Toronto City Council

Torontonians are not expected to see big tax hikes in 2017 as the city tries to close its $91-million budget gap, while grappling with $33 billion in unfunded capital projects.

Toronto City Manager Peter Wallace presented the preliminary operating and capital budgets today at a City Hall committee meeting. The proposed 2017 budget includes a two-per-cent increase in property tax and a 10-cent hike for TTC fares.

Read the full budget proposal here

The city is on the lookout for alternate forms of revenue with Mayor John Tory proposing a road toll for the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway – a move that could bring in more than $200 million annually, but may not be fully implemented until 2024.

There are also some short-term revenue recommendations in the proposed budget including reinstating the personal vehicle tax and introducing a hotel tax.

Enid Slack weighs in on Tory’s toll proposal

As City Council begins debating the proposed budget, U of T News spoke with city experts Matti Siemiatycki and Enid Slack about how Toronto should handle its financial and operational woes.

Enid Slack is director of the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance (IMFG) at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs

What do you make of the 2017 preliminary budget?

I think this is the same problem we see every year at budget time in the city of Toronto. We come to the point where there is a gap – this year it's $91 million. I think it's telling us we have a bit of a structural problem here.

We seem to have this problem with the gap, and in the short run, there's only two ways to deal with it. If our expenditures are greater than our revenue, we either have to cut back our expenditures or we have to increase our revenues, and so that's what this budget is trying to do. It's trying to cut expenditures and find some way to increase revenues.

In the work we did more recently, we talked about how over the long term we have to think about whether the property tax and the land transfer tax are sufficient to meet the growing expenditure needs of a large city like Toronto, and we concluded that they aren't enough. In Toronto and other major cities in Canada, we need to look at other sources of tax revenue.

Is this budget addressing both the short-term and long-term revenue needs for the city?

This budget is I think focusing more on the short-term fix in the context of understanding that in the long term we have to do something bigger. Some of the recommendations on municipal land transfer tax or personal vehicle tax may be short-term solutions. I think it really does both.

The biggest problem here is that the major source of revenue for cities in Canada like Toronto is the property tax, and the city has made a commitment to only raise property tax by the rate of inflation or less than the rate of inflation. I think, while I understand the politics behind doing that, it does put the city in a bind in terms of trying to balance its budget.

Why the resistance to increase property taxes?

The property tax is a very visible tax. If you look at other taxes, like the income tax or sales taxes, they're much less visible. Most people who are on salary, for example, don't know what they paid in income taxes last year.

When it comes to sales taxes, we know we pay 13 per cent, but nobody knows at the end of the year, how much they put out in sales taxes. But people do know what their property taxes are – this is money they have to pay maybe twice or six or twelve times a year. It's very visible. That's very good from an accountability point of view – people know what they're paying to their local governments, and they know what services they're getting. But that visibility makes it very hard to increase those taxes.

Matti Siemiatycki is an associate professor of geography and planning at the Faculty of Arts & Science

Is tolling the right way to go?

We had a lot of conversations over the last number of years about what to build, where to build and how to build it. The part that's always been missing is how we're going to pay for all of this investment and all of this infrastructure. I think the conversation about tolls is really the next phase, which is the hard part of the conversation.

You've heard all sorts of responses to this – one of which is that it's not enough, and it's too far down the road. If we're really looking at 2024, that's a lot of years between now and then that have to be bridged. If you look at how much money they raise, which is somewhere in the $200-million- to $250-million-a-year range, that's a starting point but the gap on the operating side annually is far larger than that, and the gap on the capital side is extremely large.

What I would ask people is, if you don't like this tool, if you don't like tolls, how else are we going to raise the big dollars to pay for the infrastructure that I think there's a consensus that we need?

What’s the alternative?

There are a fairly small handful of taxes and revenue tools that will generate large amounts of money and for various reasons a lot of those are also unpalatable for people. If it's not tolls, then what are the other options? It's a fairly short list.

One option is a fairly significant property tax increase, another option is a city-wide sales tax, which the city doesn't have the capacity to levy themselves – they'd have to get provincial permission, another is a commercial parking levy and a local income tax.

