Municipalities are missing out on the full potential of market-based tools!

Municipal governments are facing multiple, growing, and overlapping challenges. Yet, there are tools available to address these challenges that are not being used to their full potential. Market-based policies such as well-designed user fees can help reduce traffic, cut water use, and improve solid waste management, while generating revenue that can be used to fill financial gaps.

These challenges include:

• Municipal infrastructure is aging and faces a growing investment gap;
• Municipalities have limited ability to raise revenues. Only so much can be raised from property taxes. They also often face constraints on debt financing; and
• To attract people and investment, livability is key: cities must provide job and recreational opportunities, ensure affordability, make it easy to move people and products, and protect clean air and water.

It all sounds a little daunting. Yet an under-used policy option might lie at the intersection of these challenges. Municipalities can use market-based tools to fund critical infrastructure and create incentives for individuals and businesses to make choices that improve the livability and sustainability of our communities.

Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, with support from the McConnell Foundation, has developed a unique online course on municipal market-based tools for sustainable development that will help municipal employees, and those that work with municipalities, successfully design and implement these solutions.

Through five self-directed and on demand modules that include recordings of webinars led by experts and experienced practitioners and a series of online exercises, participants will learn how Canadian municipalities can practically use a variety of market-based tools. The five modules include:

• Module 1: Making the case for municipal market-based tools
  • Chris Ragan, Chair, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission
• Module 2: Market-based tools for reducing traffic congestion
  • Nancy Olewiler, Professor, School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University
  • Daniel Firth, Director of Mobility Pricing, TransLink
• Module 3: Market-based tools for sustainable water and wastewater management
  • Justin Leroux,Associate Professor, Department of Applied Economics, HEC Montréal
  • Carl Yates, General Manager, Halifax Water
• Module 4: Market-based tools for sustainable solid waste management
  • Lindsay Tedds, Associate Professor & Scientific Director, Fiscal and Economic Policy, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
  • Andrew Duffield, Director of Sustainable Development, City of Beaconsfield
• Module 5: Securing political and public support for market-based tools
  • Moderator – Dale Beugin, Executive Director, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission
  • Panellists:
    • Mike Buda, Executive Director, Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, Vancouver
    • Josie Osborne, Mayor, Tofino
    • Joe Pennachetti, Senior Fellow, University of Toronto and former City Manager, Toronto
    • Enid Slack, Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, University of Toronto

The course is guaranteed to provide unique insight and practical guidance on the selection, design and implementation of municipal market-based tools.

Who should attend?
The course is intended for municipal employees, as well as federal and provincial employees that work with municipalities on related issues. It is open to anyone, including students and private sector employees, that has an interest in topics such as municipal finance, asset management, infrastructure financing, environmental policy, urban planning, traffic management, water and wastewater management, and solid waste management.

The course is well suited to busy professionals. You can complete the modules at your own pace and on your own schedule.

Registration details:
You can purchase individual modules for $50, or sign up for all 5 modules for $200 (a $50 savings). Complete at least 3 modules, including course exercises, to receive a certificate! While modules can be mixed and matched, Module 1 is a pre-requisite for modules 2-5 as it is foundational.

French option:
We’ve also made available a mini-course that summarizes the material for $70. Presented by Justin Leroux in French, this mini-course includes videos that cover the highlights of our traffic, water and wastewater, and municipal waste modules as listed above.

Go to courses.ecofiscal.ca for more information and to register.  If you have any questions, contact rsamson@ecofiscal.ca.