Time to take urban policy seriously

Every good photographer knows that getting a clear image requires choosing the right lens. The same can be said for good policy making: how we look at a problem or phenomena determines how clearly we see it, and how effectively we can address it. Take the COVID-19 pandemic. For the past 16 weeks, the rapid rise of global case and death counts have dominated headlines around the world. Canada reached the 100,000 case mark just one day short of the 100th day of the pandemic. Every day, the government of Canada releases an epidemiological summary of how the pandemic has progressed, including data on how each province and territory has fared since the day before. The problem with this is that it doesn’t give us a clear picture of how COVID-19 is affecting Canadians. A new report released by the Canadian Urban Institute, COVID Signpost 100, reveals the disproportionately urban nature of this crisis. So far, the loss of life and financial devastation associated with COVID-19 have been concentrated in Canada’s cities. The largest 20 cities in Canada account for 42 per cent of Canada’s population and yet have 67 per cent of total cases and 75 per cent of total deaths. People who live in cities report a more profound impact on their quality of life and personal financial situation. More importantly, a look at how each city in Canada has fared reveals a high level of variation. The case and death counts in Montréal, for example, are more than 25 times higher per capita than they are in Edmonton. In some cases, the variation between cities within the same province is greater than the variation between neighbouring provinces. The Signpost report, as well as neighbourhood level data released by cities such as Toronto, reveals strong patterns in how COVID is disproportionately impacting marginalized and racialized populations. Unfortunately, Canada’s daily epidemiological summaries—as well as the vast majority of nationally collected and reported data in Canada—ignores the local scale, creating a form of institutional blindness to the highly varied and localized ways that our nation experiences all manner of crises. This is a legacy of a federalism that prioritizes provinces, most of which are large and diverse enough that this scale of data reporting is of limited utility. It is the Simpson’s paradox of Canadian federalism, hindering our ability to meaningfully address the most pressing challenges facing our nation. With more than 82 per cent of Canadians now living in cities, Canada is long overdue for a new era of multi-level urban governance. No level of government in Canada is equipped on its own to address the complexity of challenges faced in our cities. Cities are crucial to both effective implementation of federal interventions; and, federal-provincial agendas will require the front line policy innovations which are tailor-made in cities to address the varied dynamics of the challenges they face. The countries that have fared best during COVID-19 have been those with high-performing multi-level governance systems. As the OECD summarizes: “The most effective responses are coming from systems characterised by flexibility, where there is room to act 'on the ground' combined with effective leadership at the national level.” It’s time for Canada to get on board. The federal government has committed to a “whole-of-government” approach to the crisis and recovery. But it isn’t prioritizing the collection and reporting of city-level data, and it has essentially ignored calls from city leaders for greater federal support. An essential first step is the creation of a Canadian urban policy observatory, a “one-stop shop” for qualitative and quantitative data on Canadian cities and city-regions, and the political systems which govern them. A national urban policy observatory would have several distinct benefits for federal policy makers. It would provide comprehensive data on the unique realities in each Canadian city and community, bringing local challenges to the attention of federal and provincial governments to inform policy implementation; it would help direct resources toward cities with the greatest needs by providing current and comparable data on municipal fiscal pressures and revenue tools; it would provide race and ethnic-based data, as well as neighbourhood level data where possible, facilitating the execution of equity seeking policy solutions; it would support national economic recovery strategies based on analysis of local assets and regional resilience; and it would facilitate coordinated intergovernmental policy learning, and thus serve as a building block for greater intergovernmental dialogue on urban priorities across Canada. Where we look determines what we see. In a nation as urbanized and as diverse as Canada, we must use a cities lens if we want to really understand, and address, the challenges we face together. The time for action is now. Dr. Kate Graham is director of research at the Canadian Urban Institute, and teaches part-time in the Political Science departments at Western University and Huron University College. She studies urban politics, local government, and gender and politics. Dr. Neil Bradford is director of the Governance, Leadership, and Ethics Program at Huron University College at Western University. He studies urban and community development with a focus on multi-level governance. Dr. Gabriel Eidelman is director of the Urban Policy Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and a contributing member of the Canadian Municipal Barometer research partnership.

Time to take urban policy seriously

The loss of life and financial devastation associated with COVID-19 have been concentrated in Canada’s cities, but the data is often reported in a way that makes us blind to this reality.

How will the post-pandemic city and its institutions look, feel, and behave in the era of climate crisis?

‘Shock’ to supply chains to come following eased COVID-19 restrictions in China

‘Knee-jerk’ travel restrictions ineffective at protecting Canadians, Liberals should demand greater transparency from China: MP Ellis

How will the post-pandemic city and its institutions look, feel, and behave in the era of climate crisis?

How can Ontario achieve net zero, with greater energy reliability and resilience? Roadmap to a clean energy future

Broadening access to digital services for Canadians through secure verification and authentication

Canadian news is in trouble: we can’t afford to let tech giants make its financial difficulties worse

Canada changed forever 40 years ago when Mulroney was elected party leader at Ottawa convention

This World Milk Day, thank a Canadian dairy farmer

All we have to worry about is ‘generative AI’ killing millions of white-collar jobs

Even high-wage temporary foreign workers are at risk of exploitation

Monkeypox is a reminder

‘It’s real, it’s serious, and it’s prevalent’: Parliamentarians, experts call for more funding, research into long COVID

Sustainably delivered? Sobering up Canada for decarbonizing transportation

Canada will need ‘intensive collaboration’ between provinces, territories, and federal government for next pandemic, say experts

COVID-19 changing the infrastructure lens across Canada

News

Get free news updates

Opinion

Submit a guest opinion article

resources

Advertise

subscribe

get help

Time to take urban policy seriously

The loss of life and financial devastation associated with COVID-19 have been concentrated in Canada’s cities, but the data is often reported in a way that makes us blind to this reality.

Get The Policy Briefings Newsletter