Johanna Hurme

So whether or not cities bounce back from the pandemic will be determined by the choices they make to reimagine their downtown hubs. As already discussed in the morning sessions, COVID-19’s impact on downtowns and central business districts is particularly pronounced. Their futures are hanging on smart decisions, access to funding and open mindedness to different models of planning and operations. I think it takes a big reset. And from my Winnipeg centric position, this includes also the macro scale of reversing our growth pattern. So, building in an in-between, repositioning the business core with a new location value, reallocating space from cars to people, re-evaluating the challenge of vacancies into an opportunity that comes with lower rents. Rethinking development types, so going small instead of – good compact looks different from towers. Re-examining regulations that allow for innovative grassroots planning and reconsidering stakeholders to include all citizens for more equitable, sustainable, diverse and healthy outcomes. Number one, starting from the macro scale, Winnipeg is one of the least dense cities in the world. And so, for us to have the long-term resources to address issues with downtown, we should also consider the bigger picture. Over the next twenty-five years Winnipeg’s population is projected to grow about 200,000 people. This means that 80,000 new homes will be needed by 2040. These are most numbers, of course, in cities like Toronto but for us this is great news. However, how and where do we choose to build or have a fundamental impact on our collective business plan and on any resources that can be made available to restart and revision our downtown core? Keep in mind that over 70 percent of Winnipeg’s municipal budget consists of services directly related to distance, so meters of pipe, lines and road, etc. The Halifax Regional Municipality recently calculated that annual services of a suburb and household cost over 2,000 dollars more to taxpayers than an urban household. So, if we apply the same math to Winnipeg and if we directed all of our new growth expected over the next 25 years into a mature city, we would save about four billion dollars in just municipal service cost. So that is where the dough is going to come from to reinvest into our core. Instead, of course, we continue to sprawl out. 19 new precincts were approved on the outskirts of Winnipeg in recent years, mostly due to a strong suburban lobby. So, talk about a city scale suicide. All while our infrastructure deficits are projected to be nearly seven billion dollars over the next 10 years. And at our density and lack thereof, we certainly would have plenty of space to direct all of our new future growth within the mature area of the city. So, we have to reverse this growth pattern so that we can stop spending all of our tax revenue on road repair and invest it into services, innovation and our people everywhere in that existing city. Number two, we have to reposition our central business district. Our core lacks the 24/7 downtown residential density are present in comparable cities elsewhere. And because most North American downtowns are heavily weighted towards core commercial uses with huge transient weekday population swings, COVID-19’s impact on downtowns and the central business districts is and has been pretty harsh. In comparison, my original hometown, Helsinki, Finland, where I was born, has approximately the same population as Winnipeg. But its physical footprint is half the size of Winnipeg and its downtown is five/six times denser than Winnipeg’s. Post-pandemic, we have the opportunity to reposition and diversify our downtown. Global survey suggests that while the majority of employees want to return to the office, they only would like to do so part time. With one or two days working from home being ideal. Commercial vacancies are likely to increase, and there may well be a market to convert office buildings into residential space and other mixed uses. Not without its challenges, of course, as I as an architect, I know. I would suggest, though, that three to five years down the road, at least, people will again want to access the amenities that cities afford. People’s innate desire to socialize, enjoy culture and share experiences will eventually drive renewed growth. New kinds of assembly venues, entertainment options emerge. So, another possible scenario is that as fewer workers travel daily, downtowns will become more appealing, hospitality oriented, high amenity destinations that are more about the 24/7 cycle and less about the nine to five. Public outdoor space use of parks and green spaces is flourishing promoting health and wellness. Canadians are seeking activities that abide to social distancing guidelines and parks and greenways are welcoming more guests. Summer and Winter point of sales data shows that big jumps in purchases of bike skis, kayaks and other outdoor accessories. Residential pedestrian and uses with more green space, therefore, can be infused into the CBDs. We need to reimagine and plan for a more diverse mixed-use downtown with more weight on the outdoor environment. Number three reallocate space. Currently, a staggering 40 percent of land in downtown Winnipeg is allocated to surface parking. And while the pandemic is certainly squashing public transit, it’s also hopefully reducing the need for this massive space for cars in our downtown area. And that’s a huge opportunity for us and elsewhere. On that front, walkable cities have a higher GDP than those that are not by about thirty eight percent. And walkability is what makes more cities more competitive. When Melbourne recently redesigned its center for pedestrians through converting its back lanes into people’s space places, it was recognized as the economist’s world most livable city five years in a row. And yet retailers tend to overestimate the importance of car for customer travel and underestimate the importance of other modes. Over the summer, many cities shut down vehicle access on streets to get more outdoor space to restaurants, and some experts are urging cities to make these changes permanent. At minimum, we need to increase flexible space in downtowns, parking stalls that become eateries, multimodal corridors, act of transportation, sidewalks linking contract and expand to meet demand. Number four reevaluate the opportunity. Empty spaces at lower rents will allow entrepreneurs to try things in novel combinations. Lower rents can also attract local startups, mom and pops, not for profit, small businesses, innovative food and beverage, community partnerships, maker spaces and local manufacturing. Post-pandemic, there will be heightened focus on value of human experience in the future workers and small green, hyper local mixed use diverse environments will attract new users. This will require a fundamental rethink of the ground floor to allow for more public accessibility with integrated public and private indoor-outdoor transitions, as well as flexibility for pop ups and other organic activity. There’s also going to be a lot more pressure to provide public Wi-Fi for work and play and for equality. Investing in tech is in its many forms autonomous vehicles, new energy sources, new construction methods, new construction materials, machine learning, etc., will be important to increase safety, lower cost and our environmental impact. But because our universal desire to be where other people are, even as cities become more virtual, the good news is that downtowns will continue to play an important role in our society. Number five, rethink development type. Did you know that in the 1950s, the average North American occupied about 290 square feet of floor area per person? But just in 2007 already that number was 900 square feet per person, accounting for increases of about 300 percent. Furthermore, Winnipeg household size decreased by five full person from about three and a half people to two and a half people per household, and yet the size of our houses keeps increasing. So, while the pessimistic view would suggest that the post pandemic world – in the post-pandemic world people will want bigger and bigger houses further and further apart from one another, another piece of data keeps me optimistic, and that is that according to the 2016 census, one person households became the most common type of household in Canada for the first time, accounting for twenty eight percent of all of the households. So that would suggest that building one or two person families will represent the biggest market opportunity in the future. And that will hopefully mean that local and responsive developments like the rail side plan will flourish. This plan is currently under works at the Forks, downtown Winnipeg, and will provide 400 residential units into 11 acres on existing transit routes, coupled with new and existing amenities. It’s replacing previous vision for the site that consisted of five towers and at the new plan breaks down the same density into 30 smaller four to six storey mixed-use buildings with services and amenities on the ground floor. It’s highly tailored local response from scale to timeline to capacity of local developers. So, it’s critical to remember that building compact in the core does not necessarily mean, at least in our context, where land values are cheap, that we should or we need to always aim for towers. Density comes in many forms. Happy cities and neighborhoods include ground oriented human scale, multifamily housing and shared outdoor space between buildings, safe places for kids to play together and seniors and families to hang out. Number six, re-examining the regulations and getting away from single use zoning will allow for diversity, mixed uses, housing types, etc. at many different levels, from city to neighborhood to building, and it is essential for creating more resilient cities and downtowns. As landlords adopt large commercial floor plates to accommodate different scales and uses, post-pandemic office buildings will likely feature a mix of functions as well. A similar dynamic is played out at the city block and business to district scales further breaking down traditional typologies and zoning. Tactical urbanism will be the new mode of operation. Small changes to regulations is often all it takes to salvage a bad situation. Cities have demonstrated that they can go with the light touch instead of making permanent change and be effective. Simple initiatives as OS such as open streets here and elsewhere have had a huge success this summer. They really shaped the CBD, a change of mindset is pretty critical to create a zoning and development regulations that help struggling retailers, restaurant entrepreneurs and promote walkability resiliency through adaptive reuse and inclusivity. Initiatives like free street parking on weekdays in the downtown core here or expanded outdoor eating area, streetaries, are great examples of cities successfully addressing immediate needs by getting creative and that can work moving forward too. But then many times positive and innovative grassroots initiatives merely requires that regulators sort of get out of the way, if you will. Organic guerrilla campaigns like Walk Winnipeg, inspired by Walk Rally, can help reimagine and reboot a more inclusive and equitable core. And finally, number seven, reconsidering who the stakeholders of the new downtown really are is probably the most important piece of the reset button. Urban resilience is the capacity for all people, communities, institutions, businesses and systems within the community to survive, adapt and thrive. So, re-examining and rewriting regulatory and fiscal policies should certainly go towards increasing affordability and equity. The 2006 census revealed that almost 25 percent of Canadian households and 18 percent of the population may have affordability issues. So, addressing this not only means that considering housing a basic human right, but also investing in social programs and tackling mental health issues through adequate support networks. For context, only about 5 percent of Canada’s total population lives in social housing, while, by contrast, 32 percent of Sweden’s and 34 percent of Netherlands’ population is supported through social housing. Of course, this is larger than just the downtown issue, but should be tackled to include the other 99 percent of the population, the future planning of our cities. On that note, also in creating new plans and developing engagement processes, we need to recognize diversity, identify any potential barriers and design the process to minimize barriers or possible. Inclusiveness means overcoming barriers to engagement. Equal representation ensures fair and balanced process. In conclusion, cities have been around for thousands of years and serve as a crossroads where people get together to exchange ideas and goods. And as long as the location value is there, downtowns will bounce back. This will take a mindset of courage and optimism. And in Winnipeg, let’s stop the suicide mission. While we think big, we must also prioritize smaller, less ambitious ideas that have incremental but meaningful impact. The Bozeman dynamic downtown is flexible, organic, nimble, diverse, small, green, local bottom-up and inclusive and therefore a more resilient to future disruptions. Thank you.

Timothy Papandreou

Thank you so much and thank you for having me everybody. I’m just going to start my presentation. Oops, here we go. So coming from the Bay Area in San Francisco – oops we’re going to go back to the starting one second. Now you can see it all – all right. Coming from the Bay Area, you’ve seen and may have heard a lot about what’s happening from a jobs and housing perspective in the Bay Area. We were at a crisis point. We were at a crisis point for many years where it was totally unaffordable and very difficult to find a place to live and find a lease to rent for office space. We have a lot of history in the Bay Area of conflicting values. We have questions of whether or not people want to see more growth in the Bay Area, where they want to see more sustainable development in the Bay Area. The term NIMBY not in my backyard was very, very rampant and has actually delayed a lot of these opportunities for affordable housing, for inclusive development. All these different things on the back of being a region that really celebrates climate action and sustainability and all of the different catchphrases, if you will. But the reality is, is that the COVID pandemic really pressed a nerve and shone a light on the fact that we hadn’t been doing our homework, we hadn’t been doing the work that we need to do. And because there are cultural differences that may not ever be reconciled and downtowns and central business districts and the urban cores is really that co-mingling where all of those tensions, opportunities, values and fears all coexist. And there is no simple solution. This will not be a presentation of how easily we can change things. It’s more of a situation of a cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t really understand the dynamics that are happening in a region and how quickly that can happen. When I was the chief innovation ambassador for the city, we planned for a twenty five year growth projection for half a million jobs and a quarter million housing units over a twenty five year period. But those twenty five year period of jobs came in three years. There’s no way you can build the capacity and the infrastructure to absorb that kind of growth, but it came. And with that came an explosion in real estate prices and explosion in rentals. You may have heard the analogy of a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco in twenty eighteen was over four thousand US dollars a month. That’s way too high. And now things have changed, but it’s still very expensive. This is the – for those who have not been in San Francisco – this is the central business district overlooking the waterfront. That tall tower in the foreground is the Salesforce tower, which is the tallest building in the Bay Area. Those who are architects will realize that this looks just like the building in Hong Kong because it’s about the same architect and you know how architects like to replicate their icons. But here it is. But things have changed dramatically since the pandemic. We have now seen a dramatic drop in real estate leases. We’ve had an increase in vacancies. We were at five percent before the pandemic. We’re at sixteen point seven percent right now. That’s a dramatic shift for a central business district. We have almost fifteen million square feet of vacancy, which is about one point five million square meters of vacancy. That’s a lot. And that tower that I mentioned before, what that looks like is about, you know, about 11 of these office towers of vacancy. And that just happened in the last 12 to 14 months. Something like that is quite a shock to the system. And we really can’t bounce back as quickly as we’d like to because this is a real, real change. This didn’t happen because of the pandemic, only it happened because of the pandemic and the technology like Zoom, which we’re on right now, which is also in San Francisco, and the ability to work remotely from home, which is the majority of these office workers. All these three things basically converged. And now we’re seeing the after effects in a city that was heavily, heavily invested in high technology, heavily invested in startups and already had a culture where you could work from home anyway. And so this was a real big impact for our central business district. And it’s also changed people’s rental situations, rents in San Francisco have dropped the furthest because they are from a very, very high place to begin with. But even with the massive rental drop of twenty five to 30 percent in some situations, a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco is still too expensive for the majority of the Bay Area residents, so it’s still over twenty six hundred dollars a month. And while that dropped twenty five percent, twenty six thousand dollars a month is still a lot of money to pay. And so at the same time, what that’s doing is it’s opening up a whole new cohort of people who were completely priced out of the dream of living in San Francisco, who now can enter and live here. And it’s also allowing certain people who really wanted to leave the Bay Area in San Francisco, now have the choice to leave because of the work from home, remote work opportunity. And so we’ve had a lot of stories of like mass exodus and people are leaving and millions of people are leaving. But the story – the data tells the opposite story. Of all the people that have been claiming to leave the Bay Area in California, we’re seeing numbers that are very different. The media would let you think that there’s millions of people leaving California. First of all, we have 40 million people in California. We have nine million people in the metropolitan area of the Bay Area. We have twenty one million people in the Los Angeles area. We’re talking about a couple of thousand people that have moved around, that have left the state. There have been people who have left the Bay Area, but they’ve actually moved within the Bay Area. So those who want to move for space reasons, for whatever reasons they had, are moving and are going to move anyway. So this is not because of the situation. But let’s be clear about the numbers we’re talking about here, that thousands of people that have left or that will leave as well versus the millions that are staying and remaining. So there’s a really big difference in that. Also, when we look at the Bay Area itself, most people who have moved from places like San Francisco or Oakland or San Jose have actually moved somewhere else in the Bay Area. Very few have left to leave the state, let alone leave the region. So, don’t believe in the hype of all those stories. People are staying there, they’re staying in place, they’re just wanting to get back to a world where they can meet in person and do more things in person. But it is having a dramatic impact in these what I call downtowns of business districts that were glorified office parks. These were basically high rise, high density office parks, but had no connection to the ground. There really weren’t a neighborhood. There really weren’t a 24 hour location service area. And if we’re going to see any changes, we have to bring more people to live in those places, convert the space, all the things that Johanna just mentioned before. We need to see those things happen before those fine grained details can actually make sense. But from a transport perspective, we’re seeing changes happen a lot faster because the real estate side had moved so much faster and transport was just catching up. We’re going to see more transport changes now, more changes on our streets, physical street changes, more design changes, just more directional flow changes. If we don’t have to have so many people working in the central business district every day, all day, all the time, we’re going to allow our street spaces to be redesigned, to be reconfigured, to be much more neighborhood scale rather than a five lane one way traffic sewers. They can become more of these streets where we can linger and walk around and enjoy it and actually hang out outside. And wouldn’t it be amazing if we could convert some of these spaces so that all ages, all groups, all types feel safe, comfortable and invited to hang around children? So many of these downtowns were so corporate that there were just so family unfriendly and just the other unfriendly. If we can make it more inclusive and more exciting then the street space might be the first place we can see those changes. Just to give an example, we did a car Free Market Street, our busiest street in San Francisco. We made it car free. That was the photo in January of 2020. This was the photo of February 2020, one month later, after the change happened, a massive shift people got on their bicycles, the public transit system ran more effectively, everybody was walking more. Everyone just felt safer. Everyone just felt more inclusive. It felt more of a city. And then when Covid struck, it just became completely quiet. You could – I rode my bike down a couple of times. I was the only person in the street sometimes for two or three blocks. It was really a eerie feeling, but the template was there. You can see the protected bike lanes in green, the protected transit lanes and, read the wider sidewalks that went in a few years ago. All the amenities were there. And I think if we can focus on that, all of the changes in the buildings will change, whether it’s occupancy of residence, occupancy of workers, etc. Those things will figure themselves out. The ground floors will figure themselves out with all the push from the city, etc. But the street space between the buildings, that space really is the time now to change the template and design it for people, design it for inclusive gatherings and to design it for spaces that people want to hang around in. So we’re in this really interesting moment right now worldwide. We’re working with a bunch of companies and governments around the world on. We have to press that trigger moment, like this is the point now where resetting as was mentioned before, we’re going to start. What does that mean? It means that we’re going to triage what we can handle and control and manage, and we may have to let go of the things that are out of our control. That’s just the reality we have. There’ll be opportunities to pivot and shift away from the things that are holding us back and rethink what does this look like from our street space, from our building, etc., and then start charting a course for recovery that is much more inclusive. You know, everyone talks about going back to normal. We don’t want to go back to normal. Normal was horrible. It was exclusive. It was discriminatory. It blocked people out from access opportunity. We want to bring it back to a place that’s much more inclusive and that allows us to transform, to be more resilient, to be more adaptive. You know, of all the pressures and sadness and tragedy that Covid brought to us, it is a drop in the ocean compared to what’s happening and coming towards us with climate change. So we need to figure this out very quickly and we need to do it together and transform together. And so we’ve seen this happen all over the world, whether they’re reallocating space in the streets, whether they’re testing new opportunities for public transport, whether they’re looking at curbside delivery and pick up and drop zones, all of this is ways that we can reimagine and redesign our spaces so that the more inclusive while the buildings figure out their associations with occupancy. And we have to do it inclusively. We can’t have a two tiered society that we’ve experienced in US. This is the really important photo for you to look at. This is a reclaimed street that was taken away from car traffic, create a parklet, a temporary parklet to look at outdoor dining, but those people that are protesting are protesting for black lives matter, for racial discrimination and for the racism that’s affecting our society. We can’t have these dual societies that one just ignores the other one. We have to work together. And while you are experiencing the outdoor dining experience, you really need to also focus on the fact that what are we using our streets for and what are the larger systems issues that we’re focusing on, that main things like policing our public spaces, policing certain bodies over others. And while we want people to walk and bicycle, if you don’t feel safe because you’ll be arrested or harassed by police, that is not the answer to our situations. We need to look at ways that we can make this much more of a community led process so that whatever this looks like, it is community driven, community managed and community owned, so that we can ensure that this looks like something that is much more inclusive and not this photo, which is really exclusive. So, just going to close on some of the actions that have been taken by cities like my city in San Francisco, where they’re looking at all this and saying, okay, based on these situations, slow streets or green streets or whatever the streets want to call them that are not car dominated, look like this in certain neighborhoods. In other neighborhoods, for example, in the Tenderloin, which has a high homelessness population, a high population of mental health issues, etc., they’re looking at it differently. It may be that we look at closing certain streets, limiting access to certain streets, changing the way streets are policed or enforced. All of these things basically are being looked at. And I think a more community driven approach will help us move forward in these downtowns in the future. So I want to close by saying these downtowns are more than just bricks and mortar. They’re more than just buildings, streets. They are people. If we can make them more inclusive, more community oriented, more community driven, where all groups and all people can merge together and coexist and actually thrive, then we’ll be able to adapt to all of the situations that are coming towards us, including climate change. So thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate being here.

