The government of Ontario has approved Canada's first pilot program for automated vehicles (driverless cars). The pilot, which will be led by the University of Waterloo, BlackBerry QNX and the Erwin Hymer Group, was made possible by a new regulatory framework which came into e...
A new paper, authored by Harry Kitchen and Enid Slack, argues that large Canadian cities should have access to new revenue tools. According to the paper, cities face tough decisions about how to fund the complex and growing demands facing them, and need new sources of revenue ...
Yesterday the government tabled Bill 68, Modernizing Ontario’s Municipal Legislation Act , which will introduce a series of reforms to the Municipal Act , and Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. While it’s too early to assess the overall impact of these changes, we were pl...
Voters in California, Massachusetts, and Nevada all voted to fully legalize marijuana for recreation purposes in Tuesday's US general election. They join Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, and the District of Columbia, where recreational marijuana use is already permi...
The government has announced its plans to introduce legislation that would allow municipalities to use photo radar to detect speeding, amongst other measures designed to fight speeding. Specifically, the government's proposal would allow municipalities to: Use automated ...
The government announced yesterday that it is increasing its investments to help municipalities work with individuals and families to find safe and affordable housing. The government is investing an additional $15 million in the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CH...
Two MPPs are calling on the government to give municipal elected officials the right to parental leave. Last week Liberal MPP Daiene Vernile introduced a private members bill that would give municipal politicians parental leave, shortly before NDP MPP Catherine Fife wrote an o...
The government is now at the mid-point of its mandate and has released an update on its Minister’s Mandate Letters. While the 34 letters provide a range of updates, it was notable that there was removal of the reference to efforts to improve the Voter’s List contained ...
New research, from the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG), examines the impact of the City of Toronto's decision in 2008 to introduce a Land Transfer Tax (LTT). It argues that the decline in housing sales in 2008 was more of a function of the global recession...
Last week the government introduced Bill 218, the Burden Reduction Act , which is designed to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses in Ontario. The bill also contains a provision (section 70.1) that would amend the Provincial Offences Act (POA) to require defendants w...