Talent,technology and tolerance in Canadian regional development

This article examines the factors that shape economic development in Canadian regions. It employs path analysis and structural equation models to isolate the effects of technology, human capital and/or the creative class, universities, the diversity of service industries and openness to immigrants, minorities and gay and lesbian populations on regional income. It also examines the effects of several broad occupations groups—business and finance, management, science, arts and culture, education and health care—on regional income. The findings indicate that both human capital and the creative class have a direct effect on regional income. Openness and tolerance also have a significant effect on regional development in Canada. Openness towards the gay and lesbian population has a direct effect on both human capital and the creative class, while tolerance towards immigrants and visible minorities is directly associated with higher regional incomes. The university has a relatively weak effect on regional incomes and on technology as well. Management, business and finance and science occupations have a sizeable effect on regional income; arts and culture occupations have a significant effect on technology; health and education occupations have no effect on regional income.     

Innovation vs inertia: Entrepreneurial governments in 21st-century rural Alberta

Rural development in Alberta is a long-standing challenge, with local communities and economies often stuck between economic cycles, fiscal largesse from the Provincial Government, and a historical pattern of conservative leadership that seeks to leave the private sector unimpeded. As a result, many rural communities now face significant economic, social, political, and ecological challenges that, while not unique to Alberta, are marked by only modest innovation and a tendency to return to previous developmental initiatives. This paper is focused upon identifying the common challenges facing municipal government in the province, but also accounting for the inertial dynamics within municipal politics. Drawing from qualitative data collected from rural municipalities, it seeks to situate contemporary adaptive economic strategies and initiatives within the dominant public ideology of the province. This paper argues that while reform initiatives undertaken in the province broadly align with pragmatic municipalism as a necessary response to decades of neoliberal austerity and inertia, that pragmatism is tempered by a provincial rationality that limits, rather than enhances, the likelihood of meaningful change. This rationality, and its effects, are explained through four fallacies: home rule, agency, the Golden Age, and homogeneity.     

Canada's Ocean Supercluster initiative: A national policy in regional clothing?

Since the late 1980s, there has been no explicit regional policy in Canada. Indirectly, though, equalization payments, industrial policies, as well as regional agencies encouraging the adoption of federal industrial and innovation policies, impact regional economies. In 2017, the federal government appeared to alter its approach: the Supercluster initiative was announced, drawing upon the idea that localized networks of interrelated firms can generate innovation and local development. In this paper, we discuss the mechanisms through which spatially focused industrial innovation policy can lead to regional development. We then focus on Canada's Ocean Supercluster initiative. The question we address is as follows: to what extent can this initiative (and, more widely, Canada's Supercluster policy) be understood as a regional development strategy driven by a coherent rationale for regional intervention? Apart from the fact that each Supercluster focuses on a pre-existing core of firms located within a region, there is little evidence that the Supercluster initiative has regional development objectives or impacts.     

The politics of water security in southern Saskatchewan

This paper examines long-term water and resource management in Saskatchewan. Agriculture has long sustained Saskatchewan's economy, but the province experienced a resource boom in oil and potash in the 2008–2015 time period. What potential water-related risks are posed by oil and potash? And is the province able to balance the short-term economic gains of these developments with the long-term goal of water security? The research is based on interviews with policy elites in the province of Saskatchewan and argues that four factors explain why the government continues to favour industry over water security: low-issue salience, economic and political interest, ideology, and political culture.     

Scenarios of climate change and natural resource development: Complexity and uncertainty in the Nechako Watershed

Climate change and resource development interact to have significant impacts on both natural and human systems within watersheds. It is, however, difficult to conceptualize and communicate these intersections, as climate change and resource development are each independently uncertain and complex. We facilitated a process whereby stakeholders created plausible future scenarios for the Nechako Watershed in British Columbia, Canada. This region is reliant upon, and has been significantly affected by, many types of resource exploitation. During a full-day workshop, 32 stakeholders created scenarios for 2050 envisioning high and low levels of both resource development and climate change. The high and low levels of climate change were based on downscaled projections from global emissions scenarios, and the resource development levels were determined at the beginning of the workshop by the participants. The exercise was educational, and motivated stakeholders to conceptualize plausible future changes and their impacts, and the outcomes should motivate stakeholders to work towards realizing a more desired future. All scenarios (even low-low) were deemed to have significant negative impacts, suggesting that the Nechako Watershed is in a vulnerable state. The complexity of the exercise suggests that more capacity building may be necessary.     