Alexander Josephson

I’m going to skip forward, just get through here. We started our studio about seven or eight years ago on a couple of projects that were decidedly not about building cities. They were about building architecture and crafting architecture and have subsequently graduated to where we want to be, which is rethinking cities, working with cities, transforming Toronto, transforming Innisfil and hopefully others around the world. This is our WTF proposal in Shanghai. This is the book that we wrote with Hans Ibelings called Rise and Sprawl. It was a critique of the condominiumization of most Canadian cities and the quality of the architecture we were building and the future that we were laying out through building that architecture and how we can do it better. There are true mixed-use. You’re talking- not talking about like a lobby and a couple of stores at the bottom. We’re talking about 50-50 purpose built apartment and also office and cultural uses for the other 50 percent of the height. Most mixed use infill buildings and towers in Toronto are 99 percent luxury condos or high end condos. I shouldn’t say all of them, but most of them in downtown Toronto. The programing is limited except for in limited cases such as TIF. Andrew at Union Station, where we were hired to really rethink the quality of the interior infrastructure at Union and turn Union into a platform for Toronto’s most advanced, ambitious culinary, cultural and retail offerings. And so it’s really an opportunity for us to take a piece of infrastructure and bring the public realm to it. And this really catapulted Partisans into the project that I want to show you today, which is all about people and density and the idea of the future of cities, which is orbit. So about two years ago, we won an RFP to create a vision for a town outside of Toronto that was essentially part of the future of the transit system north between Toronto and a city called Barry. And if you don’t know much- I know that everybody on the Zoom is from around the world. So I’m going to give you a bit of an intro. Innisfil is in this area north of the city called Toronto on this huge island called Canada, which is really, in my humble opinion, one of the last humanist places in the world to live. Canada is an ambitious project, but sometimes we feel quite alone. And Innisfil is 50 kilometers north of our largest city, Toronto, which you see right here on Lake Ontario. Innisfil has a population of about thirty seven thousand people in an area of roughly two hundred and sixty square kilometers, predominantly houses along the water, Barry to the north with about half a million people, and that we’re going towards that, and then- and then basically farmland, and there’s a train track. Right now it looks like this. And with respect to the future, we want to prevent it from looking like this. And essentially, this is the way Canada has been developing cities. Joanna spoke to this earlier. It’s all about sprawl, and if you look at the area that I’m talking about, just north of Toronto and compare it to local areas. You got 630 square kilometers for Toronto at three million again, but the density is so much different in the downtown core, but really the density of the city, very low, Toronto. It’s spread out. And if you look at Mississauga, which is the city essentially attached to Toronto on the West End, the population is about a million people in the same square kilometers as Innisfil. And if we’re not careful, Innisfil will literally become the same kind of thing that Mississauga has in the last fifty to seventy five years. And that’s because there’s nowhere for Toronto to expand to anymore. And you’re seeing housing prices explode to a point that it’s unaffordable and inaccessible. Now, why Innisfil? Innisfail was chosen as a future location for a developer driven transit and like a spark plug, they decided to put this transit station between Toronto and Barry as a growth note. Essentially, it’s like a beacon for growth. But the question is, how could you build a complete community? How do you build all these things? And how is it more than just a suburban development? Well, you have to think about how to create a center of gravity. What’s an orbit? We called it in orbit because the station becomes this core that mobility and people moving without cars and having access to transit and access to retail and access to institutions is key. And so in a way, it’s about creating a center of gravity for a region that didn’t really- doesn’t really have one necessarily. It’s very diffused. It’s several hamlets and they all kind of orbit around each other. And the station is positioned in such a way that all of these neighborhoods can have a place that is like a commercial center. We have to control the density, of course. And we do this through looking at residents and city design. And so we look back to the Roman grid. We’ve been doing that for two thousand years enter World War Two postwar planning, the spaghetti plan, which is very popular among developers, whereas we’ve chosen to take the approach of the Ebenezer Howard Gardens city, a utopic plan, and really see it forward. The one innovation we had is we’ve married this sort of concentric city with the square edges because everything around it is obviously contained within a square. And thus you have the squircle plan. You started a circle and you end at a square. So we called it the squircle plan. And all of these precedents from around the world informed us from Meshach Cities in Israel, Ebenezer Howard, Burning Man. We looked at the scales of neighborhoods in the cities around the world with similar climates. And it’s very important to note that, you know, that the future of our cities also depends on climate. We can’t just fill the cities without thinking about how the world is changing physically. And we can’t deny that it is. And so we’ve been working very carefully with some very interesting engineers on how to design cities so that there’s an outdoor comfort in places that are minus 10 for a part of the year. And this is about looking at cities like Malmo. It’s about looking at cities like Chicago and others around the world for their cues. Scale is important, the human scale. And then the question to us was, how do we design this city? How do we create a vibrant core? How do you create responsible density? And how do we reconnect it and contain it? Because the question was, can we contain one hundred years of growth in three square kilometers? So instead of maxing out at three hundred square kilometers, how do we contain a hundred thousand people or more within a much smaller area, be an amazing city, but also be spectacular? And it’s possible. It’s doable. With gentle density and pedestrian centered roads and a linear park along the track in the middle, we can do it. And luckily enough, we went through this process and our vision for how to build the orbit was accepted on multiple levels of jurisdiction from municipal loads, two of them being almost- one of them- two of them being unanimous and another two basically almost unanimous and then a provincial level vote. And now we’re into really the stage of getting the architecture to a point where it’s actually buildable. So it’s really kind of a dream come true of what’s possible in a kind of a context of rural reimagined and city building, as well as transit infrastructure. And I think thta this really speaks to the potential for- in post-COVID world to rethink how transit can be a catalyst for relieving pressure and prices in very dense city centers while also providing joy, beauty, accessibility, and really a mode of life that we can bring people from around the world to live in and appreciate Canada, our way of living and be a place where that we can all be proud of. So that’s really my take on on the future of downtowns. And I really appreciate your attention today. And I look forward to your comments and hearing back from everybody in the audience. Thanks so much.

Jacquelyn West, Lee Clarke, Ravi Jain

Jacquelyn West [00:00:05] Bonjour, bonjour. Nous sommes heureux et honorés d'être ici avec vous aujourd'hui. Je m'appelle Jacquelyn West. Je suis stratège, créatrice de lieux et spécialiste des lieux culturels. Dès le début de ma carrière, j'ai réalisé la relation de cause à effet entre le succès des industries culturelles et l'accès à l'espace. Ces industries ont besoin d'un lieu pour collaborer librement, créer des plateformes de présentation et susciter des intersections publiques. J'ai travaillé avec des artistes internationaux de premier plan, d'incroyables institutions culturelles, des promoteurs immobiliers avant-gardistes et des municipalités. Je rassemble des ressources privées, commerciales et philanthropiques pour investir dans la culture et les talents créatifs canadiens. Voici mon ami et collègue Lee.

Lee Clarke [00:00:44] Tout le monde, je m'appelle Lee. Je suis un architecte anglais et un rêveur avoué qui s'est personnellement investi dans l'écosystème canadien en fondant une famille, un studio de design et un cabinet de conseil ici en 2013. Jacquelyn et moi sommes devenus des alliés et des amis après avoir travaillé ensemble sur Stutts, le premier parc de conteneurs culturels de Toronto. Nous avons voyagé à Londres, ma ville natale, pour visiter des espaces culturels équivalents, et j'ai passé d'innombrables heures à discuter de ce qu'une culture et une communauté diversifiées signifient vraiment pour nous deux et de la manière dont elles pourraient être davantage embrassées pour faire des villes canadiennes comme Toronto les destinations les plus recherchées pour vivre et pour visiter.

Jacquelyn West [00:01:22] Nous entamons la conversation sur ce qui, selon nous, est au cœur de ce qui fait la grandeur d'une ville : un sentiment de foyer, d'identité, de connexion, d'appartenance, une ville qui est vraiment la nôtre. Les valeurs canadiennes devraient se refléter et prendre vie dans les rues de nos centres-villes. Nous pensons qu'il faut prendre des décisions en fonction des êtres humains qui habitent nos villes et encourager les citoyens à penser comme une communauté. Que voulons-nous ? Nous nous souvenons de la façon dont nous nous sommes sentis unis lors de la victoire des Raptors. Le sentiment de fierté que nous ressentons lorsque quelqu'un prête serment de citoyenneté. Et aujourd'hui, nous souffrons collectivement des retombées de la pandémie et nous observons la grave crise des sans-abri qui sévit dans tout le pays. Nous pensons que nous avons l'occasion de prendre des mesures plus audacieuses pour faire en sorte que les villes n'abandonnent pas les êtres humains dans leur quête d'une rentabilité sans fin. Les villes canadiennes de l'avenir deviendront des lieux où les citoyens pourront vivre librement en tant que voisins, prospérer grâce aux possibilités offertes ici et chez eux, et se sentir motivés pour investir dans notre avenir positif collectif.

Lee Clarke [00:02:22] L'investissement dans l'avenir de ces villes doit inclure des discussions et des actions rapides sur l'intégration raciale et sociale, un sujet largement débattu au cours des derniers mois. Mais nous n'avons pas besoin d'un soutien de salon qui affiche des carrés noirs sur les médias sociaux. Il est temps de commencer par des conversations au niveau politique avec des personnes qui, comme moi, ont discuté du manque de diversité à tous les niveaux de l'existence pendant toute une vie. C'est sans doute le jour dont je suis le plus fier en tant qu'homme noir au Canada. Je me suis senti à ma place. L'unité, l'égalité, les liens et les plaintes, les plaisirs, partagés et embrassés par tous. J'ai encore des frissons rien qu'en pensant à l'énergie qui s'en dégageait. La vraie nature de notre ville, non raffinée, s'est manifestée en force et a donné un aperçu de ce qui pourrait vraiment être. Intégrons cela dans notre être. Nos bureaux, nos développements, nos décideurs. Créons des communautés et embrassons la diversité des revenus et visons à éduquer et à partager les connaissances, l'histoire et la richesse entre nous pour le plus grand bien de tous.

Jacquelyn West [00:03:25] Nous évoquons maintenant une préoccupation croissante et une solution qui ne demande qu'à être appliquée au plan d'ensemble de nos centres-villes. Les centres-villes, qui abritaient autrefois des quartiers, des boutiques indépendantes et des offres locales, se transforment de plus en plus en installations homogènes marquées par des loyers élevés et, dans certains cas, comme à Montréal, Rabson à Vancouver et Young Street à Toronto, par des taux d'inoccupation très élevés et des files d'attente pour la location et des panneaux d'interdiction de quitter les lieux. Si la pandémie a mis en évidence les failles de nos modèles, les difficultés liées à la perte de notre tissu culturel et de nos identités uniques à ce niveau de marche et d'habitabilité sont apparues il y a déjà un certain temps. En 2015, en l'espace de vingt-quatre mois, le quartier de Queen West à Toronto a rapidement perdu vingt-quatre de ses vingt-sept galeries et espaces d'artistes collaboratifs. Le quartier de la culture a été rayé de la carte. Le changement - ces changements se produisent rapidement, c'est pourquoi il s'agit de notre appel de ralliement. Quels sont les concepts que nous pouvons adopter maintenant, en particulier lorsque nous évoluons dans le paysage d'une pandémie, mais surtout en pensant à l'avenir. Que pouvons-nous envisager au-delà des centres-villes qui offrent la même chose que ce que l'on peut trouver dans les centres commerciaux de nos banlieues ? Vous verrez dans certaines de ces images des notions de partenariats avec des institutions culturelles, des festivals, des collectifs d'artistes et des entrepreneurs créatifs qui ont commencé à réfléchir de manière inventive à la suite des événements.

Lee Clarke [00:04:43] Considérons le potentiel du cannabis et saluons le fait que le Canada a osé faire en premier ce que tant d'autres ont craint. Nous sommes des leaders du marché, des penseurs d'avant-garde, des créateurs de tendances. Je me délecte à raconter à mes amis restés au pays la créativité qui se déploie, les personnes de couleur qui sont également impliquées, et à quel point c'est cool - son potentiel. N'en ayez pas peur. Profitons-en pour déstigmatiser et développer une toute nouvelle industrie tout en rendant hommage à son passé culturel et historique. Nous osons ouvrir les portes en tant que nation. Mais les rideaux ont encore été tirés derrière, littéralement. Jetez un coup d'œil à vos rues aujourd'hui. Les détaillants de cannabis y prolifèrent. Nous avons occulté les fenêtres et restreint les entrées, ce qui n'aide en rien à briser les stigmates traditionnels. Rien qu'en Ontario, à tort ou à raison, je pense que l'interprétation de la politique contribue à créer davantage de barrières et de restrictions et ne permet pas d'embrasser l'avenir.

Jacquelyn West [00:05:41] On ne peut pas parler des villes de l'avenir sans mettre l'accent sur la façon dont les gens se déplacent. Nos villes canadiennes sont jeunes à l'échelle mondiale. Nous sommes des habitants de quartier, principalement parce que notre accès est - notre accès au mouvement est limité. Nous ne pouvons pas nous rendre facilement du musée Aga Khan au marché St. Lawrence, ni retrouver notre chemin de Port Frederick au centre-ville de Montréal. Avec la facilité de mouvement, nous pouvons explorer et participer à plus de choses - nous pouvons explorer et participer à plus de choses que nos centres-villes et nos villes dynamiques ont à offrir. Il y a plus de contexte pour se réunir, pour collaborer, pour se connecter. Je travaille personnellement entre Toronto et Montréal, et la déconnexion entre ces deux villes mondiales est stupéfiante. Et imaginez si nous avions ce train à grande vitesse pour nous relier.

Lee Clarke [00:06:26] Connexion qui montre que c'est le cas. Imaginez : Londres, Angleterre - Paris, deux heures et six minutes de train, Londres, Ontario - Toronto, trois heures et demie, la première distance étant deux fois plus longue. En tant que Londonien, j'ai grandi en embrassant toute la ville, que ce soit en empruntant le pont piétonnier sous la Tamise de Canary Wharf au cimetière, en rencontrant un ami dans le nord de Londres pour assister au match du puissant Tottenham Hotspur dans un stade de soixante mille places, puis en sautant dans le métro. L'inverse pour l'applaudir lors de l'apéritif d'après-match. J'ai dépensé mon salaire bien mérité dans de nombreux domaines et j'ai contribué à l'économie à ma façon. Comment assister à un match du TFC à Liberty Village, visiter le centre scientifique et ensuite le cinéma. Je m'arrête à la baie pour faire quelques achats avant de rentrer chez moi. L'état d'esprit actuel implique qu'il s'agit de trois tâches distinctes accomplies en trois jours différents. Il est temps de revoir cette idée. Le fait d'être un pays plus jeune est un avantage, pas un obstacle. Nous pouvons nous inspirer des réussites des autres.

Jacquelyn West [00:07:25] Nos exportations culturelles canadiennes sont un véritable fléau. Nous le savons tous. La musique, le cinéma, l'art, nos institutions culturelles, nos options d'enseignement post-secondaire et notre production culturelle sont nos leaders mondiaux. Nos talents créatifs canadiens sont dynamiques, diversifiés et constituent un atout majeur pour la prospérité future de nos centres-villes et pour notre attractivité mondiale. Nous proposons un investissement radical dans une infrastructure de soutien qui encourage ces talents à être incubés, à rester au Canada, à s'y épanouir et à s'y développer de manière à attirer des investissements extérieurs et de nouveaux talents qui viendront nous rejoindre ici. J'espère voir apparaître des tendances telles que les accélérateurs d'entrepreneurs créatifs de Montréal, comme Lexcen Zoo et Liberty, et la renaissance de l'important travail du centre et même le développement de la ville des médias sur le front de mer de Toronto. La production culturelle est l'un des principaux moteurs de notre réussite future, et nous serions bien placés pour faire en sorte que nos centres-villes soient les épicentres de ce partage avec notre ville et avec le monde.

Lee Clarke [00:08:25] Que se passerait-il si nos promoteurs mettaient en avant notre locataire principal, qui est la communauté, et non pas le plus grand détaillant de la demande. Cent Kellogg's Lane, à London, en Ontario, s'est associé au Hard Rock Cafe pour créer le plus grand complexe de divertissement du Canada, créant ainsi une interaction et une destination dans une partie de London qui réclame une revitalisation. Jetez un second coup d'œil à la carte Google de votre emplacement actuel et imaginez ce que pourrait être une grande roue ou une galerie d'art sur le même site que votre grande surface locale. Vous trouverez peut-être cela amusant, si ce n'est plus.

Jacquelyn West [00:08:56] La mixité dans les solutions modernes est ce qui est demandé en cette période de résilience. Nous avons quelques solutions et modèles intéressants qui aident à réaliser ces notions. Nous passons maintenant le micro à notre ami Ravi Jain pour qu'il nous fasse part d'une initiative incroyable en cours pour atteindre ces objectifs de front. Merci de votre attention et de votre cœur.

Ravi Jain [00:09:17] Jacquelyn and Lee, that was amazing as you switch out. Thank you so much. I’m really honored to be here to follow my amazing colleagues, Jacquelyn and Lee, and to be on this amazing panel. This platform is pretty awesome. So thank you. So who’s this guy without a PowerPoint? My name is Ravi Jain. I am the co-artist director and founder of a theater company called Why not Theatre. So Why not Theater, we are more than just a theater company. Our work is about city building and activating city- civic engagement through the performing arts. We want to use the arts to make meaningful change for the people who live in cities. So we basically do three things; we make and tour work that challenges the status quo of what stories are told and who gets to tell them. So that’s anything from me and my real life immigrant mother on stage talking about how my parents tried to arrange my marriage in 2007. True story. It didn’t go so well. It’s very funny. We’ve also created the first bilingual American Sign Language and English production of Hamlet. Again, changing the who on stage really opens up the possibility of what kind- how we receive stories and what the cultural narrative is. The second thing we do is we share our resources with other artists to support their work and enable them to make into a work. This tends to be marginalized artists who are- who don’t receive mainstream support. And the third major thing we do is we provoke systems change by removing the barriers of access to participation in the arts for both artists and audiences. So that’s anything from innovative producing models, mentorship programs for BIPOC female artists and this innovative space pilot that I’m really excited to share with you all. So we are unique because in the- since 2016 to now, we are- we achieved a ridiculous growth trajectory. And in four short years we went from being an artistic to company with an operating budget of five hundred fifty thousand dollars to two million dollars, a team of three people to now we’re a full time team of eleven. So that kind of growth is super rare in the arts. It’s even more rare in the arts to do without a building. So as we were growing, everyone immediately said, oh, you’ve crossed to two million, get a building, build the new institution. And I thought about it and I was like, but the business model of buildings, theater buildings in particular in Toronto, is very bad. The capacity for space is also not- doesn’t make any sense. The need for space is so great. When you build a building, you’re limited by the amount of space that you have. So the supply and demand structure doesn’t really work. And for us as a company, we’re a touring company. So we have so much flexibility in that. We can be in a 500 seat space in Toronto, a 50 seat space in Vancouver, and a five thousand seater in London, England, where Lee is. So we have all this flexibility and a venue, one venue doesn’t really get that. Plus, on top of that, we would need to raise like five million dollars to resource and build the building. And that’s crazy. That’s so much money to put into one building. And so we said there’s got to be a better way to spend. If we raise five- if I raise five million dollars, I could change all of the inequities that existed in the arts sector today. So I said the resources can be spent differently. We got to find another way. Plus, I said, look, in Toronto and most cities there’s a ton of space that is not used. What could we do with it? What if we could build a new institution? And what if we imagine that Toronto was the theater that we built and all those empty spaces? That’s our theater. So then we started- we ask a lot of questions. So then we started to dream. Well, then, OK, if we did that, what if space could be entirely free for artists? What kind of artists would that enable? What kind of audiences would that eventually bring when we come back to a theater? And what could it mean for making a more vibrant city where art plays a key role in the lives of everyday people? So we looked at two really simple problems. One, we all know this, artists can’t afford spaces. We talked about how artists leave major city centers because it’s too expensive. That’s to live, but to work in, oh, my God, it’s impossible. Then if you can afford a space, it tends to be pretty dingy, especially if you’re in the independent community. You’re in the basement of fancy places. It’s not really good or healthy, probably. Then you have the problem for property owners. So they have a lot of their portfolio at one time that can be available. It’s empty, often sits empty and could be used as temporary vacant space. So our idea was to say, well, could we activate and energize those dormant spaces under the meanwhile lease, which is a structure that exists, and potentially in doing so, cover some of the running costs for the developers and potentially offer maybe like a tax receipt or some kind of incentive to do it. So we ran a pilot in 2019 where we turned those empty spaces into temporary rehearsal halls at no cost to artists. So what did we do? We, a theater company, built relationships with Crestpoint Real Estate Investment Limited, which is a commercial developer. Bless you. We worked with the United Churches and we worked with a Portuguese community center called Casa de Alentejo. And what’s unique here is that Crestpoint, they gave us space in downtown core in an office and commercial building. Now, what’s unique about that is more often than not, artists spaces tend to be outside of where people are. We’re in those buildings that you kind of pass by or you don’t really need to flow through. So what was exciting for us is here’s this opportunity to bring artists to where normal people are as opposed to bringing normal people to the theaters. What could we do and potentially having those relationships collide? And could- what could that change? So Why not Theater acted as the broker between the space and the artists. So we figured out all the nitty gritty of insurance, contracting, cleaning, security, accountability, all of those, you know, very, very important things and very, you know, very time consuming things. I’m sure you all can relate. And so what did we do? We gave space away to 50 artists for free. So that amounted to about twenty five hundred hours of space that was given. Sixty three percent of the artists, when we asked them after the survey, they ended up using the money to increase their artists fees. So it’s really amazing to think about artists who are, you know, especially COVID is revealing, the most, you know- the income precarity for most artists is huge. So here’s a way to activate the space and get money into their pockets. So our cost was nine thousand dollars, which means that we were able to access the space for three dollars and fifty cents an hour roughly, and the market value of the space we access was about thirty three thousand dollars. So it was really- and we stumbled into this and it was really- the numbers were exciting. And so some major outcomes were we really focused on supporting Black, Indigenous and artists of color to provide them with space and to allow them opportunities to access space and develop work. We activated those empty spaces. And in doing that, we created a better economic system, and a way to use this underutilized space to make money for artists, which is like anything, generate a business, generating for the economy. So coming out of COVID, like what we’re trying to do now, we’re coming into COVID or in this transition of COVID, you know, it really highlighted in the art sector, you know, as I said, income precarity, the racial reckoning of Black Lives Matter in the murder of George Floyd. And it’s exacerbated- it also points out this real big challenge of the relationship to people and space and the cost of space. All of these things are being like exponentially highlighted because of COVID and becoming to the forefront. And a lot of the challenges for main street that a lot of people are talking about and we’re CUI has been a great partner for us to think about, is you having more empty commercial and office spaces. A lot of organizations like Shopify or people are saying we may not come back, we’re not sure how to come back. All this space is empty. The other major thing that we’ve identified is that we don’t know what the long term effects of COVID is going to be. We don’t know the PTSD that we’re all going to have an experience in our bodies. So is there a way, again, that the arts could serve a role with these kind of main street problems? So our vision forward is to ask if there’s a way that artists can be helpful in this recovery that we’re slowly getting closer to vaccines to fix up. So if you think about- if you just imagine this. Artists have transferable skills. So a lot of artists, actors, dancers are yoga teachers. So could we take an empty space, an empty storefront, and could it become a low cost yoga class for local citizens to pay that artist a freelance wage so that the artist makes money and provide service for the citizenry so they can be healthier, process this time? Obviously, artistic installations create art, as Jacquelyn and Lee were talking about, the benefits to that in any neighborhood. I don’t feel I need to kind of talk about that here. So one of the ways that we’re trying- where CUI again has been really helpful for us is we’re trying to think about how to incentivize more property developers to want to get into this. So could there be something like a tax abatement that the city could give to property developers, to people to give incentives to want to, again, activate their spaces in the meanwhile lease? So the temporary times when your portfolio- when two percent of your portfolio is sitting empty, how do we use it? How can we activate those centers? And I’m just rounding up here. So to say that the majority of support for the arts and the relationship to the arts in cities tends to be through buildings. Its institutions, right? And they’re important and we absolutely need them. But we also need to build and support an infrastructure that’s about people, not the buildings, people. As Jacquelyn said. So our vision of Why not Theater is to open up spaces as a way of investing in the people who can activate communities, artists. That’s what we do. And opening up the barrier space to those artists- in opening up the barrier to space to artists, we believe that we can unlock incredible potential for us as a city in Toronto and then multiple cities abroad. And if we can make more access to spaces, we can maximize existing resources to imagine a new and healthier way of looking at how everyday spaces can transform into artistic lifelines, providing necessary economic and mental health supports to create vibrant cities. So that’s me. Thank you very much.

