Portage Place was dealt a major blow when Landmark Cinemas announced the closure of the Globe Cinema. Having previously lost McNally Robinson as well as the Imax theatre and a few higher-end retailers, this will further the perception the mall is in a death spiral....
Municipal Government
What We Can Learn About Infrastructure from the Katz Years
Mayor Katz’s tenure has been notable for significant infrastructure successes and failures. On the one hand, we have the fire hall land swap deal and the new police headquarters. On the other hand, we have the immensely successful Chief Peguis Trail and Disraeli...
Agenda for Detroit: Government on a more human scale
Contrary to the popular view, Detroit is not the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. New York City had filed for bankruptcy in 1975 before the process was stopped by a last-minute deal between city officials and municipal unions. There were 10 times as...
Cost sharing must be transparent and predictable
The City of Regina recently informed a number of property owners about upcoming multi-million dollar renovations that are planned for their streets. The Council plans to conduct these renovations via 'cost-sharing local improvement programs' that will require the...
Featured News
Timeless Wisdom – The Politics of Successful Structural Reform
It’s a well-known pattern in public policy – profligate politicians damaging their economies with out-of-control spending, massive borrowing and higher taxes – inevitably leading to fiscal crisis, sharp declines in growth and ultimately rapidly falling currency value...
Canada’s National Hysteria in the 21st Century
Mass hysteria is the spontaneous manifestation of a particular behaviour by many people. There are numerous historical examples: Middle Age nuns at a convent in France spontaneously began to meow like cats; at another convent, nuns began biting one another. In...
The Father of Managed Competition
The beauty of this system is that it puts cost cutting pressure on the vast layers of middle managers and supervisors that are a fixture of the traditionally rule bound, bureaucratic and process-oriented government systems we still see mostly everywhere in the public sector, cities no exception.
Let’s Focus on Transparency First: Without transparency reducing political donations limits is a red herring
Instead of focusing on reducing the limits on political donations, Alberta should strive to raise their transparency.
Why Canadian Cities Should Look to Phoenix
Residents of Canadian cities constantly hear rumours of shady dealings between municipal politicians and developers. The only way to prevent against this is to remove politicians from day to day operations – just like the City of Phoenix, Arizona, has done.
Another Case of Municipal Corruption Highlights Need for Separation Between Council and City Administration
Today I had an article in the Huffington Post on how the City of Phoenix bars municipal politicians from getting directly involved in city operations to reduce the prospects for shading dealings with developers. I mentioned recent cases in Winnipeg and Toronto that may or may not have involved wrong doing. Sure enough, today’s National Post has an article about a Montreal corruption inquiry, in which a powerful Montreal politician has been accused of taking $300,000 in bribes.
Evaluating the McGuinty Legacy: The Good and the Bad
Dalton McGuinty has had as much of an impact on public policy in Ontario as virtually any of his predecessors. This article summarizes the best and the worst decisions he made as premier.
New Regina Mayor
As the polls predicted, last night Michael Fougere was elected Regina's new mayor. Largely seen as the "status quo" candidate, and endorsed by the outgoing and long-serving mayor Pat Fiacco, Fougere had described the election as a referendum on the previous councils...
Regina Election Reminder
Just a short reminder that if you’re in Regina (or most of the rest of Saskatchewan), tomorrow is election day for council and local body elections. Enjoy!
Final Regina Mayoral Debate
This morning I attended the final mayoral debate in the Regina municipal elections.
The Debate Summary
As I mentioned on Tuesday, I went to the OTHER big debate last night, the Regina Mayoral Debate at the University of Regina.