CityTalk Canada

Vancouver’s Downtown East Side has long been associated with high levels of homelessness and substance abuse, issues which many cities across the country are now facing. Host Mary Rowe speaks with two people who help deliver services and housing supports to people in the neighbourhood, and share lessons that other communities can learn. Donna-Lynn Rosa is CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society and...

Across the country, people are increasingly turning to encampments for shelter. These informal communities spotlight many complex challenges, from housing affordability to substance use and mental health issues. Encampments also present challenges to the social and economic functioning of neighbourhoods and downtown areas. For the last few years CUI has been very involved in convening a broad rang...

This CityTalk hosted a conversation with the CEOs of Build Canada Homes and the Canada Infrastructure Bank on how to get more built, faster. Ana Bailão, CEO of Build Canada Homes and Ehren Cory, CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank shared their thoughts on how to leverage strategic financing and other tools to develop much-needed housing and housing-enabling infrastructure. Coming at the end of a...

Many of our cities’ biggest challenges right now are playing out inside public libraries. Library staff come face-to-face daily with issues relating to homelessness, substance use, mental and physical health, and, of course, education. As they continue to adapt to their communities' increasing needs, their funding is not growing. Two library CEOs from opposite ends of the country join host Ma...

The increased threat of extreme weather has made it increasingly clear that we need to better prepare for - and respond to - these events. Author Adam Greenfield thinks one answer is to create a new kind of institution at the heart of each neighbourhood. He calls it a “lifehouse”, a community hub to provide refuge and resources during emergencies, as well as ongoing services like daycare and works...

Further reading: “How resilient is New Orleans Today” at The Brookings Institution.

Last summer, Beth Sanders was getting ready to lead a new planning department for Jasper, Alberta when the municipality was evacuated due to wildfires. The fires ended up destroying about a third of the town. Beth joins Mary to talk about the challenges and opportunities of rebuilding, as well as lessons for other municipalities facing increasing threats from climate change. Beth is the Director o...

It’s no secret that Canada is in a housing crisis. The gap between incomes and housing prices has been growing for decades, as governments of all political stripes have promised to ease the burden. So what will it take to finally end it? Murtaza Haider and Carolyn Whitzman join host Mary Rowe to talk about how we got here and what we can do about it. Carolyn Whitzman is a senior housing researcher...

Festivals can be a great excuse to get out and see something new. But they can also be disruptive to local residents and businesses. So when do they help a place thrive, and when are they more trouble than they’re worth? CityTalk host Mary Rowe gets the perspectives of two guests who helped shape iconic downtown areas. Tim Tompkins was president of the Times Square Alliance in New York City from 2...

At the Canadian Urban Institute, better, future-proof infrastructure pervades every project and discussion we have. Ahead of the upcoming Ontario Bike Summit in Windsor, host Mary Rowe has a two-wheeled chat with leading advocates for more, better and safer urban cycling systems, including Eleanor McMahon (Share The Road Coalition); Lanrick Bennett Jr. (School of Cities, U of T); Leona Medley (Joe...

The title of this episode is shared with a report recently released by the Canadian Urban Institute. It compiles the findings from thousands of community-level placemaking projects along with perspectives on placemaking from leading practitioners, including Jerome Barth of Belleville Placemaking (NYC) and Marc-André Carignan of Kollectif (Mtl.) featured in conversation with host Mary Rowe. Report...

Housing and infrastructure present challenges to nations across the globe. CUI's State of Canada's Cities Summit was pleased to welcome Alain Resplendy-Bernard, director of State Buildings for the government of France, as a special guest panellist. CUI board chair Cameron Charlebois also met Alain at our onsite studio for a deeper dive en français . Also, CUI researcher Jacquelyn West sp...

Day 2 of CUI's State of Canada's Summit in Ottawa (December 2024) offered something new to attendees - walking tours of innovative project sites. Our microphones joined Brad Rodgers and Ana Bailao of Dream Unlimited for a tour of Zibi, a net-zero community being developed on the banks of the Ottawa River. Later, we joined Leanne Moussa and Kwende Kefentse along Ottawa's Laurier Aven...