Alkarim Devani

Ravi got me all psyched up, but I feel like he said everything I wanted to say even better. So again, my name is Alkarim. I’m actually a co-founder of a development company working primarily in established areas here in Calgary as well. And as Cherise mentioned, I’m a co-founder of a recent proptech company really focused on the renter-landlord relationship within the residential side. A little bit about RNDSQR. We’ve been operating now in Calgary and now in Winnipeg for the last five years, kind of focused on mixed-use, multifamily projects, really focused on urban reinvigoration, finding ways to build on main streets and bring back population and density back to our established neighborhoods. So super passionate about our city and how we grow. And I think Calgary is in one of these really interesting places where we’re going to have to be provocative and super, super innovative to figure out how to solve some of the problems that are facing us as a city, but also us as a globe in North America with- with many major metropolitan cities trying to understand what- what the downtown fabrics of– you know, downtowns that were built out to be primarily work focused. My presentation, isn’t going to be flashy, but it’s going to be pretty straightforward. Similar to what Ravi said. I believe that our focus is on people. A lot of the discussions that we’ve been- I’ve been hearing and seeing is around attracting great companies to come back to these cities or the fact that COVID may not be lasting in terms of the impact that it’s having. And so I’ve seen lots of great kind of articles about Calgary attracting new tech companies. And I think that’s amazing. And I think that’s part of our growth strategy. But I think it really starts with with our people. And, you know, in technology, I’ve learned a little bit so far in my time that we really need to think about our users. And when we think about people, we need to think about how they interact with our city. And I think for us to attract the vibrancy or attract the tech companies we’re talking about, we need to figure out how we’re going to attract the right people. And so these are just some amazing images of Sled Island here in Calgary, which was kind of a grassroots music scene startup that kind of popped up all throughout the city. And Sled has kind of become a North American phenomenon. And I think how we program our cities is going to be absolutely critical to the future of what those spaces look like. And so really focused on programming is something that I think is going to take us into the future. If I- if I was to dive in deeper, similar to what Ravi said, is we have a ton of spaces and when I think about the spaces that are vacant, Ravi talked a lot about our artists and I think a lot about small businesses and the vibrancy that small business brings to us. How do we figure out ways to get more flexible and how do cities come up with policies that allow for people to reactivate spaces that are sitting vacant? And I think the other important thing, that Ravi flagged that’s very similar to kind of a lot about what we’ve been thinking is how do you motivate landlords to actually be willing to participate into these things? Oftentimes, keeping the door shut is more viable than keeping those doors open. And so I think it takes a collaborative approach of city private and then- and then young small business entrepreneurs. And we’ve seen some amazing stories of adaptive reuse through COVID. And I think we’re starting to scratch the surface of some of those examples. There’s a- there’s a company in Calgary that launched four weeks ago called Pigot’s Burgers, and they did fifty thousand dollars in hamburgers their first week working out of a craftier market’s kitchen. And so 70 people making hamburgers to service a delivery network. And so you can kind of see the innovation coming. And I think that this type of adaptive reuse, reusing spaces that shut down in the morning or the evening or even for Calgary, that- that we see a lot of these vacancies. There’s an opportunity to really turn these into more vibrant sectors. The big question is, is what what does the future of our course look like? Do people come back to work? And what does that work environment look like? I’m a big believer in connection and bringing people together is where we see some of our greatest innovations. You think of the late Tony Hsieh who talked about the interaction- the greatest interaction for us with the greatest innovation is people being next to one another and I think he took that from The Triumph of the City. And so that really resonates with me. And I think we all have this innate want and need to be close to other people. And that’s where we’ll see some of our greatest inventions is those kind of hallway pass movements or those water cooler connections. And you don’t get that without being physically close to people. I do believe, though, we’re going to have to be a lot more intentional about why- why we’re bringing those people back and solely providing space or beautiful space will not be enough of a reason. When you think about some of the cities that have gone through this, I think Detroit is an obvious one. How do we get people back to a decimated core? And again, it starts with arts culture and its bottom up. And I think Calgary, specifically dear to my heart, is we have a pretty robust central business district, but we have a lot of missing need for housing. And so when we think about how do we get people not only to look at adaptive reuses of some of our vacant spaces, it’s going to be about how do we actually interact at the ground level? What is it going to take for us to really get families to show up and say, oh, yeah, no, I actually want to go down to the core. And unfortunately, the way that our core has been built out, we haven’t done that enough. But I think there is amazing fabric and places to do that. And the cheapest way to do it is not to tear down, rip up and build a new structure. It’s going to be around how do we build programing? We just had Chinook Blast here in Calgary, which was an art exhibit, and so many families that are checking out balloons and lit up kind of art exhibits. And so all it really takes is thinking about what do people want, how will they interact and how do we continue to give that to them in the future. And I think that bottom up approach, if we can attract enough people to say we want to be back in these places in Calgary, again, being really close to me, we want to be back at that city because of what’s happening from a cultural perspective. I think the companies will follow the people and we’ve seen that before in the past. And so if I was to say, where should we invest our dollars, it’s in the people. How do we invest in people so we can build this thing from the bottom. And I really do believe technology will play- play a role. And these are just examples with what BIG is doing here in Japan in Woven Cities. And again, not being an architect, not being a planner, but understanding that the future- there is technology starting to interface and so many of these different mediums. And so how do we leverage technology within our cores? What does that look like? I was on a proptech panel yesterday at the UofC and hearing Aspen Properties talk about what the future might look like for office space, where you pay per usage so every- every company pays based on when their employees are there. And there’s no segregated space for companies, but they all kind of live in this ecosystem of where they work and play. And so you think about the dynamics of that, of companies collaborating with each other, intersecting with each other, rather than being kind of segregated. It’s an incredible concept. And so I think technology will have an incredible role. Sustainability will also start to play some really key pieces. But I think when we talk about what are some of the easiest ways to solve these problems, we know we can’t technically tear down these assets or reinvigorate them very easily. So how do we start to draw people to these places based on things that we know scale a lot easier? This is, again, just talking about- I don’t- I don’t think any core will ever again be a CBD. I think work environments will be different and it’ll be focused around how we live, how we connect with one another, and how we strike the right balance. And so I think if we can continue to focus again on people striking that right balance is what’s going to be the key to kind of reinvigorating many of my- many of the cores in North America. And that’s it. Hopefully that was a quick 15 minutes- and provocative.

Tł'akwasik̕a̱n Khelsilem

For current roles and responsibilities, elected councilor, still for the Squamish nation and also a board member with Vancity Credit Union here in B.C. But today, I’m mostly speaking from my role with the Squamish nation councilor as a spokesperson for the nation, and hopefully sharing a little bit about some of the exciting works that we’re doing here in Vancouver, including the creation of a whole new community in a dense urban environment on one of our reserve properties that we own within five minutes to the downtown Vancouver area, which you can see behind me. I am going to now share my screen. So one of the projects that we’re involved in the Squamish nation is the development of one of the largest real estate developments in Vancouver and the whole metro Vancouver region. And its development of a community of six thousand units of housing and a piece of land that’s about 11.7 acres. That’s about five minutes from the downtown core and in essence, is somewhat expanding the downtown area and building a significant amount of rental supply into the Vancouver region. I am trying to move the website, but it unfortunately is not moving for some reason with the share and now its’s spinning. So the project proposes to build six thousand units of mostly rental apartments. It’s a partnership between the Squamish nation and one of the development companies here in Vancouver called West Bank where the Squamish nation is providing the land and then working with our development partners to secure financing, to create development design and then ultimately building structures within Vancouver. I’m going to try another way of screen sharing. Some really interesting highlights of the project; it’ll be- about 10 percent of the project will have parking. It is about a one unit to- one unit of parking to 10 units of apartments. So it’ll be a very low car sort of urban development. It proposes a six thousand- six thousand stalls of bike parking with commercial and retail developments within as well. The name of the village- the name of the place, Senakw which comes from the name of our historical village, that my ancestors lived in this land for many thousands of years. And the reserve lines that we are developing were re-acquired in 2003 after very lengthy court battle with the Federal government to reacquire lands that were confiscated from our people. I think it is now working, so great. So you can see the towers, this 12 proposed towers, the tallest tower will be fifty nine storeys. They use a number of different architectural modalities that are very much inspired by co-sales, culture and values. It is intended to be a hundred percent energy efficiency development where there is- based off of some of the technology that we’re looking into at this point. It might even provide energy back into the grid, or at very least the carbon neutral in terms of its energy efficiency and how it generates energy through the building itself. So looking at some very unique green technologies, we’re hoping to also looking into low carbon cement products and mass timber products that are going to be one of the most climate action oriented developments in North America. A number of those types of policies will be required in Vancouver in the coming years, but we are choosing as this occasion to take climate action seriously now instead of waiting for time to pass before we take action. As you can see, the buildings are on both sides of one of the main arterial bridges that are- that exists here in Vancouver. And the interesting thing about the Broad Street Bridge is that it’s one of the most biked bridges per capita in North America. So you can imagine as we look at adding a development that has only 10 percent parking for the amount of units that we’re building in largely a bike- an active transportation network, this bridge will become even more popular for the use of bike lanes as well as transit, both on the bridge and also nearby on a rail line that is currently deactivated but has the potential to be turned into a light rail transit corridor. There’s, I think, a real strong desire to imagine a new type of development that can happen in a place like Vancouver where we have significant issues around affordability. We are essentially looking at about six thousand units of rental, give or take, in a time span of about five to seven years. And an approval process that will take less than two years. And if you compare that to normal municipal processes that often take very long, are very costly. It often results in, I would say, a very arbitrary decision around the level of density often restricted by very anti-housing sort of arguments that constrain the amount of housing we built in our city and directly contributes to the affordability issues that we’re facing. So the fact that the Squamish nation can come in and use our jurisdiction where the city of Vancouver has no jurisdiction over our reserve lands in terms of zoning, counsel- my counsel, is able to identify what is the type of development we want to do that can generate long term revenue for the nation to support our social goals while at the same time providing a significant amount of rental housing for the region? There’s also contemplation of including some affordable housing that subsidize. A lot of that will be targeted to members of my community, but also possibly even more affordable housing initiatives, depending on the financing that we receive that could be incorporated into the project as well, so the general public. Also, imagine activation of the ground level for retail and commercial and cultural spaces, that it will become a very active hub of people and interactions throughout the development. Imagine there’s four phases that would be built over the coming years, and we are currently working on a service agreement with the City Vancouver to secure municipal-like services for the project that will be paid for from property taxes that the Squamish nation charges to the development partnership, and then the nation then pays the city for the services through the revenue we generate off of the property taxes. And because it’s on reserve line in the Squamish nation as the jurisdictional authority, we have the authority to charge all of the taxes that we would normally charge that you would see in a municipal government setting. But one hundred percent of those taxes are generated and given to the Squamish nation. That includes things like property taxes and utility fees, but also if we were to include some sort of condo that would also float to its connotation in terms of property transport taxes and things like that. But I guess that’s just a bit of an overview of the project. I think what I really want to propose or pitch to people and explain is in this region of Vancouver, the three local first nations whose territory Vancouver sits upon are currently the largest property owners in Vancouver. And I’ll reiterate that, again, the Indigenous people of Vancouver who are from here and have been here for thousands of years own more private property than any other developer in the region. And we’ve been able to use our constitutional rights to reacquire lands within our territory for the purposes of real estate and economic development so that we can generate long term revenue streams for our communities to support the social, cultural and economic goals of the community and build wealth, build prosperity and build, I think, a better future for our communities. And that’s a model that I think a lot of other governments could look to and learn from. And it also speaks to the power of First Nations to be able to address issues that  municipal governments often have challenges addressing, which is how do we provide enough housing to meet the demand of our cities that are growing, either through population or through immigration or to the job centers that are growing within our cities as well. And we’re seeing not just in Vancouver, but in places like Toronto, places that are all around North America, where it’s is completely exacerbating the affordability issues and driving up the lack of housing for poor people to live in, is causing a lot of the issues that we’re seeing around affordability. But the other thing that’s exciting about this is that this project really proposes a unique vision for a community development that aligns with Indigenous values, especially around environment and climate change, around active transportation, around nature, around community and culture, and around a different type of development. And this is just one of many real estate projects that the three local nations are involved in. This one is exclusively Squamish. There are some projects where all three nations are involved, but this is our project and this so the image here shows the original reserve boundary that we own and how over a hundred years- it was actually 50 years, it was successfully carved up and expropriated away from the community, but we now have a small sliver of land that we are using for economic development purposes. The project, I think, will hopefully, I think, prove out what is possible when we allow for a reorientation of what community building and city building really means in the context of the twenty first century, in the context of huge challenges that cities face around providing housing. The city Vancouver has a goal to build 20,000 rental units over the next 10 years- sorry 40,000 units over the next 10 years. The Squamish nation is going to be potentially providing six thousand of them within a time span of five years. So we are a big player in this, but I think this speaks to the role that First Nations can play and should play in city building and community building and a way to also repatriate the value of the land that has been generated for all kinds of companies and individuals and governments that indigenous communities have seen very little benefit from. When we explain to people why we are doing this and what do we think of people who might say the towers are too tall or that’s too many units or it’s too dense, is our community has to have our entire territory turned into the city that you see behind me. We have completely felt the impacts of city building within our territory and our community has seen very little benefit of the wealth that has been generated off our lands. And so we now have an opportunity as Indigenous people to bring our values to the table and to design a type of community and type of development that is in line with our values, but also sees that the wealth that’s generated off our lands actually comes back to our people and helps support the long term sustainability, growth, livelihood of my community. And just to give you a bit of an example of that, the poverty rates within my community are still higher than national averages, graduation rates are still below the national averages, the life expectancy is still below the national averages. There are still numerous ways in which my community is trying to attain a quality of life that we have been denied for so long. And we can wait for governments to provide funding for us to address those issues, or we can go out and create the revenue we need to address those issues ourselves. And that’s the obligation we have as leaders. And this is, I think, the first of many projects that the Squamish nation wants to do to become a regional player in solving and addressing a number of these issues, but also taking advantage of many of the opportunities.

Jill Tipping et Ray Walia

Jill Tipping [00:00:06] Merci beaucoup et bonjour à tous. C'est vraiment un plaisir de vous voir aujourd'hui. Ray et moi pensions que ce serait un peu comme une discussion de club, mais avec de la vidéo en plus.

Ray Walia [00:00:19] Clubhouse 2.0, c'est ça ?

Jill Tipping [00:00:20] Exactement. Et vous êtes dans votre voiture. C'est génial. J'adore ça.

Ray Walia [00:00:24] Oui. J'ai dû emmener ma mère chez le médecin, alors...

Jill Tipping [00:00:26] Voilà.

Ray Walia [00:00:29] -multitâche ici.

Jill Tipping [00:00:29] Voici la vie de Covid. La vie professionnelle à COVID. C'est un excellent exemple de ville moderne, n'est-ce pas ? Et tout ce qui change. Nous avons quelques questions à aborder ensemble. Et à travers cette conversation, nous avons pensé qu'elle susciterait des réflexions intéressantes pour le public. Nous sommes très intéressés par vos réflexions, vos commentaires sur le chat ou après, quoi qu'il en soit. Mais permettez-moi de commencer en parlant de - nous avons une perspective commune Ray maintenant parce que nous travaillons tous les deux dans le secteur technologique de la Colombie-Britannique et d'une manière qui nous donne un point de vue particulier sur les villes, sur les centres-villes. Et pendant le COVID, les entreprises technologiques, dans l'ensemble, sont passées à un modèle largement à distance, n'est-ce pas ? Une certaine quantité d'hybrides, mais aussi un modèle à distance. Et nous pensons vraiment que cela fera partie du mélange à l'avenir. Cela nous amène à nous demander, du moins pour nous, quel est le rôle du bureau pour une entreprise technologique aujourd'hui ? Alors, Ray, que voyez-vous ? Quel est, selon vous, le rôle du bureau aujourd'hui ?

Ray Walia [00:01:34] J'ai donc eu de nombreuses conversations à ce sujet - en fait, cela a duré un certain temps. L'une des - je déteste le dire - mais l'une des bénédictions du COVID, c'est qu'il a touché le monde entier en même temps. De nombreuses personnes ont dû réexaminer et réévaluer leur façon de travailler, mais elles ont aussi eu la révélation qu'elles pouvaient fonctionner différemment et s'adapter aux nouvelles technologies et ainsi de suite. Mais l'une des choses qui est devenue évidente, c'est qu'au cours de l'année écoulée, beaucoup d'entreprises ont fait du triage. Elles n'allaient pas de l'avant. Elles s'attaquaient aux problèmes. Elles essayaient de trouver des solutions aux problèmes actuels, de gérer le personnel, etc. Ce que l'on commence à découvrir, c'est que le travail à domicile était très efficace et facile à mettre en œuvre pour résoudre les problèmes. Le travail à domicile permettait de résoudre les problèmes, de mettre en œuvre des projets de développement, etc. Mais ce qui pose problème aujourd'hui, c'est le processus d'identification des problèmes à résoudre. Le processus consistant à essayer de comprendre comment résoudre ces problèmes. Historiquement, ces processus ont nécessité des contacts en personne. Une lecture du langage corporel, des collaborations, des conversations à bâtons rompus dans la salle de café ou des échanges d'idées au hasard. Travailler à partir de Zoom ne permet pas cela, travailler à partir de la maison ne permet pas cela. On se rend donc compte aujourd'hui que les bureaux ne vont pas disparaître. Je sais que beaucoup de grandes entreprises ont dit qu'elles allaient passer au travail à distance. Mais quand on y regarde de plus près, on s'aperçoit qu'ils occupent l'espace immobilier de nombreuses grandes villes. Et là où l'on pourrait penser qu'elles devraient réduire leurs baux, je ne connais aucune grande entreprise qui ait réduit ses baux. Je sais que certaines d'entre elles réévaluent l'espace dont elles ont besoin et la manière dont elles vont utiliser notre espace. Mais je pense que les bureaux situés au cœur du centre-ville resteront très pertinents. Il est possible de faire évoluer les bureaux et d'examiner la façon dont ils sont structurés. Par exemple, les bureaux à aire ouverte pourraient être remplacés par des bureaux à pièces fermées et des espaces communs ou des espaces de collaboration plutôt que par des bureaux individuels.

Jill Tipping [00:03:59] Oui.

Ray Walia [00:04:00] L'une des - pardon, mais l'une des autres choses importantes que j'ai vues apparaître est le concept de centre et de rayon, et donc vous avez un bureau principal pour Think Effect ou later.com dans le centre-ville, mais vous pourriez avoir un bureau partagé dans un centre communautaire ou un incubateur à Burnaby ou New West ou Port Coquitlam où votre personnel qui choisit de travailler à domicile peut avoir un peu d'évasion, un endroit où aller qui n'est pas tout au centre-ville, mais assez proche de la maison pour sortir et être avec d'autres adultes et être avec d'autres personnes qui ont un niveau d'expertise plus élevé et qui ne sont peut-être pas seulement dans votre organisation, mais d'autres personnes avec lesquelles vous pouvez collaborer. L'un des défauts des incubateurs ruraux et des espaces de coworking est que, bien souvent, les personnes qui y travaillent ne sont pas de haut niveau, ce sont des personnes qui débutent, des personnes qui travaillent en freelance, et il n'y a pas plus de professionnels de niveau C qui s'y rendent parce qu'ils n'en voient pas l'intérêt. Mais maintenant, dans ce scénario où il y a plus de cadres supérieurs qui travaillent à distance depuis leur domicile, on peut s'attendre à ce que ces centres aient un niveau plus élevé de personnes et des conversations plus approfondies ou autres, des conversations de haut niveau. Mais je ne pense pas que le bureau central au centre-ville disparaîtra de sitôt.

Jill Tipping [00:05:32] Oui, et est-ce qu'on va voir le même genre de choses, n'est-ce pas ? Donc, je pense que pendant des années, tout le monde s'est convaincu qu'il y avait un problème de productivité avec les gens qui travaillaient à domicile. Mais comme vous le dites, ce n'est pas la productivité qui pose problème, c'est la créativité et il est plus difficile de créer seul chez soi ou dans sa voiture que lorsqu'on est ensemble. Et je partage vraiment votre vision selon laquelle nous voudrons nous réunir après COVID et nous voudrons créer de nouveaux problèmes à résoudre et travailler ensemble sur ce qui est intéressant. Donc, si le bureau reste OK, mais que la nature du travail qui se fait à l'intérieur des murs change et que, par conséquent, la configuration du bureau change, je me demande si cela ne change même pas ce que sont les centres-villes, n'est-ce pas ? Si vous y réfléchissez bien, aujourd'hui, nous pensons que les centres-villes sont les endroits où l'on va travailler, n'est-ce pas ? Et l'endroit où l'on vit est celui où l'on fait l'expérience des loisirs, de la créativité, des arts et des divertissements. Et si le bureau devient davantage un lieu de travail ludique, de créativité, de connexions et de réseautage, exactement comme vous le décrivez, cela pourrait-il donner lieu à une revitalisation et à un dynamisme ?

