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The asset-based welfare approach, which has foremost encouraged homeownership, has led to rising homeownership rates, house prices and household debt levels. While this shift has helped raise the net worth of some among the middle and working classes who own property, the implications for the spatial distribution of wealth in cities have not yet been explored. This paper examines the spatial implications of the rise of policies promoting asset-based welfare, by examining statistically how variables related to homeownership rates and housing prices relate to measures of urban wealth segregation among neighbourhoods. Canadian cites are used as the main case study for the empirical analysis. The findings suggest that while homeownership in general has an equalizing effect, rising rates of homeownership (and to some extent, rising house prices) are associated not with greater spatial equalization and dispersal of wealth, but instead with greater spatial segregation and concentration of wealth within cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary planners see mixing residential, retail and other compatible uses as an essential planning principle. This paper explores the challenges that planners, developers and municipal councillors encounter in trying to implement retail uses as part of the mix in suburban areas in three Canadian cities. The study finds that planners employ evolutionary theories of urban development to naturalise their normative visions of walkable and sociable communities. By contrast, developers point to consumer behaviour to explain why planners’ ideas on mix do not work. In a society where people shop at big-box outlets, making the local café or pub commercially viable proves increasingly challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the transformations of local cultural governance following the popularisation of the creative city thesis. While the economic impact of the arts in urban settings has been a topic of great interest in recent years and an amply documented theme, little is known about the consequence of such development knowledge and practice on the local cultural policy arena where it takes roots. Moreover, given the popularity and the enthusiasm for such strategies within municipal governments, we have seen a growing tendency to implement the creative city strategy and to formulate cultural policies that follow it in rural and smaller communities which are quite different from the more extensively documented urban and metropolitan cases. Through case studies of three cities in Northern Ontario (Canada), we can identify a number of changes in cultural governance and policy logics. Overall, the creative city narrative appears to be detrimental to typical arts advocacy in smaller communities since it leads to the domestication of the arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, panel regression analysis is used to examine the fiscal impact of urban growth on per-capita or perhousehold expenditures of providing municipal services in the province of Ontario, Canada. Three variables are used to measure growth: households, population and assessment. Using a panel data set for 68 municipalities, we find that for the most part, urban growth has no effect on per-capita or per-household expenditures. The policy implications of these results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction highlights five important aspects of the research literature on the economics of Canadian immigration with a particular focus on cities, and introduces the collection of papers that follows in this special issue. Explaining the significant decline in the economic circumstances of recent immigrants has been, and will continue to be. a central focus of research and policy attention. We address this issue in light of the timing of immigrant flows relative to the business cycle, the increasing concentration of immigrants in urban regions and the changes in the immigrant selection process that have a bearing on the rate of economic integration of new arrivals. We then document the decline in labour market outcomes and, finally, consider selected broad implications of immigration for the Canadian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Canadian municipalities face a significant challenge when setting council remuneration. The inherent conflict-of-interest that arises when councillors vote on their remuneration requires the process to be as unbiased as possible. This article identifies four themes in municipal remuneration reports: composition of review committees, use of tax-free remunerations, methodology of reviews, and identification of common key criteria for reviews. Using the identified criteria, the article recommends a four-stage process for remuneration. Focusing the reviews on the stated criteria of municipalities may increase acceptance of the results and attract the best possible candidates. Sommaire Les municipalités canadiennes font face à un défi de taille lorsqu'elles doivent fixer la rémunération des conseillers. Le conflit d'intérêts inhérent, qui surgit lorsque les conseillers votent au sujet de leur rémunération, exige que le processus soit aussi impartial que possible. Cet article identifie quatre thèmes dans les rapports municipaux sur la rémunération : composition des comités d'examen, recours à des rémunérations non imposables, méthodologie des examens, et identification de critères clés communs pour les examens. À l'aide des critères identifiés, l'article recommande un processus de rémunération en quatre étapes. En axant les examens sur les critères stipulés par les municipalités, on pourrait accroître l'acceptation des résultats et attirer les meilleurs candidats possibles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]