Fixing the Gardiner Expressway is now estimated to cost $1 billion more than expected – is this another hiccup for Toronto infrastructure spending?

That's been one of the frustrations – the budgeting and delivery has been challenging for a lot of big projects. That’s really part of what we need to address in this region and in Canada more broadly. We have an issue with how we pay for infrastructure, that's true, but we also have an issue with how we deliver the projects once we select them and once we actually decide to proceed.

That's proving to be frustrating for people and it's sapping public confidence and trust that government, if we decide to give them more money, can actually deliver on these projects efficiently and in a cost-effective manner.

In terms of transportation, what would you like to see Toronto focus on in 2017?

You really have two things going on at the same time – one is the long-range planning and the big visionary projects – the subways, the light rail lines, the bus rapid transit project, the really definitive city building initiatives.

There's a big planning push that's going to happen, but we also have the day-to-day operations of our system – we have, on the one hand, discussions of mega-projects that are costing billions and on the other hand, we have the TTC and other city agencies under a request of a 2.6-per-cent budget cut. What I want to see is at the same time that we're planning the mega-projects, we're also figuring out how to put the operations of the service that people use on a solid footing and to make sure those budgets are in place.

One step in the right direction is the low-income transit pass, which the executive committee last week looked at and approved. That, to me, is a really important step. Transit is a key barrier for people with low incomes – a barrier to jobs, a barrier to health care, a barrier to being a part of the city. I think that bringing in a pass is really an important step for the city to ensure that accessibility is available to those who are really in need.

City Manager Peter Wallace warns of Toronto’s “risky behaviour” at U of T event

Romi Levine — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 13:30:49 +0000

City Manager Peter Wallace warns of Toronto’s “risky behaviour” at U of T event

Romi Levine Thu, 10/20/2016 - 09:30

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Photo by Nicolett Jakab

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Toronto City Council

IMFG

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Economy

Budget

Faculty of Arts & Science

Cities

Toronto

Subheadline

Annual IMFG Toronto city manager’s address tackled Toronto's financial future

As Toronto continues to grow, so does the city’s budget pressures.

The city not only has to provide residents with public services, but it also has to invest in infrastructure – all while trying not to overspend and overpromise. That balancing act largely falls on the shoulders of Toronto City Manager Peter Wallace.

Wallace spoke this week at the annual city manager’s address, hosted by the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance. A U of T alumnus, Wallace, who is in charge of a city staff of 30,000 and a $12-billion operating budget, outlined Toronto’s key challenges ahead of the 2017 budget announcement.

The U of T event was moderated by former city manager Shirley Hoy, chair of the university’s governing council. She says these challenges are ones “all municipalities in Ontario, and indeed, in Canada, are currently considering.”

Here’s what Wallace had to say about Toronto’s financial future:

Projects that are funded

In a very real way, policy intention in the city is not that important. It’s not passion or rhetoric, or where we try and lead. It’s what we actually do, and what we actually do as a city. The expression of the values is what we actually fund.

It’s not just a question of whether or not city staff and city council feel that we are doing the right thing. It’s really a question of are we doing the right thing, and are we conducting our financial affairs in a way that is respectful and sustainable for future generations, and in a way that actually has the impacts that we are purporting to have.

How Toronto is doing financially

I do want to emphasize that in a very fundamental way, the city is doing very, very well.

The City of Toronto is a great place to live, play, invest…We’re seeing that in terms of the economic importance in the place and just the vitality of this city. The influx of people, our ability to work together – it really is quite amazing. And, this is a town that’s booming. This is a great place at a great time.

On whether Toronto is saving enough

Last year, the City of Toronto saved $200 million. I’m proud of our system’s ability to consistently save money over a period of time.

It’s getting increasingly hard to rely on savings. Even during the peak era of [former mayor Rob] Ford, when we made savings that were clearly unacceptable to council, because it reversed itself on those at the earliest opportunities, we were not able to get savings that actually offset the overall growth in the size of the funding envelope.

Savings, austerity – absolutely a critical tool, absolutely not sufficient. It’s not the way to get out of this.

