CityTalk Canada

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 Avenue to hear about their community redevelopment initiative dubbed The Other Hill.

See and hear more about the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

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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 citytalkcanada.ca. 

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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 in Victoria BC about the 'five pillars' of community wealth building solutions.

See and hear more about this program at citytalkcanada.ca

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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.

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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 Board of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), whose thousands of members' economic activity represent 50 percent of Canada's GDP. Host Mary Rowe chats with Dan about the ways small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are reinventing themselves and how we can all support the socio-economic vitality they bring to our main streets. 

See and hear more about CUI's place-making initiatives at canurb.org.

 

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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 - culture and social equity -  in the context of Infrastructure. Some of the featured voices include Isabelle Mondou, deputy minister of Heritage Canada, Brian McBay of Vancouver's 221A and Cathie O'Toole, CAO of the Regional Municipality of Halifax.

You can see and hear more from the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

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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 episode delves into that topic, guided by Alex Bozikovic, architecture critic for The Globe and Mail. 

And to wrap up the day's proceedings, host Mary Rowe moderates a panel of blue-ribbon 'distillers' of ideas to summarize the gleanings from this second-annual gathering in Ottawa.

You can see and hear more at citytalkcanada.ca.

 

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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 a similar vein,  research associate Léandro Santos caught up with Mathieu Grondin, the newly-appointed Nightlife Commissioner for the City of Ottawa.  Later, Anne-Marie returns to chat with Alex Bozikovic, columnist and architecture critic for The Globe and Mail about the relationship between design and infrastructure.

See and hear more from the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

 

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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 of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

Later, Sadhu Johnstone, former City Manager for the City of Vancouver, drops by the studio to talk about his current role as a Climate Lead with the Climate Ready Infrastructure Service, a new CUI initiative in partnership with Housing and Infrastructure Canada.

You'll find more resources and details on the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

 

 

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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 gap, and another on perhaps the most urgently needed resource - climate-ready infrastructure. 

You can see and hear more from the Summit at citytalkcanada.ca.

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