Ray Walia [00:06:55] Eh bien, c'est l'une des autres conversations qui a été très présente dans l'esprit de beaucoup de PDG et de cadres avec lesquels j'ai parlé : il y a cet autre défi avec le travail à domicile où vous avez une main-d'œuvre plus jeune qui va de loin avoir un impact massif. Je viens de publier un article dans Forbes aujourd'hui ou hier sur le fait que les indicateurs clés de performance des entreprises doivent s'aligner sur les valeurs de la génération Z. Nous l'avons constaté chez les Noirs et les Noirs. Nous l'avons vu avec Black Lives Matter, nous l'avons vu avec GameStop récemment, il s'agit d'une génération très, très puissante. Et il y a un défi maintenant avec le travail à domicile, beaucoup de ces jeunes employés, les employés de niveau débutant, ne reçoivent pas l'exposition dont ils ont besoin pour améliorer leurs compétences et apprendre à résoudre les problèmes, parce que même si historiquement ils n'ont pas été impliqués dans le processus de solution réel, ils apprennent par osmose. Ils étaient dans la salle. Ils étaient entourés de personnes qui découvraient des défis ou qui échangeaient des idées sur la manière de résoudre les problèmes. C'est ainsi qu'ils ont appris. Aujourd'hui, lorsqu'ils travaillent à domicile sur Zoom, ces actes de découverte et de résolution de problèmes se déroulent en dehors de leur champ de vision. Il y a donc un fossé. Et les gens se rendent compte que leur main-d'œuvre sera à la traîne dans ce scénario de travail à domicile. Mais d'un autre côté, vous parlez à la jeune génération. Ils veulent être dans un bureau. Ils veulent sortir de chez eux, comme ils l'ont fait à l'école. Ils ont passé les 20 premières années de leur vie à la maison et ainsi de suite. Ils veulent vivre la prochaine évolution de leur carrière. C'est pourquoi aller dans un bureau, être entouré de gens, avoir une culture, toutes ces choses comptent pour eux et pouvoir modeler et façonner cette culture est important pour eux. Ce n'est donc pas possible dans le cas d'un travail à distance. Par conséquent, lorsque vous envisagez de faire de ces bureaux des environnements plus collaboratifs où les gens viennent pour résoudre des problèmes ou faire des activités de groupe, cela ne s'arrête pas à 15 heures. Les gens veulent sortir pour socialiser, pour travailler en réseau et pour renforcer l'esprit d'équipe, et donc lorsque vous le faites - le renforcement de l'esprit d'équipe en est un parfait exemple - vous aurez plus d'occasions de travailler en équipe. Comme vous allez avoir plus de choses qui se passent à partir de chez vous quand les gens se réunissent, comment les galvaniser ? Comment faire bouger les choses ? Le renforcement de l'esprit d'équipe, les sorties, ce genre de choses est important. L'une des choses que je vois, c'est que les centres-villes seront probablement plus vivants, si tant est qu'il y en ait. Plus d'activités, plus de bars, de restaurants, de centres d'activités. On peut même imaginer l'évolution du commerce de détail vers le commerce en ligne et l'e-commerce. Il y a beaucoup de commerces de détail, de centres commerciaux, etc. Ceux-ci deviennent-ils plus centrés sur les centres communautaires que sur le commerce de détail ? Il n'y a donc plus de grandes entreprises piliers, mais des espaces communautaires, des espaces de collaboration, des espaces de divertissement bordés de commerces.

Jill Tipping [00:09:57] C'est exactement ce que je pense que nous allons voir, n'est-ce pas ? Je pense que la frontière entre le travail et les loisirs va s'effacer ou s'estomper quelque peu. Et puis il y aura cette demande d'espaces flexibles qui sont adjacents au travail et où l'on peut faire exactement ce dont vous parlez. C'est un peu le même concept qu'avant, où l'on pouvait aller au Starbucks et travailler un peu, et... mais on voudra que ce soit au centre de ce que l'on fait au travail, à la fois au bureau et à l'extérieur du bureau. Je pense donc qu'il existe un potentiel très intéressant pour en faire un environnement plus vivant, plus intéressant et plus engageant. Mais il va falloir que les organisations, les institutions, les municipalités et les réglementations se mettent au diapason et s'ouvrent à ce type d'environnement plus flexible. Je pense donc que nous avons des défis très intéressants à relever, mais j'espère que nous pourrons compter sur la participation de toutes ces parties prenantes pour réaliser ce potentiel.

Ray Walia [00:11:16] Oui, nous avons eu une conversation sur le clubhouse hier soir. Il s'agit d'une salle qui se réunit toutes les deux semaines pour parler des changements de politique et des choses qui doivent changer dans la ville de Vancouver pour qu'elle devienne une ville plus globale. Hier soir, il a été question de la vie nocturne et des changements politiques nécessaires. Il ne s'agit pas seulement d'avoir des jardins de bière et des boîtes de nuit. Il s'agit aussi d'arts et de divertissements et d'organiser des festivals. Quels types de changements politiques doivent être mis en place pour permettre cela ? Et cela sera beaucoup plus important à l'avenir. Mais j'aimerais vous renvoyer à la question du centre-ville. J'ai mentionné le fait que les entreprises technologiques et les grandes entreprises sont de grandes adeptes de l'environnement urbain. Il ne s'agira donc pas d'un retour complet au bureau. Il s'agira probablement d'une formule hybride, avec deux ou trois jours de travail à domicile et deux ou trois jours au bureau. Mais les professionnels et les jeunes familles quittent le centre-ville pour s'installer en milieu urbain. Que pensez-vous de la manière dont cette dynamique va fonctionner entre les centres-villes et les environnements urbains ?

Jill Tipping [00:12:34] Oui, je pense que c'est... et en fait, je viens de remarquer que quelqu'un demande dans le chat le lien vers la salle du clubhouse, alors peut-être que vous pouvez le noter. Mais je me disais que ce qui m'intéresse le plus, c'est que les jeunes soient le canari dans la mine de l'avenir. C'est vrai. Ils nous disent comment sera l'avenir. Et si nous sommes assez intelligents pour les écouter. Et je pense que les entreprises technologiques sont également le canari dans la mine. Elles indiquent aux autres organisations ce que sera l'avenir. Les entreprises technologiques sont donc profondément investies dans la culture depuis longtemps. Si votre activité consiste à extraire de la valeur des personnes, des êtres humains, vous allez créer des environnements optimisés pour les êtres humains. Il sera donc optimisé pour qu'ils disposent de tous les outils dont ils ont besoin, de tous les problèmes qu'ils doivent résoudre et des interactions dont ils ont besoin. Et j'aime l'idée que d'autres industries, pas - vous savez, pas les entreprises technologiques, mais d'autres entreprises réalisent à travers cette pandémie la valeur de la culture, comme ce qu'est réellement leur culture et ce dont leurs équipes ont réellement besoin. Et l'exemple que vous donniez des jeunes qui apprennent par osmose grâce à ceux qui les ont précédés. Et vous savez, pour cela, il faut un certain degré de connexion et de travail en commun. Je pense que c'est très intéressant. Je pense que toutes les entreprises vont privilégier la culture. Je pense que toutes les entreprises vont prendre leur réservoir de talents beaucoup plus au sérieux à l'avenir. Je pense qu'elles vont prendre la diversité et l'inclusion beaucoup plus au sérieux. Et les conséquences de tout cela devront être - d'être très démocratique, très ouvert et très collaboratif avec vos équipes sur ce dont elles ont besoin et d'être réactif en réaction. Pour moi, le monde de demain doit être un monde réactif, n'est-ce pas ? Nous avons la possibilité de réaliser bien plus que ce que nous avons jamais pu faire dans les villes et dans les entreprises en milieu urbain, si nous sommes ouverts et disposés à nous écouter les uns les autres pour savoir ce dont nous avons besoin et ce que nous voulons. Ainsi, l'exemple que vous donnez ici - vous savez que vos travailleurs de la technologie aiment l'environnement urbain. Vous savez, nous aimons les environnements cosmopolites qui sont des espaces riches, culturels et sociaux. Nous avons donc tout intérêt à ce que les villes de demain continuent de prospérer. Nous ne voulons pas voir mourir Main Street. Nous ne voulons pas voir mourir les centres-villes. Nous ne voulons pas voir mourir les centres-villes. Nous ne voulons pas voir mourir les centres-villes. Mais nous ne pouvons pas le faire seuls.

Ray Walia [00:15:07] Oui. Et je pense aussi que le concept du neuf à cinq va commencer à disparaître. Les gens, surtout dans le domaine de la technologie. J'en parle parce que c'est ce que je connais si bien. Mais j'ai été propriétaire de restaurants, nous avons une entreprise de construction, donc je connais très bien une grande variété d'industries. Mais le concept du "neuf à cinq" est en train de changer et les gens vont fractionner leurs journées de travail. Mais comment trouver cet équilibre ? Il faut des environnements urbains prospères, mais aussi des environnements de centre-ville prospères. Je pense donc qu'il existe d'énormes possibilités pour les petites entreprises de créer de nouvelles choses qui répondent à ce nouveau style de vie et à l'équilibre entre vie professionnelle et vie privée. Mais oui, les centres-villes resteront essentiels pour les entreprises à l'avenir.

Jill Tipping [00:15:58] Oui, c'est bien. C'est bien que nous soyons tous les deux optimistes à propos du centre-ville, de ce à quoi il doit ressembler et de la manière dont il doit évoluer et changer. Et il ne semble pas que nous ayons le moindre doute quant à sa pertinence pour les dix ou vingt prochaines années.

Ray Walia [00:16:11] Eh bien, je pense qu'il y a aussi une chose dont tout le monde doit prendre conscience, c'est qu'en tant que Canadiens, notre demande de talents et de personnes dépasse notre capacité à produire des talents. Et ce n'est pas seulement parce que les universités ne produisent pas assez vite. C'est que la technologie change. Les choses évoluent si vite. Et nous ne pouvons tout simplement pas produire des gens au rythme nécessaire. De plus, le taux de natalité au Canada est en baisse, ce qui est une autre réalité. Comment faire face à cette situation ? Les importations. Nous devons attirer des talents, nous devons augmenter l'immigration. Heureusement, le Canada est un pays où il fait bon vivre. Nous participons au programme de visas de démarrage. Je donne des conférences dans le monde entier. La semaine prochaine, je m'adresse à une centaine d'entreprises nigérianes. Je viens d'en faire une la semaine dernière avec 50 entreprises indiennes. Le Canada sera toujours très, très désirable, simplement en raison de ce que nous sommes en tant que personnes, de ce que nous sommes en tant que pays, de la stabilité de notre gouvernement. Même si nous sommes contestés en interne, le Canada est un endroit très, très désirable à l'extérieur. L'autre élément est la pureté de l'air et de l'eau. Le changement climatique est une réalité. Nous venons de voir ce qui se passe aux États-Unis avec les feux de forêt, les ouragans, etc. Le Canada sera de plus en plus convoité au cours des 10, 20, 30, 50 prochaines années. Comment créer une métropole prospère qui continue d'attirer les gens ? Les gens veulent un mode de vie agréable.

Jill Tipping [00:17:59] Yeha. L'avenir appartient au Canada et l'avenir appartient aux villes. Donc, comme d'habitude, vos panélistes technologiques vous ont donné une vision optimiste. Nous espérons vous avoir apporté ce dont vous aviez besoin. Merci beaucoup pour le temps que vous m'avez accordé. J'ai beaucoup apprécié cette conversation. À vous Cherise.

Ray Walia [00:18:15] Et... désolé pour tous ceux qui cherchent le clubhouse. Il suffit de chercher dans Google Vancouver. Vancouver Base Creative's est un groupe qui parle des créatifs de la ville. Nous organisons une émission tous les mardis à 9 heures du matin, heure du Pacifique, appelée Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee, et les discussions du soir ont généralement lieu les mercredis à 20 h 30, heure du Pacifique. Le club de Vancouver n'est pas encore tout à fait en place. Nous sommes encore sur une liste d'attente. Mais si vous cherchez des salles, n'importe quoi avec le titre Vancouver, vous devriez - ils devraient apparaître.

Michel Lauzon

I’m going to share the screen today, we’re going to talk- I’m going to talk about creativity and the role that it has for downtown cores. Let me go here. Provocations from Montreal. So, LAAB- you just presented LAAB so I’ll go quickly over it, but basically what we believe in LAAB is that we believe that design can be an enabler and can help in a lot of situations beyond just designing buildings. And we think that process and how we- how we solve problems is important to what we deliver as an output and as buildings and environments. So we also work a lot on the process. So that will appear in the presentation. I like to quote Mies van der Rohe because this quote is interesting today in the pandemic context. We have to know that life cannot be changed by us. It will be changed, but not by us, which we’ve seen in the last year. We can only guide the things that cause physical change. So basically what Mies is saying is- is shit happens and then we have to deal with it, which is the situation that we have today with the pandemic. Why are our city cores important? They’re important for a lot of reasons, of course, for exchange of goods and people living together, tolerance, having common ground and all kinds of reasons why city cores are important. I like to look at a couple of historical examples to- just to refresh why some cities have emerged as creative hubs and innovation and really foster innovation in certain periods. So there are reasons why these cities have emerged as creative hubs. We could talk about Athens and Pericles period. We could talk about Florence during the Renaissance. We could talk about Paris at the turn of the 20th century. We could talk about New York City in the 70s. So there are lots of reasons. What has made these cities at these specific junctures creative hotbeds. So this is something that’s a bit eluded to us, but there is a lot of literature on the subject. So if we look, we’ll see that, of course, density or intensity has always been a condition conducive to creating these conditions of creativity and innovation. So on the left, we have Bologna medieval city. On the right we have urban sprawl. Urban- you could see that sprawl would kind of be the enemy of this intensity that we want to have some creativity and to have innovation. So sprawl is an issue. We like to- we think that diversity and variety and richness and depth of experience, of people, of ideas, of cultures, of origins is something that stimulates the new ideas and the crossbreeding of these new trends. So it spurs innovation as  uniformity would be, of course, an enemy of this. I like to talk about serendipity, but serendipity is mostly having conditions that are conducive for the meeting of the ideas. So it’s good to have ideas and have diversity, but people have to be able to meet and talk and exchange so these ideas can evolve to next generation ideas. So if we have dispersion- and I think one of the issues of the pandemic right now is that we’re all fragmented in our individual houses. I think it will have an impact on the level of creativity and new ideas that will emerge during the pandemic or after the pandemic. So I think that if we can recreate these conditions for serendipity once we’re out of the pandemic, we’ll be fostering conditions for innovation. Change, of course, and inertia. Change is a- can be a positive force, can be a negative force. So it could be disruption. It could be volatility. It could be instability, but it could also be- could also foster change, acceleration of new ideas, new paradigms, new ways of thinking. So change is also a positive force. And in those cities that we’ve looked at, the four cities that I’ve pointed out, there’s always been an element of instability that has helped stimulate the creativity of those collectivities. So that’s an important thing. So what’s the future and how can we recreate these conditions in the core and make the core attractive? And I think that one of the attributes that we should lean on is the fact that those city cores are an essential part of innovation and creativity in companies and culture, social innovation. So how can we create this? I’m looking at a couple of trends and I’ll submit them to you. So the premise is that for now, going back downtown into the cores, we’ve been lacking, I think, a compelling narrative. We’ve been talking- we’ve been trying to convince people, you know, we should go back because it’s good for the economy, it’s our civic duty, all kinds of reasons why we should go back. But there hasn’t been a compelling story about what’s in it for me, what’s in it for the citizen, for the consumer, for the parent, for the student. Our lives have been upended and the user journey of going downtown is totally different now. So we need to rethink the attributes of the downtown destination and to rebalance them. So to start with the story is to appeal to the heart. We’ve been appealing a lot to the mind, but I think that now if we want to have success in bringing people back downtown and for it to be sustainable, I think we need to be telling a story from the heart as much as from the mind. Our cores are the premise- second premise are. Our cores are ghost towns right no., what’s missing and of course, is the users is the people. So we have to start- I think, one of the deep trends that it’s going to- for the next generation of these downtowns to help them become vibrant again is to work from the user experience. We’ve been working as designers from programs, from surface areas, from elaborate bubble diagrams and all kinds of things. But we haven’t really been working about- around the user experience and building out space around the user experience. Back in the days when we designed Quartier Des Spectacles in Montreal, we rebuilt the space, the urban shape, around the user, around the crowds, around the events, and then the urban shape kind of took shape and got framed around the user experience. So I think building around the user experience will probably make our downtowns a lot more user friendly and more ergonomic, more secure, safer in the post pandemic world, but also more resilient. So if we continue on this idea, the premise, the third premise is that we’ve seen that our real estate is really vulnerable to change and to disruption. So how do we render our real estate more resilient? So our way of looking at things is that, again, if- the promise is that if we could work to design systems, not necessarily shapes. Shapes- we think that the future will be to design these relations and systems and then the shape will accompany the system design. So it’s a new- it requires a kind of a new skill set to be able to design an experience and to design systems and not necessarily focus too much on shape. Shape is always an important component, but shape is also- should be balanced with all the other parameters of designing. This is how we’ve designed this project of the artificial intelligence campus in Montreal where we worked around the user, the user experience, and about how people can meet and generate new ideas and collaborate. And then the building supported this composition and supported the creative ecosystem that we put forth. Buildings- the fourth premise is that buildings have become over specialized. And I think that this is directly related to their level of fragility and vulnerability to the pandemic is that once the environment is changed, once the user experience is changed, once to the needs of the users and then the conditions, the economic conditions during the pandemic have totally changed, then our buildings are not well suited to change and to adapt to this new condition. So I think that the future- one of the deep trends of the future is that buildings will be planned as hybrid buildings and more as platforms than as- and then as shapes or shapes to house uses. I think buildings- we should as designers, what we’re already looking at is that we’re looking to design these buildings around commonalities of different usages or functions. What are the common elements? And then to build around- to build- a compromise wouldn’t be the right word, but to build a building that would be optimal for the commonalities of different functions. So a building that house residential, that could house office, can house cultural, so the building could evolve in time. Even Mies van der Rohe, when he designed his buildings, thought that the usages and the functions would probably change in time, but the buildings would remain. So it’s a bit of a thought process that I think will be something very prevalent in the next decade. So this is a key example in Miami here of a building that’s, of course, you know of the building as a parking, but it’s actually a structure that can house parking, that can house cultural events, that can house FNB and lounge areas. So I think this type of building, the platform will become a lot more prevalent in the next decade. Our cores have- has sustainability challenges and we’ve seen either heat islands or issues flooding, we’ve had- we have all kinds of issues related to sustainability. And I think with the pandemic now, it’s time to double down on being green, trying to go over and above. And I think the idea is not just to be incremental in the approach, but to be- to have a deep seated, a really deep approach to sustainability and to have it in an intrinsic fashion. So I think now is the time for big and bold ideas about sustainability, about putting the user at the center and building these a lot more user friendly and active transport and circulation centered rather than car centric environments. So of course, Les Champs Elysees, which really caught the imagination of the world recently with the total transformation of Champs Elysees, I think is a good example of big, bold ideas for our cores. And now is the time to be able to implement them. So what’s the future for our cores? I think starting with the story is going to help people- bring people back. I think that creativity and innovation is one of a key element of this story. To build out from the user is a change of how we look at real estate and how we do buildings and to build out systems rather than shapes and to really rely on leveraged platforms as a type of building, a new type of building, a hybrid building there where- that fosters cohabitation of different users and different functions and then to champion nature’s reclamation of our downtowns. So that’s what I think the future, the near future of downtowns will be and LAAB will collaborate and try to foster this new reality for downtowns. So I think that Lincoln is a big inspiration to look at a positive future and to have hope. The best way to predict the future is to collaborate and cocreate it together. To be an active part of it. Thanks.

