New Challenges and Old Solutions: Metropolitan Reorganization in Canadian and U.S. City–Regions

Abstract

This article examines how local public institutions, especially municipal administrations, have adapted their structures and actual practices to respond to new regionalist and metropolitan challenges. We want to assess if, and how much, governmental institutions are really adopting new ways to plan, supervise, and implement metropolitan policies. More precisely, we analyze 35 American and Canadian urban agglomerations that rank as regional capitals or mid-sized urban areas. The emphasis is on the transformation of metropolitan institutions and on metropolitan area taxation strategies. The analysis pinpoints a number of findings regarding the nature and impact of recent institutional reforms. These findings involve: 1) the return in force of the unicity in Canada, 2) the slow development in the organization of the local public sector and the adoption of institutional solutions favoring voluntary associations in the US, 3) the discrepancy between discourse and practice in terms of the objectives targeted by fiscal measures, and 4) the growing role of state and provincial governments in metropolitan institutional and fiscal reforms.

Building metropolitan governance capacity: The case of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal

“…3 The CMM thus constitutes the response of the provincial government to the stakes of metropolitanization, and its creation ''should provide the tools to allow the emergence of an overall vision of metropolitan issues and a fairer way to finance metropolitan-wide infrastructure'' (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2004: 88). Considering the limited experiences with metropolitan governance in North America (Collin, Poitras, and Léveillée 2002), the CMM provides a unique occasion to question the factors influencing metropolitan governance capacity.…”

Le TOD contre la ville durable? Utiliser le transport collectif pour perpétuer le suburbanisme dispersé dans le Grand Montréal

“…La recherche en études urbaines révèle qu'une compétition entre municipalités découle naturellement d'un tel contexte de clientélisme (par exemple, Boyne, 1996;Brueckner et Saavedra, 2001;Hendrick, Wu et Jacob, 2007). Collin, Léveillée et Poitras (2002) soulignent qu'en Amérique du Nord, malgré les disparités majeures entre les assiettes fiscales des municipalités d'une même région métropolitaine et leur capacité à offrir des services collectifs, la coopération financière à l'échelle régionale est confinée au partage des dépenses plutôt que des revenus. Le Grand Montréal ne fait pas exception à cette règle.…”

Community economic development in a context of globalization and metropolization: a comparison of four North American cities

“…In Canada, municipal mergers have been on the agenda, imposed by the provincial governments, and affecting Toronto (in 1998) and Montreal (in 2002). In the US, most metropolitan regions, such as Boston and Pittsburgh, are still fragmented (Frisken, 2001;Swanstrom, 2001;Collin et al, 2002).…”