DISPERSED CITY FORM IN CANADA: A KITCHENER CMA CASE EXAMPLE

This case study illustrates that some Canadian cities are not as compact and centralized as conventional wisdom would have us believe. The spatial structure of Kitchener CMA is shown to be ‘dispersed’ based on empirical trends towards lower population densities, outward spreading of jobs, retailing and other activities, CBD decline, increased open space, a transportation system that is singularly dependent on auto use, and an overriding demand for residential settings deemed to be ‘private’ and ‘rural-like’. The paper acknowledges factors unique to the case study locale that have precipitated dispersed city form. It argues that some other Canadian cities can be expected to share fundamental features of Kitchener's dispersed city form, most notably metropolitan areas that amalgamate two or more historically autonomous cities, but also smaller metropolitan areas and/or ones specialized in manufacturing industry. As regards Canadian cities in general, the paper also makes the point that most parts of all cities built since World War II are primarily dispersed in form. Conceptually, this paper explains dispersion as a change in balance between three sets of factors - ‘space’, ‘proximity’, and ‘place’ - that configure in the locational decision making that underlies urban development. Cette étude de cas révèle l'existence d'une plus grande dispersion urbaine au Canada qu'on ne le laisse généralement entendre. Plusieurs facteurs rendent compte du fort niveau de dispersion de la structure spatiale de la région métropolitaine de Kitchener: densité résidentielle en décroissance, mouvement de l'emploi ainsi que des activités commerciales et autres vers la périphèrie, quantité grandissante d'espaces verts, un système de transport orienté presqu'exlusivement vers l'automobile et une prédilection pour les secteurs résidenties qui offrent de grandes quantités d'espace privé ainsi qu'une proximité de la campagne. Cet article attritue la dispersion urbaine de Kitchener à certains facteurs qui sont propres à cette agglomération. Il soutient également la thèse selon laquelle d'autres régions métropolitaines canadiennes partagent les caractéristiques de Kitchener qui en font une agglomération dispersée. Ceci est le cas notamment des agglomérations qui résultent d'une fusion de plusieurs centres, de celles qui sont de petite et de moyenne taille et, enfin, de celles où le secteur manufacturer joue un grand rôle. L'article maintient aussi que dans toutes les agglomérations canadiennes, les secteurs construits depuis la guerre ont adopté une forme dispersée. Sur un plan conceptuel, cet article impute la dispersion urbaine à un changement dans l'importance respective de trois facteurs de localisation: l'espace métropolitain, la proximité sectorielle, et les particularités des sites urbains.     

LA PÉPINIÈRE D'ENTREPRISES DANS LE CONTEXTE D'UN PARC SCIENTIFIQUE: L'EXEMPLE DU CENTRE QUÉBÉCOIS D'INNOVATION EN BIO TECHNOLOGIE À LAVAL, QUÉBEC (CANADA)

L'émergence de pépinières visant à soutenir la formation d'entreprises à caractère innovateur demeure un phénomèna relativement récent. Dans les villes où il existe un parc scientifique, ou encore où l'on développe un projet de technopôle, la pépinière représente un outil d'aménagement et d'intervention de premier ordre en termes d'innovation et de transfert technologique.
Cependant, le problème est de reconnître dans quelle mesure la pépinière d'entreprises constitue un appareil d'appui et de services à l'expansion des futures entreprises, en regard des préoccupations locales de développement économique. L'étude du Centre Québécois d'innovation en Biotechnologie à Laval nous a permis de nourrir cette réflexion et d'apprécier le rôle qu'il joue en matière de développement economique au sein d'une opération technopolitaine.
The rise of business incubators to help in the creation of new innovative firms is a fairly new phenomenon. For cities that have developed science parks or technopoles, the incubator represents an important planning tool oriented towards the creation innovation and technology transfer.
But the question remains; in the context of local economic development strategies, how effective are business incubators for providing help and services that can stimulate future firms expansion. This study of the Centre Québécois d'innovation en Biotechnologie located in Laval, addresses this question and seeks to provide insight on the role of incubators on economic growth in the context of a science park.     