Kevin Katigbak

So good afternoon, thank you for taking a few minutes to listen to this presentation. My name is Kevin Katigbak, I lead the strategy team here at Gensler, Toronto. And I guess my specialties are real estate, workplace, ethnography, research, experiential design. And we’ve taken- Gensler has taken and myself specifically, has taken the past 12 months to use this as an opportunity to capture as much data as we possibly can. One of the things that we’re seeing and one of the great impacts on our downtown cores and our urban experience is how people are reacting to this pandemic and specifically workers and what their expectations might be in the future. So I’m going to share a little bit of the data up front because it really does form a lot of what this conversation is kind of getting to. So, as I mentioned, we did a ton of research in the past year. I think we’ve done a survey that has tens of thousands of responses at this point. The data I’m sharing on screen is North American specific. And I’ll provide a little bit of context on the Canadian specific side of things as well. But one of the key findings that we’re seeing from the people that we’ve asked and how they’ve reacted to the pandemic is over half the people that we surveyed would prefer a hybrid work model. And I was- I’ve heard a few of the conversations suggest for two levels that the hybrid work model is that notion of working partially from home as well as working in the office. And we asked a very simple question. We asked a lot of questions I wanted to show you right now is pretty simple. It’s kind of how many days do you want to work in the office in a post pandemic world, in a post vaccine world in a world where we can almost call it normal again? And the responses were kind of across the board, but twenty nine percent of our respondents said full time in offices, 19 percent said full time from home. The Canadian data says actually a lot less full time in office and less full time at home as well, so that the proportion of hybrid is actually a lot greater from the Canadian context. But if we’re looking at the data on the screen, 80 plus percent of respondents do believe that the workplace is going to be something that’s important in the future. So another key finding, most jobs continue to be reliant on in-person collaboration and the physical workplace which is fantastic news. We don’t need to worry too much about our workplace because there is going to be a requirement for physical space. And I think from some of the earlier conversations, we do know that that person-to-person contact is hugely important in creating culture for organizations and creating vital downtown cores. There is- well there’s a number of deterrents to wanting to return to office, and I’m just going to share the one that is the biggest from our perspective, and that is actually the commute. So when we slice and dice this data relative to the distance of your commute, there’s a direct correlation. And the data I’m showing here is the people who said they want to return to work full time. And it’s pretty obvious and pretty straightforward what this is telling us, that the closer you live to the office, the more likely you are to want to come into the office, and the further you are from the office obviously, you kind of don’t want to return or you want to keep that as minimal as possible. So it’s really about convenience. And if there is a way to get people close to the office, I think that that’s kind of a win-win for everyone. So, yeah, people want to be back into the office in some way, shape or form. But it’s- that future office is not going to be kind of this office. This office that you see here, which is what people are maybe  be used to. Less- less dynamic, less experience driven, perhaps the office space in more locations, older building stock. And how do we know that people don’t want to be in this type of office? Well we’re doing some straight math statistics here. If we look at vacancies, if you think about what Toronto’s vacancy rate was prior to the pandemic, it was one to two percent, which is very, very tight. It’s extremely tight. It’s actually very difficult for an organization to grow when there’s only one to two percent to grow within. If you think about, you know, a tech company that grows from one floor to two floors, you might not get that second floor adjacent to you or in the same building, for that matter. So it is a little bit tight if we think of subprime real estate, which is that kind of space that is, again maybe out of the downtown core, not around similar business clusters, their vacancy rates increase significantly more. So it’s like six to 12 percent right now. And while that isn’t hugely alarming. It is a big change and I think the shock is actually coming from the Delta, from that type one to two percent to six to 12 percent. If we think about prime real estate, so the downtown core proper, if you think about the business district in the south core of Toronto, that’s real estate performed much, much better within- during the pandemic. So people are still building. They’re still intending to return to office in some way. There’s a little bit of activity. Every downtown core in the world is suffering a little bit now, but it seems that that prime real estate is suffering a little bit less. So why is this bad? And here’s a lovely diagram of Toronto. And if we think about where some of these- some of the locations of these real estate are, so if you think about office space, both prime and sub-prime real estate. Subprime is like this blue downtown core piece. Subprime is kind of scattered all over the place. And maybe on this blank out where we are right now, some networking, pretty intense feelings. There are great prime real estate office is all over the city and there are sub prime offices all over the city. I just wanted to indicate where this kind of greater clusters are from. If we think that these are the spaces that are going to vacate more, become vacant in the future, we need to think about how those neighborhoods might adapt to losing a very vital component to their experience. And that is that working population. If you have an office tower with a thousand workers on it, that- who go there day to day, that’s- that group of people is supporting the local businesses, the restaurants. It’s creating vibrancy on the streets. It’s creating diversity in those neighborhoods. And if you’re missing that population, how can we adapt the space? How can we address that that change in what that dynamic looks like? So this is telling us a few things; one good office is doing not bad. It’s doing pretty good. Two, new offices must be even more people focused, and three bad office is in trouble. And the first two are pretty, easy to address. So one good office is doing OK. New buildings stock is always going to have greater infrastructure. It’s already been built in a more resilient way. It’s probably more energy efficient. It’s probably more flexible. It probably has those great amenities that everyone kind of wants. So it’s already a desirable sort of asset. New office must be even more people focused. And again, this is definitely a conversation that has been sort of spoken about across the board. And this here is a huge opportunity. We have a chance to redefine what that space needs to be redefined, what work is to us as know, as a culture, as a city, as a country, as the world, what does work need to be in the future? What is work life balance truly mean? And what is the space that’s required to address some of those things? That’s a whole other conversation about the opportunities behind that. The last piece is a little bit harder because what we’re talking about is having empty spaces, which are again, perhaps not the best building stock, maybe not located around other business clusters, but probably in pretty prime real estate, probably pretty central in many cases and probably with some residential surrounding it. What are your opportunities for those types of buildings? And if you’re a building owner, a developer or whatever, you have a few different options. One is this notion of consolidation and the whole idea behind consolidation is getting new tenants into your space. So as old tenants vacate, how can you draw new tenants in? And there’s a lot of there’s you know- as we talked about earlier, workplace will be less needed in this, you know, it’s going to be an even different thing. The amount of workplace that we need, the amount of office spaces that we require is going to change probably out of this pandemic. So consolidation might lead to not getting the right type of tenant that you want or Swiss cheese floors where you have little portions here and there occupying the rest vacant. So perhaps not a long term sustainable solution. Renovation and upgrade is also a fantastic option. There is the notion that there’s a sustainability story of reusing building stock. There’s a big risk here. So, when in an environment where there is high vacancy rates, you might not see the return on that investment. You might actually never see the return on investment, because, as we said again, office space is in less- less demand. Demolishing a new building really does put you into the same category as some of those new assets. So you are able to compete. But again, these secondary type of office buildings are not in the best locations. Also, building a new building and demolishing a whole building takes a lot of time and a lot of capital investment. So there’s a fourth option, which is the conversion to a new function. So can, then, bad offices support a better experience. And the answer is definitely yes, because bad offices really make good residential. And really quickly, I’ll talk about what the future might be for these new spaces. And it is talking about creating mixed use- mixed use communities and more diverse communities. In the past, redevelopment or revitalization really focused around this notion of creating higher value property in certain neighborhoods. Presently, and Toronto is a great example of this, when we think about how spaces are redeveloping- redeveloped in areas re-zoned, it’s about creating homes, breaking up big swaths of industrial, breaking up big swaths of office towers to integrate residential and other type of space uses and create, again a more vibrant community. In the future, we have to amplify that effort and really create hyper diverse spaces that can be scalable, that are diverse in terms of the types of people, the types of businesses that go there to create real resilience around some of these neighborhoods. What can be achieved for this? So obviously it allows for better neighborhood revitalization, opportunities for new housing types, and I think this is a great- a great opportunity to think about in the future, because as we redefine what work is, I think we’re also redefining what home is. And one of the things that we’ve seen through our research is as people tend to work from home – I mean, everyone’s working from home right now, in the future, working from home will happen a little bit more than in the past at least – we saw there’s a gap in the market in terms of a residential condo. So this is really about redefining what that could possibly be. So if you think about how downtown habitation could be different, if you think of a condo complex or an apartment building, are there different types of a enities such as, you know- like we work on the ground floor or actual units that will have been designed in a way that cohabitants can work together at the same time and not compete over Zoom calls. There really is a lot to think about on what can lure people in, what can draw people in and create a home experience and a work experience that is really going to be addressing the future needs of work and life. Number three here is improve urban density and vibrancy which were talked about. And number four, of course, hit new sustainability goals, which I think is probably maybe the most important of these four. If we can reduce the creation of brand and building stock and repurpose buildings while creating vibrant communities, that’s kind of a win-win across the board. So Toronto is actually doing a pretty good job. I mean, there’s tons of opportunity in Toronto for improvements in our urban fabric. But if you think about North America and probably globally, there’s a lot of other cities that this makes a ton of sense. And I’m just going to bring one up that’s in our own backyard, Calgary, which if anyone who knows Calgary, it’s a very decentralized population. They are doing a really great job of trying to get more people in the downtown core. They’ve done a great effort in creating more residential, but their vacancy rates- they have been hit hard by the epidemic, as well as the energy crisis. And their vacancy rate is currently at around 27 percent. So investing in some of these spaces in their downtown core, repurposing them to be a little bit more mixed-use would definitely work in their favor. And a case study that demonstrates the success of this is Detroit. And there’s a million different reasons of why Detroit is kind of a buzz city again. But there was a concerted effort to reinvest in some of these downtown spaces, and again, create that diversity that they’ve been missing as the sort of death of the auto industry came about. And this graph is basically just showing you there is a point in time with their gross domestic product of the city started to increase in real ways based on people coming back to the downtown core. So I think in conclusion, like this pandemic has been awful, but really we can utilize this and really turn it as a catalyst to truly innovate and create the cities that our cities are always meant to be perhaps That’s it. Thank you.

Panel final

Mary Rowe [00:00:04] Nous avons eu un certain nombre de provocations cet après-midi. Je voulais que vous vous joigniez à moi tous les trois pour essayer de donner un sens à tout cela, parce que nous avons entendu beaucoup de choses différentes. Nous avons commencé la matinée avec les informations de base de certains économistes en chef, qui nous ont expliqué le volume exact des défis, la nature des défis dans les centres-villes, et le défi que cette récession, la récession COVID, va poser. Ensuite, nous avons eu beaucoup de questions et d'aspirations sur le fait que si nous revenons, pouvons-nous revenir différemment ? Pouvons-nous voir les centres-villes émerger différemment ? Personne ne semble vouloir revenir à la situation antérieure. Beaucoup de questions se posent alors : comment faire ? Comment les rendre plus inclusifs ? Comment les rendre plus intéressants ? Comment les rendre plus résistants ? Pouvons-nous faire face aux défis climatiques au fur et à mesure que nous les ramenons ? De très nombreuses questions se posent donc. C'est à vous, et vous êtes tous les trois à la hauteur de la tâche, de voir si vous pouvez nous mettre sur la voie de ce que vous pensez être les actions à entreprendre. Y a-t-il des choses tangibles que nous devrions défendre ? Vous savez, l'IUC est dans le domaine du tissu conjonctif. Je le dis toujours. Nous avons - maintenant nous avons des centaines et des centaines et des centaines et des centaines de personnes qui sont vraiment engagées dans la défense des villes canadiennes. Bruce Kratz s'est joint à nous à plusieurs reprises. Je suis heureux de vous revoir, Bruce. Il a une perspective nord-américaine et une perspective internationale parce qu'il a aussi travaillé en Europe. Je sais que, comme les États-Unis, nous allons de l'avant et nous sommes toujours fascinés d'entendre ce qui se passe et de connaître votre point de vue, sachant que l'architecture de la gouvernance est différente dans les deux pays. Mais en même temps, et je pense qu'il y a une prise de conscience ici au Canada que nous devons gouverner différemment. Nous avons besoin de ressources différentes pour les gouvernements municipaux. Nous devons prendre des décisions différentes. Il sera intéressant de voir si le moment est venu. Avons-nous le temps de faire tourner le sablier dans une direction différente ? Bruce va nous parler un peu de son expérience, de son point de vue dans les grands espaces sauvages des États-Unis d'Amérique. Ensuite, Damien et Theo se joindront à lui et nous aurons une conversation plus large. Et bien sûr, comme d'habitude, les gens, mettez des choses dans le chat. N'hésitez pas à ajouter les panélistes et les participants pour que tout le monde puisse en prendre connaissance. En particulier, les personnes qui sont avec nous depuis le début sont très intéressées si vous avez un moment pour réfléchir à ce que les différentes personnes qui ont parlé de Mumbai, de Delhi, de Hong Kong, de Londres, de San Francisco, de New York, de toutes sortes d'endroits, ont en commun. Vous avez parlé de toutes sortes d'endroits. Et bien sûr, d'un milliard de villes canadiennes aussi. Je vous laisse donc la parole, Bruce, et je reviendrai ensuite à Theo et à Damien.

Bruce Kratz [00:02:51] Merci Mary, c'est un plaisir de vous rejoindre. Je n'arrive pas à croire que vous êtes là depuis 10h30. C'est soit sadique, soit masochiste, soit les deux.

Mary Rowe [00:03:01] Ces choses, tout cela, tout cela.

Bruce Kratz [00:03:04] C'est un truc canadien ou ?

Mary Rowe [00:03:06] Oui, c'est typiquement canadien. Mais permettez-moi de dire que nous avons eu des inspirations extraordinaires. Vous savez, nous avons entendu Khelsilem parler d'un projet extraordinaire de 6000 unités de logement dirigé par des autochtones sur des terres autochtones en partenariat avec la municipalité locale et de ce qu'ils vont essayer de faire là-bas. Nous avons entendu toutes sortes de personnes qui ont hésité, je pense, entre l'espoir et le changement. Cela a donc été plus positif et encourageant que ce à quoi on aurait pu s'attendre, même si c'est un peu un marathon.

Bruce Kratz [00:03:36] So here’s the couple thoughts. And I – you know, you’ve got just tremendous people who’ve been presenting and who are on this panel. So let me just give you this perspective. It’s not on what to do, but how to do it. I think in the US, as we’re looking towards large federal spending, a build back, better recovery plan, right now, we’re still doing rescue, the American rescue plan that’s 1.9 trillion. It’ll be a little less, but it’s very large. But, you know, that’s the rescue plan to vaccinate the country, to deal with COVID-proofing schools, to get money to unemployed and American families and households to provide fiscal relief to cities. But coming later is really the larger transformational plan. And that will hopefully involve significant investments in innovation, in infrastructure, in human capital, in climate solutions, community building and the cut across to that could be spending put into the service of equity. More Black and Latino owned businesses, diverse hiring, community wealth building, because this pandemic has had a brutal effect on small businesses and the incomes and assets of Black and Latino Americans. And so I know the focus here is on central business districts and downtowns. But the broader focus within cities is essentially this devastating impact on those demographics and the decimating of commercial corridors, business districts, and mainstreets. So the first order of business is how do you get ready for large amounts of federal spending? This is like Amazon HQ too, on steroids. But everyone wins or everyone gets an allocation or is able to compete for four really critical activities. And so what we’re working on in the US with a small group of cities, about six or seven to start with, then to blow out to the entire country, are essentially a stimulus command centers where cities can declare their priorities, quickly articulate those priorities, whether it is around the central business district, the riverfront, etc., or the broader city environs, articulate those priorities to the Congress and the Biden administration, begin to reverse engineer federal policies so that it’s in the service of cities and is structured in such a flexible way that you can adapt to the issues of a Portland versus a Pittsburgh or a Phenix, and then ultimately deploy with these equity issues in mind. So stimulus command centers, steering committees of public, private and civic actors, we’re working with L.A., Louisville, Philadelphia, Birmingham, Dayton, Kansas City, St. Louis to get this going. And then the key part in this wonderful federalist republic of ours is to then have command centers at the bottom begin to affect how large federal spending again is actually deployed to think of a major city with a multi-dimensional project. In Philadelphia, we have 1300 acres along the riverfront. It’s older, environmentally polluted energy site. Well, if you’re going to put that bacon back into productive use, you need environmental remediation, you need infrastructure, you need workforce training, you need small business support. So how do you get a national government to organize itself across its vertical silos? How do you go from a silo to a system? More horizontal, more network, the way cities operate. So we’re thinking this is going to be a critical part of organizing for the recovery, irrespective of which part of the city you’re looking at, irrespective of what vertical topic education versus employment versus industry and innovation, infrastructure, how do we begin to organize ourselves? And cities set priorities that are really aligned with their market dynamics and their networks. The second piece I would just say is the private stimulus that’s coming. There is so much capital because of what has gone on in the stock market led by consumer savings, but a lot of other factors. And so we have a public stimulus moving. But this – the public sector is not going to remake markets, right? And a lot of what has to happen are new kind of financial products or new kind of capital stocks, particularly around the growth of Black and Latino business and particularly around some of these multidimensional projects. And so as cities are going forward, understanding the role of private capital and providing new vehicles and products for that capital to deploy smartly. Because if it doesn’t deploy smartly, I can guarantee you it’s going to be a lot of parasitic money out there, a lot of predatory money. They’re going to come in, swoop in and take bits of cities, particularly in the high performing cities, and begin to establish their own position for the value appreciation that’s ultimately going to come. The last piece, I’ll say Mary, and this has been sort of a hobby horse of mine, God knows forever. But I do think, if you think about the “how”, not just the “what”, but the “how”, ownership of land and ownership of assets is so absolutely critical going forward, because we could see, given what’s going to happen to our downtown central business districts, I don’t think the same effect will have happen around university hubs. I think university hubs will be stronger, more resilient. But there could be some commercial real estate shifts both within our central business districts and in portions of our commercial corridors into public ownership. And the question for the public sector is, can you unify, integrate your public assets, the land and buildings you own, and move from a fragmented system? In the US it’s the ports, the airports, the rail, the convention center, the stadium, the school districts, the parking authority. I mean, you name it, we have a public authority for it. There’s no unified look at assets. And if you look at what has happened in Copenhagen over the last 30 years or Hamburg or Helsinki recently with the – you know, reconstruction and revitalization of their older ports, the disposition of public assets is going to be disproportionately important I think, in the aftermath of this. One of the few places in the US that is to actually seeming to get its grips around this is Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are in the process of merging their industrial authority, the redevelopment authority and their parking authority so that they can get a unified disposition of assets in the service of inclusive and sustainable growth. So bottom line, as we move forward, we’re all going to have some very interesting ideas about what the post pandemic city looks like. But can we deploy federal capital? Can we begin to innovate on private investment? And can we do the institutional reform that we need so we actually can leverage up the possibility of long term value capture for cities. There is going to be a competition for revenues in 2022, twenty, 2023, 2024. This is just the beginning of it. We’re in a longer transition post pandemic. The Feds will be with us this year. But we all know at the end of the day, cities need to really control their own destiny. So I’ll leave you with that as a sort of an early problem.

Mary Rowe [00:12:04] C'est un bon tour de force de ce avec quoi nous nous débattons. Je veux dire, certainement ici, les municipalités canadiennes sont confrontées à - elles fonctionnent essentiellement sur des fumées. Elles ont des systèmes de transport en commun qui, pour les plus grands d'entre eux, dépendent de la boîte de perception. Elles n'ont pas le nombre d'usagers que vous venez de suggérer. Le gouvernement fédéral s'apprête à faire différents types d'investissements, mais cela ne leur permettra pas d'aller au-delà de 2022. Qui sait quels seront les modèles et les exigences à ce moment-là ? Quelques éléments intéressants pour renforcer ce que vous venez de dire. Ce matin, Craig Alexander, économiste en chef chez Deloitte, a été économiste en chef un peu partout. Il a présenté cette statistique stupéfiante, quelqu'un peut la mettre dans le tableau que je n'ai pas tout à fait bien compris. Mais pour que vous le sachiez, il s'agit de gros sous pour nous au Canada, Bruce. Le montant normal de l'épargne personnelle, je crois, est d'environ 12 milliards de dollars et quelqu'un dans le chat. J'apprécie vraiment que les gens résument ce qu'ils ont entendu au cours de la journée dans le chat. Merci. Continuez à le faire. Oui, le chiffre typique est d'environ 12 milliards. Et il dit qu'au cours de la dernière année de la pandémie, Bruce, deux cent douze milliards de dollars se sont retrouvés sur des comptes bancaires canadiens. Cela s'explique par les nombreux transferts gouvernementaux qui ont permis de venir en aide à la population. Et cela s'explique par le fait que ceux d'entre nous qui ont eu le privilège de travailler à domicile n'ont pas eu beaucoup d'argent à dépenser. Je suppose que c'est là l'argument. Il y a donc le stimulus public et le stimulus privé, et il y a eu quelques spéculations : allons-nous assister aux années folles ? Les gens vont-ils affluer et commencer à dépenser leur argent différemment ? L'autre question qui se pose est la suivante : les gens vont-ils rester fidèles à l'achat numérique ? Est-ce que - et fondamentalement - le commerce de détail de la rue principale ne peut pas être sauvé ? Je vais donc donner la parole à Theo, parce qu'elle est commerçante et qu'elle travaille dans ce secteur. Et la dernière chose que je dirai, c'est que je suis tout à fait d'accord avec vous sur le fait que l'IUC est une question de tissu conjonctif horizontal. Au Canada, comme chez vous, tout est cloisonné. Les gouvernements municipaux sont en relation avec les provinces, avec le gouvernement fédéral, et nous n'avons pas fait un bon travail en matière d'horizontalité. C'est en partie ce que CUI essaie de défendre. Et ce que nous avons vu dans cette pandémie, c'est que les gens ont dû apprendre les uns des autres et ont donc dû créer leur propre système. Ok, Theo, tu es une personne qui a du tissu conjonctif parce que tu diriges une ZAC. Parlez-nous donc un peu de votre point de vue.

Theodora Lamb [00:14:26] Oui. Je veux dire, juste pour passer de la vue macro de Bruce. Une vue incroyable, Bruce, de mon monde, qui est composé de quarante-quatre pâtés de maisons à Vancouver, où je dirige la Strathcona Business Improvement Association, l'une des 22 BIA de la ville de Van. Et, vous le savez, c'est mon unité sur le territoire non concédé des nations Musquem, Squamish et Tsleil-Waututh. Nous comptons plus de 800 entreprises membres. Nous sommes très diversifiés et sans doute l'une des ZAC les plus stimulantes de la ville. Je dirais même de la province, étant donné notre proximité avec la communauté appelée Downtown Eastside. Vous savez, j'ai beaucoup réfléchi, et ce qui a été partagé et ce que dit Bruce, c'est que tout le monde y gagne. Je dois dire qu'année après année, à mesure que j'avance dans la création de lieux et dans ce travail d'urbanisme et de construction de villes, compte tenu de ma situation géographique dans les communautés que je soutiens, les communautés d'affaires et les entreprises sociales, COVID a décimé une communauté déjà vulnérable et marginalisée à East Van et à Strathcona. Nous avons des défis importants à relever en matière de toxicomanie, de logement, de sans-abrisme, de santé mentale et de pauvreté. Et je pense que ce que je retiens de toutes ces conversations aujourd'hui, c'est qu'en tant que stimulateurs, en tant que leaders urbains, nous devons vraiment faire appel à notre activisme social, peut-être de manière plus importante et plus spectaculaire si vous êtes liés à l'un ou l'autre de ces travaux. Personne n'a d'excuse pour ne pas défendre les trois domaines qui me semblent les plus critiques à l'heure actuelle, à savoir le revenu de base universel. Je pense que nous en voyons des exemples fascinants avec ce pipeline de subventions et d'aides aux personnes et ce qui se passe lorsque les gens ont une autonomie financière dans leur vie et sur leur compte d'épargne. Je pense que nous devons plaider en faveur de la socialisation des services de garde d'enfants. Vous savez, c'est énorme. Nous venons d'entendre des statistiques sur l'immobilier, la mixité et l'évolutivité. Cela inclut la possibilité de mettre les femmes sur le marché du travail. Enfin, je pense que le troisième élément consiste à s'attaquer à la crise dévastatrice des opioïdes et aux conséquences sanitaires qui en découlent, ce qui signifie qu'il faut plaider en faveur d'un approvisionnement sûr et de toutes les infrastructures sociales, si nous parlons des infrastructures qui vont de pair. Je ne sais pas si c'est différent de l'aménagement du territoire et du leadership des ZAC d'il y a 20 ans, mais aujourd'hui, nous sommes autant des chefs d'entreprise que des défenseurs du changement social. Et c'est à cette intersection que les choses deviennent vraiment inconfortables. Il faut donc se sentir mal à l'aise, n'est-ce pas ? Cela doit être difficile. Et j'ai beaucoup de chance parce que, d'une certaine manière, mon échelle se limite à quarante-quatre pâtés de maisons en ce moment. Je travaille sur une série de projets avec la ville de Vancouver et mes autres partenaires, collègues, alliés improbables et services de changement social afin de veiller à ce que notre économie locale soit florissante tout en s'assurant que les résidents et les personnes qui vivent dans cet espace, littéralement dans la rue, aient également un coup de pouce et une chance de survivre. C'est en quelque sorte le tableau d'ensemble d'après ce que je vois. Et je suis vraiment curieux d'entendre ce que les autres ont à dire.