Property taxes

There is a core reality that for its entire history, the city council of the amalgamated City of Toronto has placed a very high priority on low property taxes, and that’s likely to continue over the next little while.

We are really, truly struggling with the demands of density and the transit associated with that, and the demands of poverty and social cohesion. We are actually ending up in a situation where we are transmitting risk across generations, across certain classes of people to whom we do not want to translate risk.

Had we actually raised property tax every year at the rate of economic growth, we might actually have that capacity. We didn’t. We don’t. It’s a gap, and we will have to address it.

Mitigating risk

Doctors will bother people about smoking and suggest that smoking isn’t a good idea, and a lot of smokers have the idea that, ‘I’m still here. I was here last year. I’m here this year, and smoking is OK because it hasn’t killed me yet.’ The reality is, whether it’s smoking, or whether or not you live in B.C. and like to ski during avalanche terrain every winter, every day, these things are risky behaviours, and they might well catch up.

I’m a public servant, and I take risk with great seriousness. I advise that risk should be mitigated, managed and minimal. Right now, we are very heavy smokers in the City of Toronto. The sooner we quit, the sooner we step away, the sooner we restore that functionality.

We do need to have that dialogue around the sustainability of public finances, and it needs to be a realistic and direct dialogue. And the statistical evidence is, ‘I smoked this year. I’m likely to be around next year.’ Yes, of course. But that’s not really the test. The test: are you healthy, are you sustainable, is it wise, and is it appropriate management on behalf of the broader public of overall risk.

Challenges ahead for 2017

Seventeen is going to be a little bit challenging. Some of the conversations we’re going to end up having about revenue aren’t just going to be around making the world better. They’re not just going to be about making new investments. They’re actually going to be about filling the gap between what council has endorsed and is doing now, and the resources we actually have available to fund that.

The challenge with sustainability, like the challenge with smoking, is that it does hurt you. We are probably past the time right now where we can reasonably kick the can down the road.

2016: three city experts on the year ahead

sgupta — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:55:21 +0000

2016: three city experts on the year ahead sgupta Tue, 12/22/2015 - 07:55

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Infrastructure issues are bound to dominate Toronto debate in 2016, experts say (photo by Sam Javanrouh via Flickr)

Alan Christie

Author legacy

Alan Christie

Topic

City & Culture

Five Ideas from Shauna Brail

Continue to build civic pride

Keep doing all the things that make Toronto work and that make people proud to call Toronto home. Relatively small things like the 3-D Toronto sign, showing playoff games in the bird’s nest, encouraging civility on council and among city hall staff, and willingness to attend events across the city and engage with people throughout.

Affordable housing and transportation

When the Mayor recently announced a city building tax, he signaled that two key priorities would be affordable housing and transportation. These align well with recent federal infrastructure commitments; furthermore, the provincial government is also clearly invested in the supply and delivery of infrastructure, especially as it relates to regional transportation.

By working collaboratively, the city has an opportunity to address the significant shortfall of affordable housing, the repair backlogs and the insufficient funding and supply of public transit. Investment in these two areas also addresses job training and community development goals through job creation and the implementation of community benefits agreements.

Parking on Dundas between River and Parliament

It strikes me as odd that one can park for free on a main thoroughfare with access to an aquatic centre, a cultural centre, shopping and parks. The city could share the parking income with Regent Park residents to support additional access to swimming lessons and cultural activities. Also, the city should think ahead about the contribution of parking income to the city’s finances. This income is likely to decline as fewer young people use cars, as alternative transportation options increase – particularly in dense urban neighbourhoods – and as technology shifts towards autonomous vehicles.

Ensure that Toronto City Hall looks like Toronto

Because it’s almost 2016, and because Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, Council and staff should reflect our diversity. Currently, City Council includes 32 per cent women and 14 per cent visible minorities. The Mayor’s executive committee has 13 people, among them four women and two visible minorities. The ward boundary review process could have the potential to improve representation across the city, depending on which approach is chosen. In addition, staff hiring processes have the potential to be more responsive and flexible than electoral ones.

