The Blue Mountain Resort near Collingwood played host to the annual Ontario Professional Planners Institute conference in early October. With hundreds of professional planners from municipalities across Ontario, and industry stakeholders from across Canada, the conference provided a forum for a wide range of issues impacting the industry. From agriculture and urban forestry to leadership and ethics, the important issues facing the day-to-day responsibilities of professional planners were engaged during…

What should a small town do when the big factory closes, and the original reason for its existence starts to fade into a historical footnote? It's a problem that affects all Canadian cities, but one that especially threatens municipalities under 200,000, as the shift from manufacturing to information technologies continues. These and other towns can't afford to make strategic mistakes. The competition for capital and highly-educated workers is enormous, and…

There were no real expectations for pomp and circumstance for the infrastructure industry as Charles Sousa delivered his 2017 Budget for Ontario. After all, the expansive spending for infrastructure had already been announced as part of the province’s long-term infrastructure plan, and a steady stream of projects continue to flow through Infrastructure Ontario. Instead, the budget focused on the pipeline. It provided perspective on how spending will continue, what’s in…