Mary Rowe [00:17:53] Au début, nous nous sommes tous dit que COVID, c'était comme si tout le monde était dans le même bateau. Puis nous nous sommes rapidement rendu compte que ce n'était pas vrai. Si vous n'aviez pas de maison où vous réfugier, si vous aviez un emploi précaire, si vous aviez déjà eu des problèmes de santé publique, vous n'étiez pas - vous n'aviez pas les commodités ou les services dans votre communauté qui auraient normalement fourni un certain soutien, et peut-être que vous ne pouviez pas y accéder. Donc, comme tu le suggères Theo, il y a plusieurs niveaux. Au CUI, nous avons lancé une initiative visant à rétablir les rues principales afin d'examiner comment les commerces de détail et le sentiment d'attachement et d'appartenance dont vous devenez très dépendants parce que vous êtes coincés quelque part. Comment allaient-ils être affectés ? Mais nous avons maintenant établi un lien avec la conversation sur le centre-ville, car il s'agit des deux faces d'une même pièce. Damien, vous êtes immergé dans la réalité du centre-ville de Montréal, qui est en crise pour un tas de raisons compliquées. Et Theo, merci d'avoir mentionné toute la question de l'approvisionnement sûr, parce que les gens ne savent peut-être pas - des gens comme Bruce que vous ne connaissez peut-être pas, et d'autres qui ne sont pas familiers avec la scène canadienne - qu'il y a plus de gens qui sont morts à cause des opioïdes que de gens qui sont morts à cause de la drogue. Dans l'ouest du Canada, plus de personnes sont mortes d'une overdose d'opioïdes que de COVID. Il s'agit donc d'un défi extraordinaire qui a été exacerbé par la contamination de l'approvisionnement et toutes sortes d'autres problèmes pendant le COVID. Damien, emmenez-nous à Montréal. Nous irons d'un bout à l'autre. Quel est votre point de vue en tant que défenseur de l'innovation et en tant que créateur de lieux ?

Damien Siles [00:19:20] So Bonjour from Montreal, Bonjour de Montreal, and thanks for the invitation, Mary. I’m going maybe to bring a French touch of accent and of examples. And I will begin about what we’re doing with the District of Innovation of Montreal. And seven years ago, McGill University and Metis University decided to create the first, I will say, playground of innovation and we’re working on four pillars. The first is industrial, the second urban, the third is a social and cultural, and the last one is about training and research. And what we did is we are trying to cultivate an ecosystem, a unique ecosystem with the private, academic, public sectors for and with the citizen. For and with the citizen. Why am I saying that twice because we’re working for the citizen. And it’s very important what we wanted to do and what we doing. It’s a life area of downtown of Montreal and we’re working – the idea is to put the citizen and to put the innovation around and to see how it’s possible to humanize our downtown of Montreal. It’s easy to say. Quite difficult to do. So it’s the presentation of the District of Montreal. I can see two challenges. The first one for me and for us will be about the vacancy offices. Right now in Montreal, normally we have 600,000 workers was coming downtown each day and right now the number is around 50,000, ok? So it’s a disaster. And first of all, the workers, some living downtown, but they are the consumers. And what we need to know before to keep going is to know the human resources, sorry, of the big companies. So we’re working with universities, some universities, say, I did some inquiry, and we are between 15 and 20 percent of workers who are going to stay home. But when I’m speaking with my members, Holdens and big companies, it’s more, 40 percent is going to stay home. So it’s huge. You know, the gap is huge. So we need to know exactly what happened with the private sectors about that. And the second topic, I think it’s the most important. It’s about how we can bring back downtown. And it’s not just about economic and side, but we need to think new, I will say your new deal, you know. If I’m taking the example of Montreal, we have the chance to – Montreal has the largest number of university and numbers of students in Canada and the second in North America. The first town is Boston. After that, you have Montreal, 220,000 students and researchers. And what we need is to trust and to work with the young generation. And so what we have to do is not just to work with the economic side and to use it – and to try to do the same recipes. We have to see how it’s possible to include the new generation, the millennials. And it’s very important. The second example that I will take, it’s about cultural side. We have the chance in Montreal, and you have to know that the seven percent of the GDP of Quebec, the province of Quebec, is coming from the cultural side. It’s huge. So it’s also very, very important to see how it’s possible to give a place to to this side, the cultural side. And, you know, if they had a magical wand, what I will do is – I asked my my employee Julie and she’s with us right now, how I can translate – I don’t like the name for – but it should be a big bang of ideas. And what we need right now, it’s a vision and projects. And not just projects. Why we need a vision? We need to explain to the cities and to the population how we can do something different. And with projects, of course. So what will be very, very interesting to see – to ask to the mayor, an example of the downtown of Montreal of a different metropolis to be the leader and to -when you’re doing – to be the conductor, you know. And to be able to conduct like an orchestra, to conduct all the strength, you know, how of the city and to be able to do something very new and dare something new, not just about economical side. We don’t have to forget that downtown we have people leaving. We have to listen to the citizen and to see how it’s possible to do something different, but with everybody. And I will say about the vision we need of course, when we’re doing open innovation, we need to have a conductor but we need also to have some leaders, some ambassadors to be able to preach the good news and to see how it’s possible to go for further of the project. And I will finish with something in 1929, when we have the big crises, in French, we say les annees folles, the crazy years. And I will say we have the chance, I don’t know if it’s a good word to leave right now, the crazy years where it’s possible to dare and where it’s possible to have someone who is going to to help us to  go through the rain, to be able to do something that we have to find – including a policy to do that. And I’m looking for a magical wand, so if someone has one, I will be very interested to buy one into trying to do that. But we don’t have to forget something. You began this morning with three economists, and I would like to to finish with just human being. And we have to think that downtown Montreal and downtown Metropolis, we have human beings living in the city and they have to be part of the discussion of the new ideas. And it’s an amazing opportunity.

Mary Rowe [00:26:48] C'est une opportunité extraordinaire. Je vous entends, Bruce, quand vous entendez Damien et Theo, qui parlent à partir d'expériences très différentes, de points de vue très différents, mais qui ont beaucoup de défis communs à relever dans ces deux villes, Vancouver et Montréal. Et je dirais que des gens de Calgary nous ont accompagnés toute la journée. Ils avaient 400 étages de bureaux vides avant même l'arrivée de COVID. Toronto, évidemment, est là. Ottawa est là. Halifax est là. Beaucoup d'expériences différentes. Lorsque vous parlez du centre de commandement, que vous êtes - je pense que c'est le langage que vous avez utilisé, comment faites-vous - comment donnez-vous à ce centre de commandement les moyens d'avoir du poids ? Et comment s'assurer que ce centre de commandement englobe toute la diversité des parties prenantes ? Tout le monde, de la personne impliquée dans la rue à l'homme d'affaires, en passant par le touriste, vous voyez ce que je veux dire. Comment faire ? Comment satisfaire toutes ces parties prenantes concurrentes qui, normalement, s'affrontent ? Mais maintenant, nous sommes en quelque sorte sur la ligne de départ. Comment commencer avec tout le monde ?

Bruce Kratz [00:27:50] Je pense qu'il s'agit d'une question de conception et de mise en œuvre. Encore une fois, ce dont je parle du côté public, c'est que le gouvernement fédéral conçoit le plan Build Back Better. Le gouvernement fédéral n'éduque pas un seul enfant. Il ne construit pas une seule maison. Il ne crée pas d'entreprise. C'est au niveau local que les choses se passent. Dans une certaine mesure, les villes sont déjà habilitées, les réseaux de villes à l'intérieur des villes, les communautés publiques, privées, civiques, sont déjà habilitées si elles reconnaissent et réalisent leur pouvoir. Et les centres de commandement, vous savez, certains d'entre eux seront mis en place à partir des mairies, d'autres seront réalisés en collaboration avec la communauté des affaires. De nombreux efforts peuvent être déployés. Je veux dire que si je mets quelque chose sur le chat, je ne sais jamais avec la configuration de Zoom. Mais quoi qu'il en soit -.

Mary Rowe [00:28:41] C'est ici. Je peux le voir.

Bruce Kratz [00:28:42] Oh, oui. Mais à Buffalo, par exemple, il y a une dizaine d'années, on a commencé à réfléchir à grande échelle, à élaborer une vision et, finalement, à prendre des mesures pour régénérer l'est de Buffalo, qui est une communauté historiquement défavorisée. Il devrait y avoir un centre de commandement à l'est de Buffalo pour faire passer ce qui a déjà été fait à l'étape suivante, car comme le dit Theodora, c'est l'endroit, la partie de la ville qui a été le plus durement touchée par la pandémie. Alors que l'est de Buffalo commence à réfléchir à son avenir, on y trouve un magnifique marché alimentaire historique, ainsi que l'ancien terminal central, qui était autrefois la gare ferroviaire. Tout à coup, en pensant à une communauté défavorisée, vous soulevez des questions d'infrastructure, de réutilisation adaptative à grande échelle, qui pourraient déclencher et déployer des dépenses fédérales. Je pense donc que les centres de commandement doivent fonctionner à l'horizontale de la ville, car nous avons - c'est un phénomène des années 1950 aux États-Unis, le phénomène de Robert Moses - créé un grand nombre d'autorités publiques et d'organisations de la société civile qui ont été créées par le gouvernement fédéral. Nous avons créé un grand nombre d'autorités publiques et, dans une certaine mesure, nous avons retiré du pouvoir à l'administration municipale à vocation générale aux États-Unis. Nous l'avons confié à ces autorités publiques en réaction à la corruption de l'époque, aux machines politiques et à la transition ethnique. Eh bien, il nous faut maintenant recomposer Humpty Dumpty. Je veux dire, parce que -.

Mary Rowe [00:30:18] Pour obtenir ce type d'outils, il faut beaucoup de coordination. Je pense que c'est ce que vous voulez dire. Et c'est ce qui s'est passé lors de la deuxième journée de collaboration. Mais l'une des choses dont vous parlez, c'est le pouvoir de l'approvisionnement. Nous allons donc - non seulement l'argent des mesures de relance va arriver de mon compte bancaire ou de celui du gouvernement fédéral ou des gouvernements provinciaux, mais ils vont ensuite dépenser cet argent pour quelque chose. La question est donc de savoir comment diriger - comment influencer qui reçoit cet argent ? J'ai entendu Theo parler de revenu de base universel. C'est une notion qui circule depuis un certain temps au Canada. Elle est populaire dans certaines juridictions et ne l'est vraiment pas dans d'autres. Donc, en attendant, si c'est quelque chose qui est trop difficile à mettre en place au niveau fédéral, quelle est la solution à court terme, pensez-vous, Theo ? Pouvez-vous, par exemple, trouver un moyen de créer différents types de règles, de zonage et d'incitatifs pour que les gens recommencent à interagir avec les entreprises indépendantes dans les rues de Strathcona ?

Theodora Lamb [00:31:23] Si nous prenons Strathcona comme exemple, je pense - et nous parlons de l'approvisionnement en particulier - qu'il faut investir dans les entreprises sociales et ces partenariats. C'est - je dirais que Vancouver est vraiment un centre d'innovation dans ce domaine, en travaillant avec les communautés marginalisées. Et dans les communautés qui sont confrontées à des obstacles à l'emploi où, vous savez - et ensuite en partenariat avec ces organisations dans ces communautés pour apporter des services aux entreprises dans cette communauté et simplement créer cette économie réciproque est vraiment intéressant. Et nous avons vous savez - et cela peut être impliqué dans des projets d'infrastructure, des bâtiments, des entreprises, des commerces de détail, mais cela nécessite des fonds de démarrage.

Mary Rowe [00:32:06] Oui. Qu'en est-il des changements fiscaux ? Qu'en est-il de l'utilisation des taxes, des taxes municipales, fédérales et provinciales ? Pourrions-nous créer un mélange, un régime fiscal qui créerait des conditions plus équitables pour le retour du commerce de détail ? Et en même temps, comme Bruce vient de le suggérer, encourageons la réutilisation adaptative des bâtiments existants. Montréal en a une tonne. Nous pensons que des biens immobiliers vont se libérer, n'est-ce pas ?

Theodora Lamb [00:32:32] Oui, je peux vous dire qu'à Vancouver, nos entreprises assument près de 50 % de la responsabilité de nos systèmes publics, du coût de nos systèmes publics, et représentent 7 % de l'assiette fiscale. L'iniquité est donc telle que la première étape est d'harmoniser les choses. Ce n'est pas un point très populaire, car les conseils municipaux et les maires ne gagnent pas de voix lorsqu'ils transfèrent la taxe commerciale résidentielle à la taxe résidentielle. C'est donc une question délicate.

Mary Rowe [00:33:05] Et allons-nous - et il se peut que nous voyions un peu de cela. Je ne sais pas, Damien, si c'est le cas à Montréal. Mais cela s'est déjà produit à Calgary et à Edmonton. Ils ont déjà transféré une partie de l'impôt foncier du secteur des entreprises lorsque le pétrole et le gaz se sont effondrés il y a quelques années et ont mis plus de poids sur les résidences, comme vous l'avez dit, ce n'est pas quelque chose de populaire. Mais comment faire ? Comment dimensionner cela au plus juste ? Comment allons-nous générer des recettes publiques ? Allez-y Damien et je reviendrai à Bruce ?

Damien Siles [00:33:31] Je ne dirai pas qu'il s'agit de l'argent des impôts. Il s'agit de faire confiance à la nouvelle génération. Je vais vous donner deux exemples. Nous avons la chance à Montréal d'avoir plus de deux mille cinq cents startups. Et lorsque j'ai parlé de donner la chance à la nouvelle génération de faire partie du processus, il ne s'agit pas seulement d'argent, il s'agit de faire partie de quelque chose. La semaine dernière, nous avons commencé la campagne de vaccination et nous avons essayé de voir comment il était possible avec une startup - le nom est Dome de Chant - comment il était possible d'utiliser le dôme pour nettoyer l'endroit après la vaccination. Comment il est possible d'utiliser la musique, comment il est possible d'utiliser des fresques murales et d'autres start-ups. Nous devons voir la force que nous avons et donner une chance. Et ce n'est pas seulement une question d'argent et d'impôts. Ce n'est pas seulement cela. C'est le fait que nous devons donner à la nouvelle génération la possibilité d'agir avec nous et de nous écouter. Vous savez pourquoi ? Parce que c'est elle qui va gérer nos villes. Et je ne suis pas sûr qu'ils seront d'accord avec la politique que nous menons actuellement. Je ne suis pas sûr qu'ils seront d'accord avec la politique que nous menons actuellement. C'est pour cela que c'est si compliqué. Il y a quelques mois, nous avons eu besoin d'une expérience avec l'association Commerson et nous avons fait un mashup. Et nous disons aux startups, ok, nous avons besoin de la meilleure façon de renouveler le centre-ville de Montréal. Et vous savez quoi ? Nous avons été très, très surpris parce que nous avons commencé à nous demander si le prix était celui des startups que nous avons créées et qui faisaient des peintures murales. Et il en était de même pour ce qu'elle fait en ce moment. La fille - qui est la fille, elle peint des peintures murales à l'intérieur du parking. Et il ne s'agit pas seulement d'argent, il s'agit de voir et de connaître les gens. Et cela signifie quelque chose en ce moment, car comme je vous l'ai déjà dit, il ne s'agit pas seulement du fait qu'utiliser la même recette ne fonctionne plus. C'est comme un big bang que nous vivons en ce moment. Et nous devons voir quel outil nous pouvons utiliser pour donner à la jeune génération la possibilité de faire partie du processus.

Mary Rowe [00:36:07] Je vous entends. Vous voulez vraiment créer des conteneurs qui donnent du pouvoir aux gens. Bruce, l'une des choses que vous défendez depuis si longtemps, c'est l'idée d'accords de gouvernance non formels. Différents types d'alliances régionales. Je vois que Marty Birchfield participe à la session d'aujourd'hui, et qu'elle dirige, au sein de la Chambre de commerce de Toronto, l'initiative Economic Blueprint, qu'elle met en œuvre et dont elle parle aux villes de tout le pays. Nous sommes heureux de contribuer à faire progresser cette notion d'infrastructures horizontales. Cela fait-il partie intégrante de votre notion de commandement ? S'agit-il d'un élément régional et d'un élément inclusif pour attirer les groupes d'intérêt cités par Theo et Damien ? Cela peut-il être cela ? Peut-il s'agir de tout cela ?

Bruce Kratz [00:36:51] Eh bien, vous savez, en fin de compte, cela peut être ce qu'un endroit veut que ce soit. Je veux dire, vous savez, la pire chose que le gouvernement national puisse faire aux États-Unis, c'est de dire à tout le monde comment s'organiser. Ce n'est pas notre culture, n'est-ce pas ? Je veux dire, donc...

Mary Rowe [00:37:07] Cela n'a pas l'air de fonctionner beaucoup ici non plus.

Bruce Kratz [00:37:11] Oui, je pense que ce qui va se passer, c'est que la ville X va s'organiser avec l'hôtel de ville qui va diriger la collaboration avec le secteur privé, le secteur civique et le secteur communautaire, les syndicats. Un autre endroit le fera à l'échelle métropolitaine, un autre endroit où personne n'a le pouls et où ce sont donc les quartiers qui s'en chargeront. Je veux dire par là que ce sera l'un de ces moments chaotiques. Mais en fin de compte, ce sont les villes qui doivent prendre l'initiative, car l'argent fédéral, une fois que l'on applique l'infrastructure, l'innovation ou le capital humain, ou qu'on le déploie de manière ciblée, il faut une agence locale. Je veux dire, et cette agence est présente dans tous les secteurs. Elle ne réside pas uniquement dans le secteur public. Je pense donc qu'un grand nombre de choses différentes, prévisibles et totalement imprévisibles, sont sur le point de se produire. Je veux dire, et c'est ainsi que nous fonctionnons. Je veux dire, je suppose que je veux dire.

Mary Rowe [00:38:07] Eh bien, c'est en quelque sorte ce qu'il faut faire. Je pense que la plupart d'entre nous, qui sommes des citadins, des urbanistes ou des amoureux des villes, ne voulons pas que quelqu'un nous dise qu'il n'y a qu'une seule façon de construire la ville. Nous voulons avoir cette flexibilité. Je m'interroge cependant sur l'aspect de l'agence personnelle. Vous parlez de l'infrastructure, de l'infrastructure de gouvernance pour coordonner les choses. Qu'en est-il si nous allons plus loin dans la granularité ? Quel pouvoir y a-t-il, Theo, dans l'achat local ? Quel est le niveau de pouvoir si nous - je veux dire, j'essaie de comprendre. Où se situe le point d'intersection lorsque nous commençons à plaider comme des fous, nous sortons de COVID. Est-ce que nous disons aux gens de dépenser leur argent localement ? Quelle est l'efficacité de cette démarche ?

Theodora Lamb [00:38:49] Oh, j'ai l'impression que c'est une réponse évidente. Vous savez, Amy Robertson et buy local British Columbia sont des experts incontournables. Et je pense qu'Amy est en fait l'un des membres de notre auditoire, un penseur incroyable, un leader d'opinion, un influenceur et un mentor pour moi. Vous savez, je répète que le pouvoir d'achat local est une composante d'une meilleure gestion des affaires et de la justice sociale. Parce que vous participez à la réciprocité, à une économie réciproque où vous gardez vous savez, ce n'est pas seulement - c'est des emplois et comme, eh bien, être dans une zone géographique et Strathcona est hyper local, n'est-ce pas ? Nous avons beaucoup de fabricants, de créateurs industriels. Nous avons dû créer de nouvelles désignations de zonage pour nous adapter à de nouvelles utilisations et à de nouveaux types d'entreprises, ce qui correspond tout à fait à ce que dit Damien, à savoir écouter la jeune génération dont je fais partie. Je suis un leader du millénaire qui est constamment frustré par la bureaucratie de la ville. Vous savez, tout cela fait partie de notre volonté de rester flexibles. Et cela s'inscrit dans le message d'achat local. J'encourage d'ailleurs tout le monde à consulter l'initiative d'achat local de la Colombie-Britannique, dirigée par Amy Robertson. Elle est remarquable.

Mary Rowe [00:40:06] Amy a mis quelques éléments dans le chat. Merci. Et Marcey aussi. Merci à vous. Et, vous savez, je pense que c'est cette question de savoir où nous mettons nos efforts ? Vous savez, sur quoi nous concentrons-nous ? Ce que j'entends de vous, Bruce, c'est que vous mettez au défi les autorités régionales et municipales, comme vous le dites, quelle que soit la configuration qui fonctionne, de se mettre dans une position de coordination et de définition des priorités afin qu'elles puissent ensuite canaliser et prioriser toute forme et tout investissement qui commence à circuler correctement.

Bruce Kratz [00:40:34] Et c'est le moment de voir grand, car nous avons tous été mis au défi aux États-Unis pendant les quatre années de l'enfer, de sortir de là et de penser différemment à la croissance inclusive, à la croissance durable. Je dois donc vous dire que lorsque je me rends dans un certain nombre de villes et que l'on me montre des projets qui sont, entre guillemets, des projets prioritaires pour le transport de surface, routier, ferroviaire ou autre, beaucoup d'entre eux ont l'air d'être des projets hérités. S'ils sont arrivés en haut de la liste des priorités, cela signifie probablement qu'ils ont été lancés en 1995. Je pense donc qu'il est temps de se dépasser, même si beaucoup d'entre nous sont fatigués. Mais nous finirons par sortir de nos sous-sols. Et puis, pour additionner ici, je veux dire pour vraiment agréger. Ainsi, au lieu que chacun des silos présente localement ses propositions, nous commençons à intégrer spatialement, en particulier compte tenu de ce qui se passe dans nos quartiers d'affaires centraux, et à intégrer sectoriellement. Je veux dire que nous devrions profiter de ce moment pour fournir des diplômes à des millions d'Américains. Nous avons l'IA, la robotique, l'apprentissage automatique, nous avons, vous savez, un tout nouveau monde de la science de la localisation. C'est - c'est ce qui devrait être refait, n'est-ce pas ? Je veux dire, et je pense que l'administration Biden envoie définitivement ces signaux. Comme vous le savez, la politique américaine est misérable, fragmentée, fracturée, divisée et tout le reste. Mais, vous savez, nous devons commencer à mettre en avant, par exemple, la direction à prendre. Ce que nous vivons en ce moment va faire l'objet d'articles pendant des siècles. En sortirons-nous avec une nouvelle vision, une nouvelle ambition, une nouvelle aspiration ?