For the final episode gleaned from the State of Canada's Cities Summit, host Mary Rowe introduces a 'blue-ribbon' panel of housing experts recorded at the Beaver Barracks Housing Development in Ottawa. The discussion centres on the evolving roles and responsibilities for all orders of government in solving Canada's housing crisis. See and hear more about the Summit at citytalkc...

Bolstering Canada's local economies has become an instant priority in the wake of proposed actions by the Trump administration. Fortunately, we have no shortage of smart people with innovative solutions already in the works.  Canadian Urban Institute CEO Mary Rowe chats with Heather Hachigian, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Management at the School of Business at Royal Roads University...

Host Mary Rowe welcomes another 'tariff/no tariff' conversation with Doug Griffiths and Heather Thomson of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and frank talk about what could, and what shouldn't, happen in this moment of economic uncertainty (crisis? opportunity?) for communities across Canada.  See and hear more at citytalkcanada.ca.

We interrupt CUI's post-State of Canada's Cities Summit programming for some timely conversation about economic resilience. There's nothing like the wake-up call of a looming Canada-US trade war to focus the attention of communities everywhere on innovative strategies to generate local strength and reduce impacts of cross-border disruptions. Dan Kelly is the CEO and Chair of the Boa...

Mention infrastructure, and it's hard not to picture things like public buildings, transit systems and water/power distribution. However, other vital elements of urban society are, or should be, integrated into those things and need to be part of their design. This episode's two featured panels, recorded at CUI's State of Canada's Summit in December 2024, explore those elements...

The dozen panel discussions recorded in December 2024 on Day One of CUI's State of Canada's Cities Summit revolved around urban infrastructure in all its modern permutations, and how we need to build it better, faster and more sustainably. However, that doesn't preclude its ability to also add beauty and contribute to our collective well-being. The first featured panel in this episo...

The Canadian Urban Institute's mobile podcast studio at the State of Canada's Cities Summit in Ottawa last December offered CUI staff the opportunity to chat with some of the leading voices attending the event.  In this episode, media and communications advisor Anne-Marie Aikins speaks with Carol Bélanger, City Architect for the City of Edmonton... the first such position in Canada.  In...

More forward-thinking discussions on infrastructure from CUI's State of Canada's Cities Summit, these the first of several recorded by our mobile podcast studio.  Featured upfront, host Mary Rowe shares a pre-lunch chat with Leila Ghaffari, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Planning & Environment at Montreal's Concordia University, and Sarah Rosen Wartell,  president...

As host Mary Rowe stated early in this series, once you understand what infrastructure is, you can't help but see it everywhere around you. This episode features two discussions recorded at the State of Canada's Cities Summit in Ottawa last December, both dealing with bricks-and-mortar aspects of infrastructure; a session on securing real estate and lands needed to address the housing ga...

Where do you start two days of conversation about the issues around infrastructure in all its modern urban permutations? For host Mary Rowe and her team at the Canadian Urban Institute, the answer was obvious - talk first about the mental health crisis affecting most every community.  This episode recorded in December 2024 at the State of Canada's Cities Summit in Ottawa features a panel disc...

More highlights from the morning plenary session of the State of Canada's Cities Summit, presented in Ottawa last December 2024 by the Canadian Urban Institute. CUI CEO and event host Mary Rowe presents two featured panel discussions: fhe first is titled Infrastructure for Growth and is focused on innovative solutions for local economies of every size; and the second looks at AI and whether i...

As the past few episodes of CityTalk:The Podcast have previewed, hundreds of city builders and place makers met in Ottawa on Dec.5th/6th for the 2024 State of Canada's Cities Summit, presented by the Canadian Urban Institute... and where the core topic explored was infrastructure in all its iterations.  Host Mary Rowe introduces highlights from the plenary sessions and other special events in...