CityTalk Canada

By Canadian Urban Institute

What's working, what's not and what's next for Canada's cities. Presented by noted urbanist Mary Rowe, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute.... more

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FAQs about CityTalk Canada:

How many episodes does CityTalk Canada have?

The podcast currently has 43 episodes available.

CityTalk Canada episodes:

October 23, 2025 Rethinking Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
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 Corey McCallum is Atira’s Director of Outreach Programs. They talk about how to engage respectfully with people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges, misconceptions about the Downtown East Side, and why they encourage people to not think of homelessness and substance use as “problems” with a clear solution.
This is part of an ongoing series on CityTalk about how to address the interconnected challenges of substance use, mental health and homelessness that many cities are facing.
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31min
October 09, 2025 Barrie’s mayor on declaring an emergency over encampments
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 range of stakeholders - with lived experience, community leaders, civic organizations, business operators – to look for mutually respectful, effective solutions to ensuring our cities are accessible, safe and equitable for everyone. We are continuing to work with partners from coast to coast to coast to identify the best approaches, as communities try different ways to address these challenges.
The mayor of Barrie, Ontario, Alex Nuttall, reached a tipping point and has chosen to declare a state of emergency to address it there. He talks to host Mary Rowe about what led to this decision, how he intends to move forward, as well as the limits of the city’s power.
CityTalk will be featuring a variety of voices and perspectives on this topic in the coming months, as communities of every size continue to grapple with how to ensure their places are equitable, safe, desirable and productive for everyone.
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30min
September 25, 2025 Libraries: the last shared space?
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 Mary Rowe to talk about the reality of running a library in 2025. Åsa Kachan is the CEO and chief librarian for Halifax Public Libraries. Pilar Martinez is the CEO of Edmonton Public Libraries.
You can read more on this topic in CUI’s report, Overdue: The Case for Canada’s Public Libraries.
https://canurb.org/wp-content/uploads/CUI_Overdue_report_10.04.23.pdf
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35min
September 11, 2025 The Lifehouse: how neighbourhoods can prepare for disaster
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 workshops. Adam talks to host Mary Rowe about what a lifehouse is, how he took inspiration from the Occupy Sandy hurricane relief effort, and why getting to know your neighbour may be the radical thing you can do.
Adam Greenfield’s book is called Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire.
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33min
August 28, 2025 Katrina at 20: lessons from New Orleans
Further reading: “How resilient is New Orleans Today” at The Brookings Institution.
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34min
August 14, 2025 Rebuilding Jasper: one year after the fire
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 of Urban Design and Standards for the Municipality of Jasper and the author of Nest City.
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26min
July 31, 2025 What will it take to finally end Canada’s housing crisis?
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 at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and author of Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis. Murtaza Haider is the Executive Director of the Cities Institute at the University of Alberta, where he is also a Professor and the Radhe Krishna Gupta Executive Chair in Cities and Communities.
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32min
July 17, 2025 Friend or Foe for Vibrant Neighbourhoods: Are Festivals Worth It?
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 2002 to 2020. He’s now director of the Sustaining Places Initiative at the NYU Marron Institute. And Mark Garner is executive director at Calgary Downtown Association. He’s the former CEO and executive director of Toronto's Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Association.
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33min
May 23, 2025 Sharing the Streets
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 Louis Greenway Partnership); and Anneke Smit (Centre for Cities, Windsor Law).

Learn more about the Ontario Bike Summit here.

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46min
March 05, 2025 Let's Talk About Placemaking
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 author Jacquelyn West also discussed key findings with Bridget MacIntosh, a Toronto-based cultural strategist and contributor to the report.

Download a copy of Let's Talk About Placemaking here.
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50min

FAQs about CityTalk Canada:

How many episodes does CityTalk Canada have?

The podcast currently has 43 episodes available.