Our Work

The first State of Canada’s Cities report, which is now available, was released in Ottawa today at the State of Canada’s Cities Summit at the Shaw Centre encourages us all to be brave and thoughtful in applying what we learned through COVID-19. We need to quickly adopt and formalize what worked well. We also need to set aside old approaches that have not generated the anticipated benefits, despite our best intentions. Finally, it is imperative that we challenge ourselves to take the bold steps Canada needs to maximize every possibility that urban life promises.

OVERDUE: The Case for Canada’s Public Libraries is the product of three years of CUI’s engagement with Canada’s urban public libraries through the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, issued by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) and Canadian Urban Libraries Council / Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada (CULC/CBUC) details the significance of public libraries for Canada’s post-pandemic recovery, competitiveness, and resilience.

Halifax Evolves features the key learnings from CUI x Halifax and profiles the contributions of people, organizations, and projects working to generate economic activity, support cultural inclusivity, and boost social connectivity in the Halifax Region. CUI worked in collaboration with Build Nova Scotia, Halifax Partnership and Halifax Public Libraries along with dozens of local organizations and leaders to highlight the city’s and region’s aspirations for a vibrant future.

MaaS is an integrated platform for transportation services combining multiple modes on one easy-to-use navigation and payment app. CUI and AECOM’s joint report examines the MaaS concept and outlines a framework for achieving acceptance and implementation in the Greater Toronto Area for the purpose of supporting better mobility access.

What if we could increase housing supply AND revitalize downtowns at the same time? Our report explores the opportunity that vacant and underutilized office space presents for increasing housing supply while making downtown districts across Canada vibrant, equitable, livable, and resilient.

Visualizing Density is a pilot project created by the Canadian Urban Institute to help planners, designers, elected officials, residents’ groups, and private sector builders design more complete communities and adapt existing ones over time. This work aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation about managing growth and building great communities in Ontario.