wake of COVID-19, both provinces and municipalities should be preparing for a longer-term conversation about how to strengthen municipal fiscal health and public services going forward

Mayor Rebecca Alty says that Yellowknife has implemented numerous changes at the city level to deal with the impacts COVID-19, just like other Canadian cities. But living north of 60 also presents a unique set of challenges when dealing with a crisis.

CUI’s Kate Graham writes that COVID-19 has seen extraordinary leadership from Canadian city mayors, while also bringing into full focus serious questions about the future of our cities. Chief among them: do mayors and local leaders have the power and resources they need to manage a crisis of this scale?

In a guest column for Spacing Magazine, CUI’s Mary W. Rowe writes that COVID-19 has exposed incredible possibilities in Canadian cities but also surfaces significant missing pieces

CUI’s Mary W. Rowe talks to Municipal World’s Sue Gardner about how local government and communities across Canada are responding to the crisis and highlights important resources to help city builders and residents adapt to a new normal