Mary Rowe [00:42:26] Je pense que c'est l'un de ces moments où nous ne voulons pas perdre. Il ne faut jamais gaspiller une crise. C'est vrai ? Et il y a certains segments de l'urbanisme qui sont beaucoup plus favorables au statu quo. Ils veulent que tout redevienne comme avant. N'est-ce pas dommage ? Timothy Papandrea a dit : "Attendez une seconde, ce n'était pas si bien avant". Alors, à quoi pensons-nous ? Nous devons donc pivoter de manière remarquable. Et Damien, tu as dit que nous avions besoin de projets et d'une vision. Je suis d'accord avec vous sur ce point, car je crains que nous puissions faire beaucoup de bla-bla, mais nous avons besoin de choses sur le terrain que les gens peuvent voir.

Damien Siles [00:43:04] Vous savez quoi ? Je vais ajouter quelque chose. Le gouvernement du Québec a décidé de créer, il y a quelques mois, les paniers bleus et qu'est-ce que c'est que le panier bleu ? C'est un reçu où il est possible d'acheter des produits québécois ? Et j'aimerais bien qu'il y ait un panier rouge avec des produits canadiens. Vous savez, nous devons être fiers de ce que nous faisons. Il faut que le moment soit bien choisi pour montrer ce que nous sommes et comment il est possible de promouvoir ce qu'il y a de mieux - la crème de la crème, la crème de la crème. C'est très important.

Mary Rowe [00:43:42] C'est très réconfortant pour les Canadiens d'entendre un Québécois dire cela Damien. Vous venez de rendre heureux tous vos amis, tous vos collègues canadiens anglais.

Damien Siles [00:43:50] Et je veux un panier rouge.

Mary Rowe [00:43:55] Je pensais que vous vouliez - je pensais que vous alliez dire que vous vouliez un panier de Montréal et un panier de Strathcona. Ce serait bien aussi. Alors, pour conclure, parce que ça fait longtemps qu'on est là, s'il y avait une chose, une chose que vous voudriez que les gens retiennent et réfléchissent vraiment, juste une chose simple sur l'avenir des centres-villes, l'avenir des quartiers centraux des affaires et comment cela relie les économies de quartier et les économies locales, quelle est la chose que les gens devraient - quelle est l'étoile polaire ? Theo.

Theodora Lamb [00:44:23] Rappelez-vous que nos défis commerciaux dans ces environnements locaux sont des défis humains. Je vais prendre 30 secondes pour vous parler de mon étoile brillante du moment et de mon plus grand défi : la Strathcona BIA vient de lancer un partenariat dans le domaine de l'entreprise sociale. La BIA de Strathcona vient de lancer un partenariat d'entreprise sociale, l'un des premiers du genre au pays, avec un groupe de résidents du Downtown Eastside qui nous ont approchés, sachant que je me débattais avec le nettoyage, je suis désolé de le dire, des excréments humains dans nos quartiers commerciaux. Ils m'ont dit que nous savions comment régler ce problème. Nous allons nous équiper. Nous allons nettoyer. Nous allons désodoriser, nous allons désanitiser. Vous pouvez nous appeler, vos membres peuvent bénéficier d'un ramassage privé. Le fait que nous ayons besoin de cette entreprise sociale est un véritable défi. Pourtant, ce groupe d'habitants est venu me voir et m'a dit qu'il voyait un problème. C'est une affaire pour nous. Cela aide les membres de votre entreprise. Cela fournit également des données que nous pouvons communiquer à la ville de Vancouver afin qu'elle puisse élaborer sa stratégie en matière de salles de bains. Je veux dire qu'il y a tellement de connexions ici. Et ce n'est pas - il y a une vision profonde derrière quelque chose comme ce défi, l'hyper localisme, et cela répond à un problème humain qui résout un problème commercial. Il faut donc rechercher ces opportunités. Anh ouais.

Mary Rowe [00:45:37] Oui, l'entrepreneuriat qui résout un problème social. Une chose, Damien, quelle est votre étoile polaire ? Quelle est la seule chose.

Damien Siles [00:45:44] Il faut être courageux. Il faut prendre des risques et oser. Et c'est le moment idéal pour écouter le citoyen et pas seulement le côté économique, pas seulement le côté académique, mais nous devons écouter les êtres humains et travailler ensemble.

Mary Rowe [00:46:01] Bruce, une chose.

Bruce Kratz [00:46:02] Je veux dire, je pense que la seule chose qui ressort, c'est la création de richesse pour une grande partie de notre population. Je veux dire, je - cette - vous savez, tout ce que cette pandémie vient de montrer, ce sont ces énormes disparités dans les actions. Ainsi, qu'il s'agisse du quartier central des affaires, du capital humain ou des infrastructures, nous devons créer de la richesse pour une grande partie de notre population. C'est peut-être un point de vue trop américain, mais c'est tout simplement notre châtiment.

Mary Rowe [00:46:33] Nous espérons que les conditions seront réunies pour que tout le monde puisse construire - que tout le monde ait la possibilité de construire sa propre richesse. Merci beaucoup de nous avoir rejoints à la fin de cette longue journée. Vous avez tous les trois des points de vue très différents. Nous vous en sommes très reconnaissants. Il s'agissait pour nous d'une sorte de coup d'envoi sur les priorités à venir pour restaurer le cœur, reconstruire nos centres-villes et les relier à l'économie des quartiers. Ce n'est donc pas la fin. C'est le début. Nous allons continuer à travailler avec les gens. Nous allons continuer à vous impliquer tous. Merci de nous avoir écoutés, Bruce. Bien sûr, nous n'avons jamais perdu votre numéro de téléphone. Bruce va revenir dans trois semaines pour parler aux directeurs des plus grandes villes du Canada de cette idée de centres de commandement, de la façon dont les approches régionales doivent être mises en œuvre et des raisons pour lesquelles c'est l'avenir, afin d'essayer d'obtenir une sorte de coordination - nous avons besoin à la fois d'une vision et de projets. J'ai bien compris. Merci beaucoup d'avoir participé à cette conversation. Je tiens à remercier mes collègues du CUI, en particulier Gina et Jamie, qui ont dû relever d'incroyables défis logistiques pour faire entrer et sortir tout le monde, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom. Ils ont été fabuleux ici, sur un autre canal, avec moi. Je tiens à les remercier, ainsi que tous mes collègues. Encore une fois, merci beaucoup à Bruce, Damien et Theo. C'est un plaisir de vous voir à la fin de notre journée. Vraiment, vous avez été comme la cerise sur le gâteau. Merci à tous.

Damien Siles [00:47:45] Bye bye.

Mary Rowe [00:47:46] Bye bye.

13:31:01 From Canadian Urban Institute : Welcome! Folks, please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
13:31:21 From Canadian Urban Institute :
John Brown, Dean at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-brown-11758a2/
John Brown is a registered architect and a founding principal of both Housebrand Construction and FABhome. He is a recognized authority on residential practice, new models of architectural practice, and age-in-community design. In 2003, he received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Award of Excellence for Innovation for his development of Housebrand, a vertically integrated practice that combines residential architecture, construction, interior design and real estate services into a one-stop shop for homebuyers. In 2009, he received a Leadership Award from Residential Architect Magazine in recognition of his work to increase public awareness about the value of design.
13:31:44 From David Low : Greetings from the Victoria Park BIA in YYC – David Low
13:31:48 From Canadian Urban Institute : You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our sessions at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk Keep the conversation going #restorethecore #bringbackmainstreet #citytalk @canurb To support CityTalk and the Canadian Urban Institute’s other city building initiatives, please donate at www.canurb.org/donate.
13:32:15 From Canadian Urban Institute : Attendees: where are you tuning in from today?
13:32:16 From Annie MacInnis : Hello. Annie, Kensington BIA Calgary
13:32:23 From Augusto Mathias : Greetings from Sao Paulo Brazil
13:32:26 From Kate Fenske : A sunshiny hello from Winnipeg, Manitoba! Can’t wait to hear from Johanna, a fellow ‘pegger! 🙂
13:32:31 From John Nguyen : Hello from Surrey BC – John N
13:32:33 From jeff bray : Jeff Bray from Downtown Victoria, BC
13:32:35 From Linda Weichel to All panelists : Hello Linda Weichel from Toronto
13:32:41 From Justin Shin to All panelists : hello from toronto
13:32:48 From Kimberley Nelson : Hi David! Has your neighbourhood calmed down from yesterday yet? Kimberley Bridgeland Calgary here!
13:32:49 From Lynn Allin to All panelists : Hello from Lynn Allin Penticton BC BIA
13:32:49 From Peter Vaisbord to All panelists : Hi. Peter Vaisbord, City of Vancouver
13:32:52 From Mark Garner : Hello from downtown Toronto
13:33:13 From Frances Bula to All panelists : Frances Bula, Vancouver
13:33:14 From Chelsea Whitty : Sunny Edmonton, AB
13:33:23 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Johanna Hurme, Co-Founder, 5468796 Architecture https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanna-hurme-07aa87b8/
Johanna co-founded the Winnipeg-based practice 5468796 Architecture in 2007. The firm has achieved national and international recognition and its work has been published in over 200 books and publications, including the 2020 DOMUS top 50 guide.
13:33:40 From Patricia Barnes : Hi All, Tricia Barnes from Vancouver, BC I acknowledge that I work and live on the traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.
13:34:08 From Ronald Richards to All panelists : Ron Richards from Ottawa, Canada
13:34:09 From Yurij Pelech to All panelists : Greetings from Bessant Pelech Associates Inc (Mississauga ON) Development Planning + Project Management Consultants and Gerontology & LTC Consultants
13:34:22 From Ralph Cipolla : hello from Ralph Cipolla in Orillia Ontario Canada
13:34:35 From Mary W. Rowe to Peter Vaisbord and all panelists : Hi Peter!
13:34:54 From Canadian Urban Institute : Reminding attendees to please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
13:35:27 From Mary W. Rowe to Kate Fenske and all panelists : Hi Kate!
13:35:36 From David Low : Vic Park is always calm, yesterdays fun was Beltline 🙂
13:36:00 From Jay Boyce to All panelists : Hello. Jay Boyce from Calgary located in the Treaty 7 Region of S. Alberta.
13:36:11 From James Lima to All panelists : Greetings from NY NY!
13:36:21 From Mary W. Rowe to James Lima and all panelists : 🙂
13:36:36 From Jay Boyce : Hello. Jay Boyce from Calgary located in the Treaty 7 Region of S. Alberta.
13:36:46 From Karen Dar Woon : Third generation settler whose family arrived at Turtle Island from China circa 1910. Born, raised and grateful to remain on UNCEDED lands of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
13:36:49 From Brad Krizan : Hello, Brad from Calgary!
13:37:17 From Karen Dar Woon : (also known as Vancouver downtown)
13:37:23 From Donna Franz to All panelists : Hello from Kelowna , in the Okanagan BC
13:37:27 From Reg Nalezyty : hi Reg from Thunder Bay
13:39:14 From Kate Fenske : Winnipeg sure looks good! 😉
13:41:02 From Mary W. Rowe : great shots from Winnipeg!
13:41:22 From Diane Dyson : Social media hashtags are #RestoreTheCore #BringBackMainStreet #CityTalk!
13:41:40 From Mary W. Rowe to Frances Bula and all panelists : Hi Frances – how are you? I LOVED the laneway house saga 🙂
13:43:10 From Ian Scott : Can we hear some thoughts regarding Community Benefit Agreements for new construction to maximize positive social, economic and environmental impacts?
13:43:38 From Linda Weichel to All panelists : How does the point about 1-person households relate to the previous point about CBDs not being family friendly?
13:43:56 From Linda Weichel : How does the point about 1-person households relate to the previous point about CBDs not being family friendly?
13:44:43 From Gay Stephenson : Building along the transit core with mixed uses and heights is very appealing! Would love to see this in more cities.
13:45:00 From Ralph Cipolla : what is going to be the effect of climate change to communities
13:47:05 From Canadian Urban Institute : You can find transcripts, presentations, and recordings of today’s sessions at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk
13:47:15 From Kate Thompson : Thank you, Johanna. Excellent points and I’m glad to have your strong voice at the table.
13:48:05 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Timothy Papandreou, Founder and CEO of Emerging Transport Advisors https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothypapandreou/
Timothy is the founder and CEO of Emerging Transport Advisors providing strategic guidance to companies, investors, startups and governments on the active, shared, electric, connected and automated transport transition. As the former strategic partnerships manager at Google X and Waymo, he collaborated with teams to prepare the commercialization of the company and set up first-in-kind partnerships to launch the world’s first fully self-driving ride hail service in Phoenix, while being fully immersed in automation technology and its implications for the broader society. He co-founded City Innovate, a smart city platform matching governments, companies, and startups to accelerate innovation through the STIR (startup in residence) program.
13:48:10 From Donna Franz to All panelists : Excellent Johanna – appreciate your comments re: removing barriers to create inclusion – it will lead to diversity
13:48:39 From Donna Franz : Excellent Johanna – appreciate your comments re: removing barriers to create inclusion – it will lead to diversity
13:48:49 From Donna Franz to All panelists : sorry panelists
13:54:53 From Johanna Hurme : Linda to your question: How does the point about 1-person households relate to the previous point about CBDs not being family friendly? – Point was really just entice developers to provide more ‘right-sized’ development here, where 62.5% of all housing stock consists of single family homes that keep sprawling out. The mid scale multi family housing should absolutely include a mix of unit sizes, tenancy types, and price ranges suited to families as well.
13:55:56 From Linda Weichel : Thanks Johanna.
13:56:13 From CS : How long do you think it will take for the rent prices to climb back up to the pre-pandemic prices?
13:56:33 From Brad Krizan : Isn’t car free another form of NIMBYISM?
13:57:34 From Karen Dar Woon : I’m so grateful for the activists in 1970s Vancouver who stopped the development of expressways through the city.
14:02:46 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Alexander Josephson, Co-founder, Partisans
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-josephson-946b4425/
Architect Alex Josephson is the co-founder of PARTISANS. He studied sculpture and architecture at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and at the University of Rome, where he graduated as a President’s scholar. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and exhibitions including a New York Prize Fellowship awarded by the Van Alen Institute for Architecture. While studying and living in Italy he worked in the studios of Massimilliano Fuksas and Doriana Mandrelli. His thesis work on Islamic architecture has been the subject of numerous awards and reviews. In 2010 he was admitted to post graduate studies at the Architecture Association school (AA) in London England, but left to found PARTISANS in Toronto. Alex was most recently recipient of the Globe and Mail Catalyst Award for architecture.
14:02:49 From Gay Stephenson : I’m grateful for the panelists drawing attention to building inclusive cities, together in the future where all groups and people can thrive together!
14:04:47 From Jay Boyce : Alex we are seeing your powepoint program and not your slide show presentation.
14:05:31 From Timothy Papandreou San Francisco to CS and all panelists : CS I hope the rent prices won’t don’t come back at these levels, but without affordability controls it will only be a matter of time.
14:06:39 From Brad Krizan : This is collaboration !!!
14:07:25 From CS : Just leave it there and click on the slides one at a time
14:07:42 From Diane Dyson : Always gotta have a Zoom moment!
14:08:31 From Robert Plitt : Its okay.. just go for it
14:08:40 From Diane Dyson : Bravo!!
14:08:59 From Linda Weichel : We’re all in this together!
14:10:02 From CS : Love the house at the bottom!
14:10:14 From paul mackinnon to All panelists : who’s house is that on the bottom? LOL
14:10:31 From paul mackinnon : who’s house was that on the bottom? LOL
14:11:45 From Kayly Robbins : Hello from Barrie, ON. Very excited to see Innisfil and the Orbit!!
14:13:28 From Cherise Burda to All panelists : We need more solutions like these to disrupt “tall and sprawl” formula of developing municipalities
14:14:02 From Cherise Burda : We need more solutions like these to disrupt “tall and sprawl” formula of developing municipalities
14:16:12 From Cherise Burda : burning man informing planning.love it
14:16:54 From CS : What’s the population count?
14:18:16 From Louroz Mercader to All panelists : Love it!
14:18:30 From Timothy Papandreou San Francisco : this is looking like a real smart city! Make sure it has affordability controls for both residents and businesses
14:18:33 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Jacquelyn West, Co-Creative Director, So Good City https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacq-west/
Jacquelyn West is a professional who passionately builds physical places and enablement programs to contribute to the success and global reputation of the cultural industries in Canadian cities. She works to build and strengthen the authentic cultural ecosystems with solutions and sustainable contexts for creative economy stimulus, beautification of public space, and community connection. Her programs and pilots positively impact place identity and develop generative cultural destinations in Toronto, Montréal and in 2021, Vancouver. Her approach to placemaking enables local entrepreneurs and artists foremost and catalyzes places of inspiration in public art, creative entrepreneurialism, local cultural engagement, and community relevance. Her portfolio has directly impacted policy decisions and generated 7 figure investment into the creative community of Toronto through private art commissions, job creation, cultural program design, and philanthropy. She is the Co-Creative Director at So Good City, and spends her time between Montréal, Toronto, and Nosara Costa Rica.
14:19:03 From Alison Theodore to All panelists : @CS Do you mean population of Innisfil? It’s about 37,000
14:19:04 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Lee Clarke, So Good City, and Co-Founder & CEO Galileo Collective https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-clarke-80181046/
Lee is a British registered Architect from London, England. He has amassed 15 years of post-qualification working experience in the field of Architecture, Design and Construction, and worked in London, Bermuda, Vancouver and most recently Toronto. After four years based in Vancouver working on a team of Architects specializing in Vancouver to Toronto business expansion, he started his own design studio in Toronto toward interior architecture and commercial podium tenant improvements. Motivated by requests of assistance from struggling clients entering into the legal cannabis landscape, in 2020 Lee co-founded Galileo Collective, a cannabis retail consultant and build team. Lee is a passionate member and has been fundamental in the momentum of Ferrotype, a group of black professionals, rooted in mentorship of new talent into the industries of construction, design and finance. The group’s mandate is to act as a beacon to younger generations that includes but are not limited to financiers, architects and land developers of colour, offering guidance and advice where possible.
14:19:31 From Donna Franz : Alex thank you for mentioning accessibility when speaking of your future design, it looks wonderful !
14:19:35 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Ravi Jain, Founder, Why Not Theatre
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravi-jain-650ab92b/
Toronto-based stage director Ravi Jain is a multi-award-winning artist known for making politically bold and accessible theatrical experiences in both small indie productions and large theatres. As the founding artistic director of Why Not Theatre, Ravi has established himself as an artistic leader for his inventive productions, international producing/collaborations and innovative producing models which are aimed to better support emerging artists to make money from their art.  Ravi was twice shortlisted for the 2016 and 2019 Siminovitch Prize and won the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award for Emerging Director and the 2016 Canada Council John Hirsch Prize for direction. He is a graduate of the two-year program at École Jacques Lecoq. He was also selected to be on the roster of clowns for Cirque du Soliel. Currently his adaptation of The Indian epic Mahabarata will premiere at the Shaw Festival in 2022 and What You Won’t Do For Love, starring David Suzuki will premier in Vancouver in 2022.
14:19:45 From Alan McNair : A dream come true for the developer, but lacking any serious opportunity for public participation, input and NO option for appeal , due to a Ministers Zoning Order! Provincial plans and growth targets ignored by Town and Province!
14:20:57 From Jay Boyce : I appreciate the research and exploration of the Innisfail project Alex and the willingness to break away from the norm.
14:20:59 From John Brown to Canadian Urban Institute(Privately) : We are ahead of time. What do you want me to do when this presentation is finished? Take questions from the chat? Ask Mary to make comments? Pass the time saving along to the next set of presenters?
14:28:55 From Jessica Lynch : Culture must live on! Moments of inspiration and connectiveness are key. Thank you for highlighting the importance of creative placemaking.
14:28:56 From Jacquelyn West : Merci à tous, Thank you everyone. Be in touch, Jacquelyn West, Co Creative Director, So Good City | jw@jacqwest.com | @sogood.city

