Atlantic Canada's Urban Growth Agenda - Greater Halifax Partnership

Scope of the Urban Agenda and its Implications for Atlantic Canada
• Canada’s population has become highly urbanized.
In the late 19 th century, 80% of the population lived in rural areas. At the beginning of the 21 st century, some
80% of the population lives in Canada’s urban centres. Examples of the new urban dominance in Canada
include: Halifax, which generates some 47% of Nova Scotia’s GDP; Greater Montreal, which accounts for 49%
of Quebec’s GDP; and Winnipeg, which accounts for 67% of Manitoba’s GDP according to research published
by the Prime Minister’s Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues. Atlantic Canada, however; is still the most rural
region in Canada with some 45% of its population living in rural areas.
• Municipal governments have been taking on more responsibilities.
In recent years, the municipal governments in Canada have been subject to ‘downloading’ of government
service delivery either deliberately or de facto as the provincial or federal government has backed away from
certain social programs, for example, leaving the municipalities to find ways to offer the program.
• Municipal governments do not benefit from economic growth to the extent of provincial and federal
governments.
Research has shown that the return on investment (ROI) in the form of new tax revenues from economic
development is limited, if not negative, for municipalities while decidedly positive for provincial and federal
governments. This may be one reason why Canadian municipalities seem to place much less focus on
economic development compared to their U.S. counterparts. (See the point on economic development focus
below).
• There is a national rural agenda.
The federal government has had a formal rural development approach for a number of years delivering a variety
of programs through Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Industry Canada and other departments/agencies.
• There has been very limited research related to the urban areas in Atlantic Canada.
While there are several organizations conducting research into rural issues in Atlantic Canada, there is no
governmental, academic or private institution that targets understanding the role and challenges of urban areas
in Atlantic Canada.
• There is a large urban area bias associated with the national urban agenda.
The Prime Minister’s Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues final report focused mainly on the challenges facing
Canada’s largest urban areas. The Canada West Foundation has recently stated that the national urban agenda
should only focus on Canada’s CMAs.
• Economic development is not on the radar as an urban agenda issue.
This is not to say that economic development is not a key issue – just that it hasn’t been linked by government
as a part of the national urban agenda. The vast majority of the thinking on the urban agenda relates to the
infrastructure needed to support growth (i.e. transportation, immigration support, affordable housing) and not the
infrastructure required to generate growth (i.e. economic development programs, growth-generating
infrastructure).
• There is not a lot of focus on economic development at the municipal level in Canada.
The research for this report indicates that local urban areas in the United States are generally more focused on
economic development than Canadian urban areas. This is evidenced by the financial resources attributable to
economic development at the local level. U.S. municipalities in general spend much more money at the
municipal level on direct economic development activities. U.S. municipalities also have more options related to
economic development incentives than do Canadian municipalities such as the ability to offer tax breaks and
industrial bonds. Further, U.S. municipalities receive more direct benefit from economic development through
tax sharing and other mechanisms and therefore have a greater incentive to focus on economic development.
…Atlantic Canadian Context iii