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At present, Canadian census tract boundaries are available in digital form for 1951 and at 5-year intervals for the 1976–2021 period; the 1956–66 census boundary files have not been digitized and associated data are not readily available for the pre-1971 period. This inhibits the mapping and analysis of neighbourhood change for a period of rapid urban and social transformation. To fill this gap, we digitized 1956–66 census tract boundaries from paper maps for all cities for which such data were disseminated. We adjusted 2006 boundaries to match georeferenced historical maps in concert with ancillary data, including topographic and cadastral maps. All decisions are documented in the files. Finally, printed profile tables for 1951 and 1956 were digitized for joining the boundary files. Researchers may use these datasets to explore, analyse and map geospatial trends in the Canadian population at the neighbourhood scale back to 1951. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how policymakers interpret and deploy cultural economy approaches within municipal economic development strategies and cultural plans. Focusing on the 33 largest municipalities in Ontario, Canada, we conduct a keyword analysis of 63 municipal planning documents, supplemented with key informant interviews with economic development and cultural planning staff. Our analysis reveals that the use of cultural economy approaches in economic development and cultural plans varies depending upon city size, municipal governance structure and municipal organizational structure. However, despite the widespread use of cultural economy ideas in planning documents, we conclude that its uptake in municipal policymaking fails to reflect its professional and scholarly popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political history of the failed struggle to require companies to justify their plant closing decisions in Canada's industrial heartland of Ontario. Demands for the public review of plant closing decisions began, locally, in the auto town of Windsor in the 1950s and 1960s and reached Toronto with the closure of Dunlop Tire in 1970. Another wave of closures struck in 1980, this time reaching deep into rural and small-town Ontario as well as larger industrial towns and cities, generalizing concern. The resulting Select Committee on Plant Shutdowns and Employee Adjustment, created by the Ontario legislature, took it upon itself to conduct the kind of public review of recent closures that was long demanded. Due to the strength of the political opposition to any interference with management rights, it was essential that proponents could point to precedents in Western Europe. Trade unionists also grounded their argument in favour of government regulation in the moral economy idea that long-service workers accrued a proprietary right to their jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper transposes aspects of the histography of Fernand Braudel to the exploration of planning. It explores the extent to which different time scales, dominated by a longue durée perspective, reveal different facets of the history of planning and of how it operates. Lesser time scales focus on specific events while long perspectives bring to light durable aspects of planning, such as those relating to its embeddedness within fundamental relations between the state and the market economy. The paper contends that planning history and theory are largely shaped by a middle-scale histography, focussed on the succession of periods in the evolution of planning and on how they mark its progression. It proposes to counterbalance this historical perspective with a long-term historical lens highlighting persistent dimensions of planning, many referring to the fundamentals of its political economy. The paper argues that a full understanding of planning requires a consideration of different historical scales. The object of study is Downtown Toronto planning and development since 1945. A medium time scale identifies three distinct phases in Downtown Toronto history over this period, while a long-term perspective reveals how this district evolved with remarkable consistency into an expanded and diversified downtown during these years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many commentators are concerned about automobility's ill-effects and seek a shift away from auto dependence towards more sustainable transport. Little research, however, considers the ways that parent-child mobilities are linked to such a transition. Through the lens of social practice theory, this paper explores how parents travelling with young children preserve and challenge automobility as they enact auto dependency, multimodality and altermobility. The paper argues that it is vital to understand these practices for identifying 'cracks' in automobility and the possibility of more sustainable and equitable daily mobilities. The research is based on qualitative parent interviews undertaken in Vancouver (British Columbia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of urban social divisions and changing race relations on the experiences of disadvantaged youth living on the periphery of two Canadian cities: Vancouver and Toronto. We analyze a cross-national subsample of 60 disadvantaged youths’ perceptions of urban social conflict and changing race relations in their city and school. We raise the larger question of how and why economically disadvantaged young people might embody particular understandings of safety, race, the other and security in different spatial registers of the city. We utilize an ethnographic methodology drawing from diverse but interrelated fields: border studies, the phenomenology of estrangement and a materialist version of critical race studies [(Ahmed, S. 1999. “Home and Away Narratives of Migration and Strangeness.”International Journal of Cultural Studies2 (3): 329–347, Ahmed, S. 2010.The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Ahmed, S. 2013.The Cultural Politics of Emotion. London: Routledge; Kearney, R., and V. E. Taylor. 2005. “A Conversation with Richard Kearney.”Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory6 (2): 17–26)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper seeks to develop a comparative framework through which to study the effects of immigration-driven demographic change in the ethno-cultural composition of municipal populations on municipal politics and governance in Canada. It asks two central questions. First, how do municipalities respond to dramatic change in the ethno-cultural composition of their populations? Second, what explains the variation in municipal responsiveness to the concerns and policy preferences of immigrants and of ethno-cultural minorities? The paper develops a typology of municipal responsiveness to immigrants and to ethno-cultural diversity to characterize patterns in policy outputs in multiculturalism policy at the local level. Furthermore, in the quest to explain local policy behavior, it brings together two theories – urban regime theory and the social diversity thesis – arguing that the ethnic configuration of municipal societies structures the likelihood that local leaders will coalesce in urban regimes with multiculturalism goals as well as influences the dynamics of the governing arrangements. The paper engages these theoretical ideas with the findings of a comparative study of seven highly diverse municipalities in some of Canada's most numerically significant immigrant receiving city-regions. By showing how local context and politics matter, the paper challenges traditional conceptions of municipal agency in Canada that portray municipalities as mere creatures of provinces rather than as important democratic governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that collaborative and associative forms of governance can enhance the economic competitiveness of cities and regions. Institutionalist approaches to urban and regional economic development have been particularly influential in emphasising the potential role that collaboration between firms, governance agencies, labour and supporting institutions can play in enabling communities to promote progressive competitiveness. At the same time, there has been relatively little discussion and empirical analysis of the actual process of institutional change and institution-building that characterise city-regions situated in liberal political economies that are not historically endowed with 'pre-existing' stocks of social capital and associative governance. In addition, institutionalist perspectives on urban and regional economic change have produced economistic explanations, while underplaying the importance of political factors. This paper offers an analysis of the various institutional barriers to associative governance by examining the case of 'Canada's Technology Triangle', a city-region which has experienced several attempts to develop associative governance institutions since the early 1990s. The evidence from this case study suggests that the experience of institution-building in this city-region has been intertwined with a struggle to create a regional scale of engagement for a range of governance actors. The analysis in this paper demonstrates the importance of paying careful attention to the factors that shape the political mobilisation of actors into associative institutional structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research finds that non-indigenous peoples often hold negative racial attitudes towards indigenous peoples. Contact theory suggests that interpersonal contact can positively influence majority group members' attitudes regarding minority group members, raising the question of whether indigenous population growth in cities will alter non-indigenous peoples' attitudes. Using original 2014 survey data, this paper examines the relationship between interpersonal contact and racial attitudes in Canadian prairie cities. The analysis finds that while personal ties to aboriginal peoples are correlated with lower new and old-fashioned racism scores, general contact with aboriginal peoples only correlates with old-fashioned racism scores. As such, growing urban indigenous populations -- and thus increased aboriginal-non-aboriginal general contact -- alone should not be expected to result in positive racial attitudes. This research advances understanding of contact theory by considering how education interacts with interpersonal contact, and informs on-going dialogue about current racial relations between non-indigenous and indigenous peoples in Canadian prairie cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper traces neighbourhood change in central Halifax, Canada, from 1951 to 2011 to consider how urban renewal policies and other factors may have influenced who lives downtown. In the 1950s planners advocated slum clearance and modernization to permit commercial expansion in the city centre. Subsequent decades saw central neighbourhoods decline. By the 1980s population began to rebound as planning policy increasingly promoted residential uses downtown. Over the 60 years central Halifax transitioned in character: three of the central tracts became increasingly affluent, while the fourth went from close to the city average to a low-income tract. The trajectories that neighbourhoods follow depend on several factors including societal changes, economic conditions, public policy interventions, and decisions made by other significant institutions (such as universities). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an urban water management framework consisting of six requisites for effective water management identified based on a literature review: source water protection; stormwater management; water conservation; water pricing; wetland conservation; and drought management. The objective was to test the requisite framework in three Canadian urban centres within a region of increasing water stress, the Canadian Prairie. The findings point to variable water management efficiency across the study region and to requisite selection being regionally dependent. A common set of requisites may not be suitable for all urban regions when attempting to assess effective urban water management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Canadian municipalities have noted that 59% of their water systems and 68% of their sewer systems required repair. To rehabilitate, replace or construct a water or sewer pipeline, several methods can be used: open-cut or one of several trenchless technologies (TTs). The selection of the method positively affects the surrounding environment. Therefore, the impact on environment (IoE) becomes a vital concern in selecting the appropriate construction or rehabilitation method for water or sewer pipelines. The research presented in this paper aims at developing an IoE model that compares the open-cut and TT methods. The IoE factors and their related data are collected, analysed and categorised based on literature review and expert opinion. Two models are designed in order to assess the IoE of the open-cut and TT methods. Results of the open-cut technique show that the impact on social factor has the maximum relative weight of 0.36; however, the impact on project characteristics has 0.33 and on environment has 0.30. The impact of TTs on project characteristics has the highest weight of 0.38, in which social factor is the lowest (0.28). The IoE value, using the open-cut method, is 0.4739; however, its value using the TT method is 0.3346. The developed IoE model shows robust results in quantifying the impact on environment of underground utility work. This research is relevant to both industry practitioners and researchers. It develops models to determine the IoE for the open-cut and TT methods. They are also beneficial to the municipal experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Vancouver exemplifies the richness of the many processes that set the civic culture of large contemporary cities. This paper focuses on what drives the social and economic construction of Vancouver, pointing to the complex linkages that tie agents to their environment. It shows that, in Vancouver, power arises from strong popular control and local democratic and participatory values, where group interactions produce and co-produce community development. The Vancouver regime is open yet stable, socially progressive yet fiscally conservative and pro-development. It is a regime that upholds an activist, tolerant and entrepreneurial civic culture. It emerges from an on-going process where the openness of the regime is re-negotiated in each neighbourhood and around each policy arena leading to the emergence of a culture of ongoing participation where civic, neighbourhood, ethnic and business groups constantly re-invent the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to assess whether establishments' innovation performance and innovation strategies differ by the size of the city in which they are located. Using the Canadian 1999 Survey of Innovation database (establishment-based), it was found that the rate of innovation is not correlated with city-size, but when the innovation measure takes into account the importance of innovation, then the size of the city does matter. The results show that establishments belonging to smaller cities (with populations of less than 50,000) are less likely to be associated with a world-first innovation than those located in larger cities. Four innovation strategies have been retained—Private Source, R&D, Collaboration and Public Science Base paths—and the results show that the R&D path leads to the greatest increase in the estimated probability to be associated with a world-first innovation, for almost all sectors and all city sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minority Francophones in a metropolitan area of eastern Canada recently grappled with political questions related to health, education and municipal services involving their language, identity and community. The pursuit of these identity projects called upon strategies of territorial integration and segregation where space shaped the issues, defined the Other and influenced the strategies chosen. Boundaries crystallised spaces of power and played a critical role in the definition of nationalist projects and the formation of minority identity. However, the paper's conclusion requires important nuances. The interplay of territory, institutions and identity is reciprocal. Also, one of the three elements can play a stronger role than the others depending on the territorial scale, the sub-state institution and the status of the minority. Research on nationalism should provide greater focus on the sub-state level and the concept of administrative nationalism is proposed as a means to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the 1996 Canadian census to examine and measure the spatial structure and intensity of urban deprivation in Montreal. Urban deprivation emerged as an important theme in urban studies and urban geography during the 1990s. Since the early 1980s, the Montreal urban area, particularly the Island of Montreal, has experienced an increase in urban social problems, brought on largely by economic restructuring, recessions and the out-migration of residents and businesses to suburban communities. Twenty indicators of urban deprivation are drawn from the census and analysed by way of a principal components analysis first to identify the main types of deprivation in the city and then to measure its intensity. In the process, a general deprivation index (GDI) is devised which can be applied to study the spatial aspects of this phenomenon in other Canadian cities. The study identified six main types of deprivation in the city and found that they were most visible on the Island of Montreal, especially in the central and eastern parts. Additionally, it found that urban deprivation in not confined to the inner city, as several of the most severely deprived neighbourhoods are located outside the central city and even in the off-Island suburbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New models of urban planning, including the lofty design principles of City Beautiful architects and the comprehensive schemes of Garden City and Garden Suburb reformers, were introduced to Canada during the first decades of the twentieth century. Despite their widespread advocacy by professionals and civic-minded enthusiasts alike, the impact of these new models on the contemporary Canadian city was actually quite limited. However, selected principles of these models were used rather pragmatically in several locations, including the northwestern suburbs of Montreal where the Canadian Northern Railway built the 'Model City' of Mount Royal, a corporate suburb that was planned, designed, and developed as a real estate venture to help offset the costs of building a railway tunnel into the centre of Montreal. This paper examines the process of city-building in Mount Royal during the town's formative years, from 1910 to 1925. It demonstrates how the idea for the town emerged as a speculative residential scheme at the height of the pre-First World War land boom; how the City Beautiful ideals of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr and the Garden Suburb principles of Henry Vivian were introduced to Montreal during their visits there in 1910; and how, one year later, their ideas and other planning models converged and were incorporated to form the unique design for Mount Royal's urban plan by Frederick Todd, a protege of the junior Olmsted and Canada's most prominent landscape architect of the early twentieth century.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the characteristics of areas with numerous group homes (residential care facilities) that cater to a variety of user groups. An overview of patterns of locational concentration precedes the results of an ecological analysts for the Minor Planning Districts of the City of Toronto. The pattern of ecological correlates among the three group home types analyzed supports results obtained elsewhere, but cautions against referring ecological associations Identified for one sort of facility to other facility types. The conclusion questions the suitability of present areas of locational concentration of group homes as host environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responds to a critique of the paper "Housing Tenure and Social Cleavages in Urban Canada," published in a 1986 issue of the periodical "Annals of the Association of American Geographers." Background on the discipline of geography in the U.S.; Approach used in writing the paper; Details of the surveys and maps used in the study; Geographic content of the study.