Draw on resources and talent outside of City Hall

This wealth of resources includes universities and colleges, civic organizations, and think tanks. We are in an era of unprecedented interest in cities. This shift presents an exciting but also daunting opportunity, given the challenges. The city should rely on expertise and strengths outside of City Hall. These resources can help develop dynamic, innovative, evidence-based and globally informed policies and practices that address urban challenges and necessary change.

Three Ideas from Patricia McCarney

A low-to-no-carbon city

For Toronto to take a leading role in moving the needle on carbon emissions, the city requires massive infrastructure investment to expand public transportation and to create low-carbon mobility solutions, to build low-carbon energy solutions for buildings with a movement towards a city powered by electricity from renewable sources. The city must scale up local renewable energy production and improve energy efficiency in buildings, and expand and innovate waste management practices. High calibre city level data should drive this investment.

Multi-level governance on climate

City progress on the climate agenda depends heavily on collaboration with senior levels of government. Actions on climate by provincial governments across Canada support city climate targets.

For example, Ontario’s policy to phase out coal power reduced Toronto’s emissions from electricity production. Toronto’s data on electricity from renewable sources places it in the highest ranks among global peers at 29 per cent.

Moving forward as a global leader

Toronto has lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita (at 7.33 tonnes per capita) than, for example, Boston (10.8 tonnes per capita) and Los Angeles (13.39 tonnes per capita). However, relative to other European cities, Toronto produces higher GHG emissions per capita than Barcelona, London and Amsterdam (which range from 2.36 to 5.5 tonnes per capita).

Seven Ideas from Matti Siemiatycki

Rapid transit priorities

With transit projects on the drawing board far exceeding the amount of money available, in 2016 the city will have to start coming up with a list of priorities. SmartTrack? Scarborough subway? Downtown relief line? Sheppard LRT? Which of these projects make sense and which should be built first are important questions to resolve in the coming year.

Affordable housing

Toronto has an affordable housing crisis, characterized by a tight private rental housing market and over 78,000 households actively on the social housing waiting list. In 2016 can city council come up with creative ways to fund new public housing units and expand the size of the affordable private rental market?

Addressing climate change

Cities around the world are taking a leadership role in implementing policies to combat climate change. Can Toronto keep pace with the most ambitious cities and implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Immigrant settlement

In 2015, Toronto, and Canada, opened their doors to Syrian refugees fleeing violence in their home country. Can their arrival be used as an opportunity to ensure that the city is welcoming to all newcomers in the future?

Control cost overruns on infrastructure

With the new federal government promoting infrastructure and the city set to embark on many new large projects over the coming years, implementing strategies to control cost overruns should be an important priority for 2016.

Waterfront 2.0

With the development of the eastern waterfront well under way, attention in 2016 will turn to getting activity started in the Port Lands. This will require creative thinking and political manoeuvring to fund the necessary flood protection, land servicing and transit, and get building started in the area.

Uber vs. taxi

Mayor John Tory and City Council will be under pressure in 2016 to come up with a solution to the conflict between conventional taxis and ride sharing services like Uber. Can they come up with a resolution that is acceptable to all the industry players and passengers?

Photo above by Sam Javanrouh

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Undergrads launch CivicSpark Oct. 27: ‘Building up the 6ix’ spurs collaboration between students, city leaders

sgupta — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 11:27:24 +0000

Undergrads launch CivicSpark Oct. 27: ‘Building up the 6ix’ spurs collaboration between students, city leaders sgupta Mon, 10/26/2015 - 07:27

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(photo by Chris Lyn via Flickr)

Brianna Goldberg

Author legacy

Brianna Goldberg

Topic

City & Culture

Top Stories

urban

Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate Students

Faculty of Arts & Science

A new student group is set to leverage young urbanists' creativity and enthusiasm for Toronto.

CivicSpark, a student-driven pilot partnership with local city-building organization CivicAction, will host its first community discussion event on Oct. 27, Building Up the 6ix: Channels for Community Engagement and Social Change.

