Activities at the Institute

The Institute carries out a range of activities to further knowledge about municipal finance in Canadian cities and to disseminate that knowledge. These include research, seminars, a visiting scholars program, education and training, and publication of research findings.

Research

The Institute undertakes and commissions research on fiscal tools and governing structures. All research findings are posted. The research mandate of the Institute includes the following Canadian and international areas:

• The fiscal situation of Canada's large cities, including an analysis of municipal expenditures and revenues, fiscal imbalance, municipal borrowing and the infrastructure gap.

• Municipal expenditures, including the determinants of municipal expenditures, patterns of expenditure over time, and expenditure efficiency.

• Revenue options, including, for example, changes to the property tax, user fees, income and sales taxes, fuel taxes and intergovernmental transfers.

• Municipal governance, including appropriate governance arrangements for cities and city-regions, the role of the mayor and council, the role of committees, the relationship of cities to the federal and provincial governments, and the role of civil society.

• Municipal finance and urban growth, including an analysis of how financial tools affect land use decisions.

Seminars

The Institute organizes seminars with international and local experts to find out what works in other cities and how to apply those models to the large cities and city-regions of Canada. Government officials, private sector organizations, and academics attend these events.

Visiting Scholars

The Institute invites visiting scholars in the field of municipal finance to share best practices from other jurisdictions and undertake comparative research.

Education and Training

An important function of the Institute is to support graduate students in municipal finance and governance. This support allows doctoral students to undertake much-needed research in the municipal finance field in Canada. It also provides students with the knowledge and expertise to work on municipal finance issues at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels of government.

Publications

The Institute disseminates its research findings and reports from conferences through regular newsletters and on its website. All research at the Institute is in the public domain.