Peri-urban residential development in the Halifax region 1960–2000: magnets, constraints, and planning policies

The post 1960 locational sequence of peri‐urban residential development in the Halifax city region is interpreted in terms of three sets of factors: magnets or attractors, constraints or inhibitors, and planning policies designed to direct or control development. Most peripheral housing has been suburban (i.e., on small, centrally‐serviced lots) rather than exurban (on large lots, serviced on‐site). Suburban development patterns have been strongly shaped by the 1963 Halifax Housing Survey and the 1975 Regional Development Plan, both of which promoted planned satellite communities on government land assemblies, in areas of cheap land and low development costs. After 1980 effective regional planning was phased out, which encouraged excessive large‐lot development in country districts beyond the service boundary. Magnets for country residential development operate at a variety of scales, and include highway access, elementary schools, localized site conditions, and appropriate zoning. The major regional constraint is road‐distance from the urban core, but socio‐cultural and cadastral constraints are locally important. The paper concludes with a survey of policy options to promote efficient patterns of suburban development and to curb exurban sprawl. Many of these options were recommended in earlier plans, but have lacked fiscal and political support in the last two decades. They must now be re‐assessed in a new regional plan. La séquence géographique post‐1960 du développement résidentiel péri‐urbain dans la région de Halifax est interprétée par l'entremise de trois ensembles des facteurs: les aimants ou les attracteurs, les contraintes ou les inhibiteurs, et les politiques de planification conçues pour diriger ou contrôler le développement. La plupart des logements périphériques ont été sub‐urbains (c'est‐à‐dire sur des petits lots dotés de services centraux) plutôt qu'exurbains (sur des grands lots, dotés sur place). Des configurations suburbaines de développement ont été fortement conditionnées par le Halifax Housing Survey (1963) et par le plan de développement régional (1975), tous deux ayant promu des communautés satellites prévues sur les terres de gouvernement, dans les zones de terrain bon marché avec des coûts de développement relativement bas. Après 1980, la planification régionale a étééliminée, ce qui a encouragé le développement excessif de lots de grandes dimensions dans des zones au‐delà de la limite des services. Les aimants pour le développement résidentiel exurbain fonctionnent à diverses échelles. Ils incluent notamment l'accès routier, les écoles primaires, l'état des sites locaux, et la répartition appropriée en zones. La contrainte régionale principale est la distance routière par rapport au noyau urbain, mais les contraintes socio‐culturelles et cadastrales sont localement importantes. En conclusion, l'article fournit un résumé des options politiques favorisant les configurations efficaces du développement suburbain et limitant le développement des grands lots exurbains. Plusieurs de ces options ont déjà fait l'objet de recommandations dans le cadre de plans passés, mais ont manqué de support fiscal et politique au cours des deux dernières décennies. Elles doivent maintenant être réévaluées dans un nouveau plan régional.     

Smart growth strategies,transportation and urban sprawl: simulated futures for Hamilton,Ontario

North American cities have undergone dramatic changes over the last century. Locations that were once inconvenient have become accessible through extensive road networks leading to population decentralization from the traditional urban centre to suburbia, creating polycentric sprawls from once monocentric communities. Hamilton, Ontario is one such city. The decentralization and urban decline of the city is widely attributed to sprawling development. This change in the sociospatial structure creates challenges for transportation planners as we see greater automobile dependency, greater commuting distances and increased congestion. Smart growth policies such as urban residential intensification (URI) aim to increase population densities in the urban core. This exploratory study estimates the benefits of such policies from a transportation aspect. It is predicted that the City of Hamilton will experience household growth of approximately 80,000 households over the period 2005–2031. Using IMULATE, an integrated urban transportation and land‐use model, a variety of development scenarios model this anticipated growth. Changes in vehicular emissions, traffic congestion and energy consumption as a result of URI are examined. Models of the land‐use/transportation relationship demonstrate how increasing population densities within a city's urban centre drastically reduce congestion, emissions and gasoline consumption.