Lee Clarke, Co Founder, Galileo Collective | hello@galileocollective.com | @galileo.collective
14:30:11 From Robert Plitt : Best production of Hamlet Ravi!
14:31:35 From Brad Krizan : Quite an innovative approach…you are wise to stay flexible vs get a building. Would love to see you take a spin through Calgary in the future!
14:33:55 From Karen Dar Woon : I am very interested in more info about Meanwhile leases
14:34:45 From Jacquelyn West : yes! Meanwhile leases will be an important tool in alleviating temporarily the challenges of vacancy at the commercial grade
14:35:02 From Robert Plitt : Similar cool transitory space work happening in Montreal. http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PROJ_URBAINS_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/rapport_mtltransitoire_vf_2017.pdf
14:35:57 From Robert Plitt : Entremise as well . https://entremise.ca/
14:36:02 From Mariya Postelnyak to All panelists : May have missed it, but what is the name/title of this initiative Ravi?
14:36:05 From Jacquelyn West to Robert Plitt and all panelists : thank you Robert! are you based also in Montreal?
14:36:06 From Robert Plitt : Brad we should chat about this idea
14:36:38 From Brad Krizan : Good idea Robert, DM me!
14:36:58 From Shahinaz Eshesh : I am also interested in learning more about this initiative and Meanwhile leases. City of Brampton owns a number of heritage buildings in the Downtown that we are looking to activate. Great initiative Ravi!
14:38:37 From Jessica Lynch : So many vacant buildings right now in our cities
14:39:34 From Louroz Mercader to All panelists : Love it! Thanks Ravi!
14:39:40 From paul mackinnon : Ravi, who spearheaded moving theatre into the buildings? Did you need to convince the landlords, or were there other influencers (ie, BIAs, etc.)
14:40:00 From Brad Krizan : Great energy folks….loved the ideas and presentation
14:40:19 From Brad Krizan : We have LOTS of space for meanwhile leasing in Calgary!
14:40:26 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Cherise Burda, Executive Director, City Building Ryerson at Ryerson University https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherise-burda-12493817/
Cherise Burda is Executive Director of City Building Ryerson, university-wide collaboratory for research, learning and engagement to advance sustainable urban solutions. Cherise’s previous positions include Ontario Director of the Pembina Institute, Program Director for the David Suzuki Foundation in Vancouver and senior researcher with University of Victoria’s Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy. Cherise holds an M.A. in environmental policy from University of Victoria, a B.Sc. in environmental science and a Bachelor of Education, both from University of Toronto. She has authored over forty research and policy reports, academic articles, book chapters and other publication, she serves on a number of government advisory groups and is a regular panelist and presenter. @CheriseBurda
14:40:29 From Suzy Godefroy : Great discussion and amazing ideas!!! We need to prioritize activating our spaces in our downtowns!
14:40:33 From Ravi Jain to All panelists : Paul- we focused primarily on rehearsal and not performance, so no audiences
14:40:37 From Robert Plitt : Thanks John!
14:40:40 From Ravi Jain to All panelists : Lour! so nice to see you!
14:42:18 From Ravi Jain to All panelists : https://whynot.theatre/work/space-project/ (for more info)
14:42:40 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Alkarim Devani, Co-Founder, Chroma Property Technologies https://www.linkedin.com/in/alkarim-devani-45964a24/
Alkarim’s vision is to make thriving communities through elevated design and innovation. He wants to connect more people to the simple pleasure of living in a walkable neighbourhood full of vibrant, local businesses and modern spaces. Seeded in his hometown of Calgary, he is committed to improving the urban life and connection of people everywhere. As Co-Founder of RNDSQR and as Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of CHROMA, his ideas are reflected in each build. Emphasis is placed on living, connecting and creating sustainable homes where people can make it all fit. In addition, Alkarim is a board member of D.Talks, a partner at NHBR Coffee and No Island Co-Work, places to connect with his community and maintain a pulse on the needs of Calgarians.
14:42:45 From Diane Dyson : https://pop-upshops.ca/ provides some good guidance and case studies on one version of Meanwhile leases.
14:48:48 From James Lima : exactly, focus on what stresses and motivations tenants and landlords have and what barriers they face in order to find new ways to use street-level spaces. #theeconomicsofplacemaking
14:51:50 From Gay Stephenson : Meanwhile uses are a great way to use empty spaces…. https://pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca/popup/
14:52:45 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Tł’akwasik̕a̱n Khelsilem, Council Member of Squamish Nation https://www.linkedin.com/in/khelsilem/
Khelsilem hails from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh-speaking communities of Xwmel̓ts’stn and Eslhá7an and the Kwak̕wala-speaking tribes of the Na̱mg̱is’ and Ḵwiḵwa̱sut̓inux̱w. He grew up and lives in the city of Vancouver. He is currently the Programming Director for Kwi Awt Stelmexw – a Coast Salish arts & education non-profit. He is also a Lecturer at Simon Fraser University in an Indigenous language program that focuses on adult immersion. He is a second-language speaker of the Squamish Language. Prior to becoming an Educator, Khelsilem worked for many years as a graphic designer and communications consultant. He has with different First Nations and organizations on community engagement projects that engage members to provide policy feedback to leadership.
14:53:47 From paul mackinnon : If talent really drives location, what things can BIAs do to make downtown a MORE appealing place than working from home, so that a downtown location is preferred by employees?
14:54:15 From Mike Kasij : sutera-inground.com… our work in city and town centres is largely focused on rethinking urban waste management… we can categorically say that DOG WASTE needs to be moved up to the top of the list of what needs to be done at the greenspace/street level to better address impacts of population growth and infill. Through the creation and execution of our own specialized dog waste landfill diversion program, used now by dozens of municipalities; and now in multiple countries – we have learned some shocking realities of what is one of the largest sources of contamination from urban waste runoff… Planners and politicians need to do a better job to account for this subsection of our population (one that can be seen as outpacing human population growth in many instances) – beyond placing a few cans or bins on a stick for people to use and empty by hand… from the most recent Ontario Parks Association magazine as a frame of reference: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/904052/23/ ….
14:57:12 From Gay Stephenson : Bike parking is very much appreciated in Vancouver! Wow. Stunning designs.
14:58:31 From Kathleen Dale to All panelists : The design looks very green which is great. Love that the focus is bike parking vs car parking.
14:59:03 From Kathleen Dale : The design looks very green which is great. Love that the focus is bike parking vs car parking
14:59:03 From Canadian Urban Institute : We love your comments and questions in the chat! Share them with everyone by changing your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees”. Thanks!
15:01:44 From Patricia Barnes : This is a great development proposal. Would be fantastic if the City of Vancouver could look at this process and speed up their approval process and make it more flexible
15:01:49 From Timothy Papandreou San Francisco : Need to jump. Thanks for having me- look forward to connect timothy@emergingtransport.com Thanks!
15:02:02 From Jay Boyce : Khelsilem this is such an inspiring project! This shows how our current municipal processes are limiting innovation and opportunity to build better!
15:03:34 From Alkarim Devani : This is truly amazing. Great work Khelsilem!
15:05:47 From Shahinaz Eshesh : This is incredible and an exciting inspiring project. Very important messaging here and appreciate that you were given the platform to speak to us today
15:06:26 From Jill Tipping : Such a fantastic project!
15:06:32 From Gay Stephenson : I’m very inspired to see this type of development coming!
15:06:48 From Donna Franz : Absolutely fabulous Khelsilem will look forward to seeing it in the future.
15:07:33 From James Lima to All panelists : incredible. we need to take inspiration from this for similar approaches in the US
15:07:35 From Karen Dar Woon : Thank you Khelsilem, for taking the time to share this important education for settlers.
15:07:39 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Ray Walia, CEO, Launch Ventures
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raywalia/
Ray Walia is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in both the entertainment and technology sectors. Ray founded Launch Ventures which owns and operates a network of private incubators, innovation labs, and investment funds. Ray has contributed towards the development of the technology ecosystem in North America and has assisted countless entrepreneurs in building sustainable and financeable businesses, including over international companies from over 100+ countries through various Launch Academy programs. Ray has hosted and run events that have been attended by international dignitaries and ambassadors, the Canadian Prime Minister, CEOs and Founders of Fortune 100 companies with the most recent being the TractionConf.io event in both Vancouver and San Francisco.

Jill Tipping, CEO, BC Tech
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-tipping-fcpa-fca-497b1a8/
Jill Tipping is a passionate advocate for BC and BC’s tech-enabled future. As BC Tech’s CEO she is determined to make BC a place where tech companies are supported not only to startup but to grow, export and scaleup; and where BC technology is deployed to build resiliency and growth in every industry sector.
15:08:19 From Karen Dar Woon : I’m excited to see the project develop in coming years.
15:15:32 From Brad Krizan to All panelists : I like that you called in from an unconventional workspace today Ray !!
15:17:08 From Karen Dar Woon : The reality for a lot of younger/entry level workers is that they lack appropriate work from home space.
15:20:13 From Jocelyn Phu : Echoing the comments above regarding the changing demographics of the workforce with Zoomers desires and needs. Their ability to own/rent large enough homes that can accommodate home offices is a real challenge but the other side of this are alarming trends around mental health in isolation
15:20:34 From Sophia Seng : Agree with the demand for flexible spaces for co-creation and open dialogue. What’s the name of the CH room?
15:22:25 From Kay Matthews : Sorry just jumping back in, is the downtown discussion still going on?
15:23:52 From Tamarisk Saunders-Davies : Looks like that CH room is called VANCOUVER BASED CREATIVES
15:23:55 From Mary W. Rowe to Kay Matthews and all panelists : you you’re hearing the presentation from the tech perspective
15:25:01 From Donna Franz : Jill – appreciate your comment – “more responsive world” – I would like to add responsive to accessibility, that creates inclusion which achieves diversity – the spice of life!
15:27:33 From Sophia Seng : Thanks Jill and Ray
15:27:48 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Michel Lauzon, President and CEO of LAAB https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellauzon/
Michel Lauzon is a creative mind at the crossroads of design, real estate and business strategy as well as an acclaimed out-of-the-box thinker. An accomplished architect and urban designer, Michel is proficient in design-driven problem-solving for complex projects in a variety of typologies and markets: mixed-use, hospitality, commercial & offices, retail, multi-unit residential, high-rises, cultural, entertainment & sports, transport, tourist destinations & themeparks, new city design and emerging niches such as creativity hubs and co-working. Michel has a proven track record of design success featuring over 50 awards, landmark buildings and 12 winning competition proposals. Thought leader and reputed key note speaker on the topics of creativity, design thinking, innovation by design and brandscaping. His work and design approach have been featured in acclaimed media such as the New York Times, Architectural Record, Canadian Architect, Domus, Azure, Frame, Dwell and Wallpaper.
15:41:44 From Robert Plitt : Check out Aspen Institutes City as Platform. https://csreports.aspeninstitute.org/documents/CityAsPlatform.pdf
15:41:44 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Kevin Katigbak, Senior Strategist, Gensler
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kckatigbak/
As a sought-after strategist and consultant, Kevin Katigbak brings the aggregate of his 15+ years of experience to the forefront, often with a fresh, new perspective which helps clients and colleagues approach design from a different angle. Kevin has demonstrated success in strategy for financial, commercial, public and institutional, government, healthcare, and higher education projects. He is experienced in building and site program development, strategic real estate portfolio development, and optimization studies.
15:45:51 From Brad Krizan : They hybrid model addresses many issues, from work life balance to loss of productivity via commute times, to even safety with less ‘windshield’ time.
15:55:43 From Karen Dar Woon : I appreciate that our building of ~250 units includes multiple common access spaces which could be used as WFH spaces. If only there was wifi 😉
15:56:46 From Brad Krizan : Proforma’s are a challenge with those conversions. I wish the civic leaders in Calgary were more willing to look at Detroit as the analogous case for what’s happening in our city….not Denver or Pittsburgh
15:56:52 From Jenna Dutton : It’s actually now at 30% in Calgary (https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Office-Vacancy-Graham-Dutton.pdf) 🙂
15:57:23 From Gay Stephenson : Fabulous to see all that research, Kevin.
15:57:44 From Canadian Urban Institute : You can find transcripts, presentations and recordings of today’s and all our sessions at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk Keep the conversation going #restorethecore #bringbackmainstreet #citytalk @canurb To support CityTalk and the Canadian Urban Institute’s other city building initiatives, please donate at www.canurb.org/donate.
15:58:32 From Patrick Murphy to All panelists : Thank you
15:58:57 From Robin McPherson : Incredible day!
15:59:00 From James Lima : Detroit’s older offices had much smaller floor plates than Calgary’s 60’s-80’s stock that work nicely for residential. what to do with not so old and BIG 1960’s-80’s office floor plates?
15:59:01 From Michel Lauzon : thanks to everyone for a great sharing of ideas.
15:59:02 From Donna Franz : Thank you, have to run, really appreciated all the the information and innovative thinking, thanks again!
15:59:07 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Bruce Katz, Founder, New Localism Advisors & Director at Drexel University https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucekatz1/
Bruce J. Katz is the Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University. The Lab seeks to find multi-sectoral ways to finance the inclusive city through new instruments, intermediaries and institutions. Katz is also the Co-Founder (with Jeremy Nowak) of New Localism Advisors. The mission of the firm is to help cities design, finance and deliver transformative initiatives that promote inclusive and sustainable growth. Katz regularly advises cross-sector urban, metropolitan, national and global leaders on public reforms and private innovations that advance the well-being of metropolitan areas and their countries. Katz is co-author of two books, The New Localism and The Metropolitan Revolution, which focus on the rise of city networks as the world’s leading problem solvers.

Theodora Lamb, directrice exécutive, Strathcona BIA https://www.linkedin.com/in/theolamb/?originalSubdomain=ca
Theo est directrice exécutive de la Strathcona Business Improvement Association, où elle est responsable de la gestion de 44 pâtés de maisons à Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique. Elle défend les intérêts des 850 entreprises membres qui opèrent dans l'un des quartiers commerciaux les plus diversifiés et les plus stimulants du Canada. Theo a été pendant six ans membre élu du conseil d'administration de Vancity, la dixième plus grande institution financière du Canada et la plus grande coopérative de crédit de la Colombie-Britannique, en tant que présidente des comités de gouvernance et de transformation numérique. Avant de travailler pour la Strathcona BIA, elle a dirigé Cicada Community Consulting, où elle a aidé des organisations à but non lucratif provinciales et nationales à faire connaître leurs membres par le biais de la défense des intérêts numériques. Elle s'identifie comme une défenseuse passionnée des affaires, une colonisatrice, une mère et une féministe.

Damien Silès, Directeur, Quartier de l'Innovation de Montréal https://www.linkedin.com/in/damien-sil%C3%A8s-b9095b10/

Damien Silès possède une solide formation en commerce international et occupe le poste de directeur général du Quartier de l'Innovation de Montréal depuis 2014. Auparavant, il a été pendant six ans directeur général de la Société de développement social de Ville-Marie, le premier agent de solidarité sociale en Amérique du Nord, qu'il a fondé en 2008. Ses réalisations à la tête de cet organisme ont été saluées par les médias et il a été nommé à deux reprises personne de la semaine par La Presse-Radio-Canada (février 2011 et juin 2013).

16:02:20 De Voncelle Volté : ⚡ Bien que j'en sois à ma 3e conférence sur plusieurs écrans de 3 pays différents à l'heure 9, c'est tellement bon et ça vaut le dernier tour !!!!!. Dieu merci, pour 2 oreilles . #TeamMary 🙏🏃‍♀️
16:02:29 De Linda Weichel : Thèmes clés : les gens veulent socialiser ; flexibilité ; agilité ; 'meanwhile lease' ; opportunité.
16:02:35 De Christina Sisson : Journée fascinante et riche en inspiration - merci pour votre dévouement !!!!
16:03:02 De Mary W. Rowe à Voncelle Volté et à tous les panélistes : lol, c'est toujours un plaisir de vous avoir ! endurance !
16:04:40 De Jenna Dutton : Je n'ai pas pu assister à toutes les sessions, mais certains points m'ont frappée : Nous devons traduire la politique en expérience sociale/ Le logement informel doit devenir un logement abordable/ Les villes de 15 minutes sont technocratiques et descendantes - elles doivent être plus axées sur la communauté/ Il y a une magie de l'interaction humaine et de la diffusion des idées/ Nous devons repenser le zonage et la politique et renforcer la confiance et le capital social.
16:07:18 De CS : Les thèmes récurrents de la journée - le changement est continu et se produit à un rythme plus rapide et plus fréquent, il faut s'adapter ou mourir ; les réglementations font obstacle au changement créatif ; l'expérientiel est au cœur du cœur ; la connexion humaine est essentielle ; nous sommes tous des personnes qui recherchent l'interaction sociale. Je terminerai par ceci : pourquoi a-t-il fallu cinq personnes, dans trois départements différents, trois "non" et deux mois et demi pour qu'une ville approuve l'installation d'une enseigne ?
16:08:23 De Alan McNair : Bruce peut-il commenter la nécessité d'un réinvestissement local dans sa propre communauté ?
16:09:31 De Voncelle Volté : ⚡ Le Canada est le pays d'Amérique du Nord le plus avancé à bien des égards.

Pour revenir sur la journée des panels, il y a eu tant de pépites d'or ...

However, the presentation from the politician of 1st Nations in Vancouver was the most enlightening. He expanded my view of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Commercial Real Estate and in general.
16:09:32 From paul mackinnon to All panelists : How can we make our downtown projects more attractive for all of this private capital? What a great opportunity!
16:10:00 From paul mackinnon : How can we make our downtown projects more attractive for all of this private capital? What a great opportunity!
16:10:08 From Canadian Urban Institute to paul mackinnon and all panelists : Hi, Paul! Can you change your chat settings and re-post? Your comment only went to panelists. Thanks!
16:11:48 From CS : $212B is what we saved
16:14:11 From Cheryl Cohen : I am fortunate to live near Danforth, in Toronto, and will never stop shopping locally at the independent stores.
16:15:26 From Bruce Katz to All panelists : For Paul’s question, I think the Buy Local, Invest Local movement is going to realize its full potential post pandemic. Supplier diversity is one of the most critical challenges, given the avalanche of federal spend. We need new mechanisms — lease-to-purchase, community equity trusts — to move more people and small enterprises into ownership positions.
16:16:01 From paul mackinnon : BIAs are well positioned to actually deliver programs that can really transform downtowns, in both USA and Canada. Are we prepared for that potential infusion of cash?
16:16:12 From Robert Plitt : The what meets the how.
16:17:27 From Kay Matthews : We are all in the same storm, but some do not even have a raft and some are in a yacht – so we are not in the same boat.
16:17:48 From Gay Stephenson : Thank you for articulating that so clearly Theo! Absolutely agree.
16:18:18 From Kay Matthews : Yes, Paul
16:19:38 From paul mackinnon : Montreal seems to have the best combo of supports from city and province. What drives that?
16:20:55 From Robert Plitt : Question for Bruce – how local can these command centres get to devolve decision making to the community?
16:22:23 From Kimberley Nelson : What can a national advocacy group do to help push these measures – what is the “big ask” that we should focus on?
16:23:10 From Theodora Lamb She/Hers : Book recommendation for better understanding how to work with millenials to Damien’s point: “Can’t Even” By Anne Helen Peterson
16:25:43 From Bruce Katz : For Paul’s question, the Buy Invest, Local Invest movement is going to realize its full potential post pandemic. We need new mechanisms — new supplier diversity intermediaries, lease to purchase products, community equity trusts — to give residents and enterprises ownership positions
16:26:01 From Michel Lauzon : merci Damien. we will figure out the magic wand together. Innovation is all about process.
16:26:10 From Mike Kasij : Innovation in not born in the public sector. We can only hope that our public sectors adopt innovation sooner rather than later.
16:28:39 From Michel Lauzon : Someone said the challenge is more about the how? since we will have funds and equity as well as the opportunities. how can we coalesce our common momentum to stimulate and frame action at ground zero.
16:31:29 From Jay Boyce : To address the issues Theodora noted that affect areas like Strathcona and East Van is to build on what Damien noted about those of us working in the city building industry to embrace academia as partners. The innovation & research academia is exploring can bring fresh respective to professionals in finding solutions to solve the challenges we have and will need to address moving forward. Collaboration and knowledge sharing is key (IMHO).
16:31:52 From Jay Boyce : *perspective
16:33:29 From Jay Boyce : Additionally, we need to engage community to truly understand the context of the places we will be bringing those solutions too. Today’s panels have been truly inspirational! Thank you.
16:34:22 From Marcy Burchfield : Example of muni/innovationhub/start-up collaboration to solve muni challenges and engage them in procurement process. https://dmz.ryerson.ca/press-releases/town-of-innisfil-partners-with-dmz-to-scale-startups-and-increase-government-procurement/
16:35:13 From Michel Lauzon : Damien is right. it is about posture and disposition of decision makers to be inclusive to grass roots, private sectors and non-public actors to contribute to agile and relevant solutions. this has been a challenge since the start of the pandemic. Incredible intellectual capital and creative capital has been squandered by authorities who want to do well but all alone and in silos.
16:36:16 From Mike Kasij : here here.
16:37:55 From Amy Robinson : Here! Hi and thanks.
16:38:28 From Marcy Burchfield : These innovators(DMZ)/start-ups engaged smaller municipalities b/c penetrating procurement in larger municipalities and cities were very difficult. We need to fix that to engage the local innovators.
16:38:35 From Amy Robinson : This is a great article on how the CoV is influencing local purchasing and employment in new developments. https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/city-of-vancouver-community-benefit-agreements-2018
16:39:29 From Mike Kasij : Does that kind of marketing only appeal to people who are already set in buying local? How does that reach people who might otherwise not see any skin in the game?
16:39:56 From Robert Plitt : Need to stop the tinkering.
16:41:14 From Robert Plitt : amen to that Bruce.
16:41:16 From Lisa Cavicchia : This morning we heard about Asian cities offering financial incentives to go downtown and spend money
16:41:34 From CS : Why can’t we integrate shared ideas across the country. Do you find that often we’re working in silos. E.g. Does Halifax talk to Vancouver, Calgary to Toronto?
16:42:22 From Lisa Cavicchia : https://www.lepanierbleu.ca/
16:42:49 From Lisa Cavicchia : Also, check out citysharecanada.ca for lots of examples and stories from across the country.
16:43:01 From Anne Basque : Bravo Damien!
16:43:10 From Canadian Urban Institute : You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our sessions at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk Keep the conversation going #restorethecore #bringbackmainstreet #citytalk @canurb To support CityTalk and the Canadian Urban Institute’s other city building initiatives, please donate at www.canurb.org/donate.
16:43:39 From Jay Boyce : An interesting model that charities have been looking at due to the decline in donations is to merge their efforts. What ever they collect they would share among each other. Is this an approach cities could look at for addressing key issues and ensuring equality across the board for funding?
16:45:02 From Michel Lauzon : my take-away would be : now is the time to act, no more wait and see. things take time and we need to start doing. we can think while we are doing. and adjust going forward.
16:45:54 From Brad Krizan to All panelists : Great closing session! Thanks for your perspectives.
16:46:01 From Mike Kasij : As a cross border CAN/US business — we Canadians need take some cues from our neighbors and just do it
16:46:06 From Diane Dyson to All panelists : Fabulous panel!
16:46:18 From Voncelle Volté to All panelists : ⚡ Thank you, for an amazing day. 🌻🌻🌻
16:46:22 From Michel Lauzon : thanks CUI for the day! best wishes from Montreal.
16:46:26 From paul mackinnon : great day! Thanks.
16:46:28 From Robert Plitt : Fantastic day1
16:46:30 From Dave Waldron : Thank you, to CUI and all, for a wonderful series of creative provocations!
16:46:31 From Marcy Burchfield : Great day!!
16:46:32 From Ed Landry : Thanks for the great day CUI and all the panelists.
16:46:33 From Anne Basque : Great sessions! Great Day!
16:46:33 From Amy Robinson : Thank you all and too CUI. Inspiring day!
16:46:34 From Julie Bourgoin : Thanks CUI!
16:46:34 From CS : thank you for a wonderful day everyone
16:46:35 From Mike Kasij : Great discussion. Thank you all
16:46:35 From Marcy Burchfield : COngrats