Our Work

Faith spaces across Canada are disappearing at an alarming rate. With congregations shrinking and maintenance costs soaring, nearly one-third of the country’s 27,000 churches and faith-built spaces could close within the next decade. The report, Sacred Places, Civic Value highlights the urgent need for collaboration between religious and secular leaders to preserve these spaces as critical community infrastructure.

Let’s Talk About Placemaking is a new magazine-like publication developed collaboratively by Canada’s Placemaking Community, a CUI initiative, Community Foundations of Canada, and a range of leading practitioners across Canada and internationally. It’s a visually rich resource that provides a comprehensive look at the value created by contemporary placemaking in Canada.

Making the Case for the Middle, in collaboration with mddl, explores the potential of middle housing to alleviate Alberta’s housing challenges, scale production and meet demand by 2030. Middle housing includes a range of housing types, including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, courtyard apartments, and live/work housing types. This project was made possible through a grant from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation.

Remaking Main Streets, dives deep into the possibilities of intensifying housing along Canada’s main streets, positioning this approach as feasible, financially viable, and desirable for communities and their residents. Canada has over 248,000 opportunities for housing intensification on main streets — But how do we unlock that potential?

A Jump Start: Providing Infrastructure for More Housing, estimates that the cost of housing-enabling infrastructure across Canada averages over $100,000 per new home. Considering Canada’s housing targets, the report suggests there are likely hundreds of billions of dollars required to fund the housing-enabling infrastructure needed across the country. This report offers solutions for municipalities seeking housing solutions.

Both/And: Integrating Natural Asset Management into Federal Housing Supply Policymaking by the Natural Asset Initiative and CUI asserts the importance of incorporating natural asset management (NAM) into Canada’s federal housing strategies. This approach promises not only to enhance community resilience to climate change, but also to elevate the quality of life for all Canadians.