A 30-minute panel discussion exploring ways students can help build up the city will be followed by a small roundtable where audience members and speakers will together discuss the nature of changing neighbourhoods. (Register for the free event from 6-9pm at Woodsworth College) Drawing audience members into the conversation will be such emerging city leaders as Abigail Moriah (associate development manager of the Regent Park Revitalization Project), Josh Fullan (founder and director, Maximum City), Tom Gleason (executive director, Toronto Youth Cabinet) and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

CivicSpark was co-founded by fourth-year students Edwin White Chacon (political science; ethics, society and law), Sara Urbina (economics; geography) and Joe Becker (political science; Canadian studies). (Read more about CivicSpark). Below, the co-founders explain the group’s mission and the goals of their event.

What is CivicSpark?

Becker CivicSpark is a new group on campus working to transform students from passive observers into active participants in their community. We’re going to accomplish this by creating a non-partisan platform empowering youth to engage with regional social issues in the GTHA. We’ll be hosting a series of interactive panel discussions and roundtables that will lead up to a unique urban policy case competition at the end of the year. By using this model, we hope that students will not only learn more about regional issues, acquire professional skills, and express their opinions but encourage future civic participation as well.

When did it start and why?

Urbina (pictured, below) CivicSpark started through talking, as simple as that. Well maybe a lot of planning, too. But the idea sparked through a series of discussions on: where can we share our knowledge? What options do Arts & Science students have to use their knowledge to create solutions to the issues that face their community?

These questions have always been at the back of our minds but this past May we decided to do something about it. We realized that we have a lot of experience, opinions and knowledge that, with a bit of structure, we can leverage into creative solutions. Through the summer, we drafted and redrafted what we wanted CivicSpark to be and look like. We decided to contact CivicAction regarding a partnership for this pilot because we believe they successfully connect young professionals to work together and use their lived experiences to solve the issues facing the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA). We want to bring youth together and do the same, connect them, provide them with information and then let them do the rest, engage with their city.

What do you hope to achieve with this event? In other words, what do you want people to take away from the experience – both in terms of their knowledge of CivicSpark and of city issues?

White Chacon In collaboration with CivicAction and The Woodsworth Political Society, we’re hoping to plant a seed in these students. Ideally, students will walk away with more knowledge about the intricacies of the issues the city faces. We want them to know that CivicSpark can be the stepping stone to becoming part of the conversation with emerging leaders and city builders.

Who would you encourage to come out to the event and why?

Becker (pictured, right) We’re purposefully encouraging students from every faculty to come out to Building Up the 6ix for two key reasons. First, we believe including a diverse range of voices and perspectives will enrich the conversation we’re going to have. Second, the issues facing this city affect everyone and we want to create a platform for students to become engaged about them.

One of the important things we’ve learned from our parent/partner organization, CivicAction, is that nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. To solve the issues facing this city we’ll need to bring together people from every field and walk of life. We don’t expect to solve all of these issues at this one event but we’re seeing it as a first step towards creating a dialogue on campus and encouraging students to become more engaged.

What interests you about urban issues?

Urbina Urban topics are very important to us because they involve the space in which we live. To create more realistic and innovative solutions we need to better understand the space in which we live, and how society interacts with it. Urban issues are city and community issues. The reason why we talk so much about innovation is because the urban issues we see today are complex in nature and connected to all sectors of society. We must then think of new solutions, perhaps never before used solutions to confront them. For example, what does more green space entail? What are the consequences for current residents, and future residents? What about transit next to the space, will it change? Or education, can the space be used in different ways to maximize its utility?

Urban issues no longer focus just on the physical elements in the space, but also the surrounding environment. This is why we want to engage youth in urban issues. The fact that we live and interact in an urban landscape means that we all have opinions and ideas about what is working, what is not, and why.

What’s on the horizon for CivicSpark?

White Chacon (pictured, right) We’re currently collaborating with the Centre for Community Partnerships, the Association of Political Science Students and the U of T Political Forum on an event called Let’s Talk Toronto. This event will focus primarily around civic engagement outside of voting and post-election reflection.

Our CivicSpark team is excited to be working with them and other groups interested in engaging youth beyond traditional means. We’re currently in talks with a few groups on campus interested in being part of our case competition at the end of the year. Our case competition will be unique because it will give students a platform to share creative solutions to real life issues impacting the city.

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Uber: criminology professor on the controversial, California-based company

sgupta — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 16:52:46 +0000

Uber: criminology professor on the controversial, California-based company sgupta Fri, 10/02/2015 - 12:52

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Criminology

Community

Cities

Subheadline

City must protect workers as well as passengers, Mariana Valverde says

Toronto City Council voted this week to develop regulations for Uber by the spring – but, in the interim, the ride-sharing drivers have refused to abide by a request to stop operating.

The moves follow a tumultuous summer in which taxi drivers threatened to disrupt the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Games by way of protesting against what they view as an unlicensed taxi service.

The California-based company allows passengers to use the Uber app on their smartphones to find a taxi, private car or rideshare, or use UberX to hire a private driver. Toronto has proposed to reduce taxi fares to make licensed drivers more competitive. Since Uber says it has 16,000 drivers and 400,000 riders in Toronto, other Canadian cities are watching closely. Will Toronto create separate rules or bring all drivers under the same by-laws?

U of T News spoke to Professor Mariana Valverde of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies.

Toronto City Council has voted to create new rules for Uber. What is the status of Uber users before these rules take effect?

Those who use the Uber app to book licensed taxis are fine, but it’s not clear what happens in the more common situation of using UberX to book an unlicensed driver in a private car. Toronto City Council asked Uber to stop using UberX until regulations are in place, but UberX is ignoring this request, quite openly. In my view, City Council was naïve to suppose that they could simply “request” a big, powerful business to stop operating a profitable service. We have by-laws because nice, polite requests are no substitute for legally enforceable rules.

Why has this issue become so controversial?

The taxi business has long been very tightly regulated with strict conditions for driving a taxi, fares set by the city and a maximum number of taxi plates. UberX drivers are at the other extreme of the regulatory spectrum. They are unlicensed in the sense that they have ordinary driving licenses, not commercial driver licenses. Their cars are not inspected or subject to any minimum standards, and there is no regulation of either the price or the conditions. So we have an overly regulated, indeed micromanaged formal sector on one side, and the Wild West, informal economy on the other. It’s no wonder there are controversies.

What would you like to see Toronto do? Should Uber fall under taxi bylaws or have separate bylaws?

The city staff proposal of creating a new category of municipal license is quite sensible. But, the devil will be in the details.

What should be included in these regulations?

At minimum, commercial insurance for Uber drivers; licensing by the city of both drivers and their cars; and criminal record checks for drivers. Those are likely to be imposed by City Council. But it’s not clear whether the fares will be subject to regulation. Nobody was talking about that in the debate and it was not mentioned in the city staff report.

Can we foresee a day when Uber rides and taxis cost the same?

I am not sure how feasible or useful it would be to try to impose the same fare rules for Uber as for taxis, so I am not making this as a firm policy suggestion. What I know is that taxi drivers make very little money as it is, and that Uber, which is a large, powerful company that has a monopoly on ride sharing, is a huge threat to their livelihood. The city licenses taxis and so has a responsibility to protect their livelihood and working conditions. Consumer protection is also important, but it’s not the only factor to be considered in drawing up regulations. Worker protection is important too.

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Toronto City Council

Toronto budget 2017: U of T experts say the city needs new ways to make money

Read the full budget proposal here

Enid Slack weighs in on Tory’s toll proposal

Enid Slack is director of the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance (IMFG) at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs

Matti Siemiatycki is an associate professor of geography and planning at the Faculty of Arts & Science

City Manager Peter Wallace warns of Toronto’s “risky behaviour” at U of T event

Projects that are funded

How Toronto is doing financially

On whether Toronto is saving enough

Property taxes

Mitigating risk

Challenges ahead for 2017

Read more about Wallace’s address in the Toronto Star

2016: three city experts on the year ahead

Five Ideas from Shauna Brail

Three Ideas from Patricia McCarney

Seven Ideas from Matti Siemiatycki

Undergrads launch CivicSpark Oct. 27: ‘Building up the 6ix’ spurs collaboration between students, city leaders

Uber: criminology professor on the controversial, California-based company