Spacing Radio

In the federal election just passed, we heard many big ideas about how to tackle the housing crisis. And we could sure use a major effort from our new federal government. But there is also a lot of research and advocacy done about smaller-scale approaches that would have outsized impact on housing affordability and availability. And we examine two of them. First, we speak to two people from the advocacy group Vivre En Ville: Director of Housing Adam Mongrain and housing advisor Ines Zerrouki about the role non-profit housing can play in this crisis. And we spoke to McGill University Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning Nik Luka and LGA intern architect Conrad Speckert about how adding gentle density or missing middle hosing to existing neighbourhoods can increase supply, if we just allow it to be built (as many Canadian cities did in the past). How can small-scale housing fixes make big impact in Canada?

In this episode, with Prime Minister Mark Carney's pick of former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson as Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, we reached out to longtime urban affairs writer Frances Bula to learn about Robertson's housing legacy, and how he might approach his new job. And we speak to Howard Tam, a city builder and founder of Eat More Scarborough food tours about the variety and quality of cuisine there, and how the people of Scarborough are taking back their own story.

Episode 87: Building Housing With Election Planks by Spacing Radio

We can learn a lot about evictions and the housing crisis from cities in other countries, all over the world. Often, we draw comparisons to our neighbour just south of the border: the United States. Just like us, renters in the States are dealing with soaring rent prices, a lack of security of tenure, and the threat of eviction. But they're also dealing with a second Trump presidency that threatens to remove protections for renters, scrap housing programs, and defund research into solving the housing crisis Tim Thomas is Research Director of the Urban Displacement Project at University of California, Berkeley. He tells us about the hurdles renters in America face, the racial bias inherent in many of the laws governing evictions and displacement, and how housing advocates and academics are scrambling to come to terms with Trump 2.0.

Evictions are a problem for renters across the country. As we explored in the last episode: part of tackling the housing crisis requires improving "security of tenure" for the many people who rent their homes. But evictions are difficult to quantify. Many of them are not reported. And each province has different processes, legislations, and tribunals surrounding evictions and landlord/tenant disputes. How do we get a picture of evictions across the country? Alexandra Flynn is an assistant professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. She's been tracking eviction data from province to province. We asked her about her findings. And David Wachsmuth an associate professor at McGill University's School of Urban Planning and Canadian Research Chair in Urban Governance. He's been conducting meta analysis and qualitative research on evictions in Canada. He tells us a startling fact about people who experience homelessness after an eviction. What can we learn about eviction policy by comparing provinces and municipalities?

In a snap election called ostensibly to decide which Ontario provincial party leader can take on Donald Trump, we sure have spent a lot of time talking about highways. In this episode, we speak to Emma McIntosh, reporter for The Narwhal, about the various election promises made about highways in Ontario. Do we expand them, remove their tolls, or simply tunnel them under ground at an unimaginable expense? We break down what the party leaders are saying about solving highway congestion. And, it's either the end of an era in Winnipeg, or the beginning of a new chapter. After over 45 years, the barriers preventing pedestrians from crossing the iconic downtown intersection of Portage and Main are coming down. We ask CBC Manitoba senior reporter Bartley Kives what led to this politically-charged change, and what it means for the future of Winnipeg's downtown.

For renters, security of tenure — the ability to stay in a home without fear of being destabilized by eviction — is essential. When you have that security, you can put down roots in your neigbhourhood for you and your family. But evictions occur all the time. They may be the result of lack of payment, but there are different legal avenues for landlords to pursue "no-fault evictions," such as renovations or moving in a family member. Sometimes these are simply loopholes being exploited, but that's difficult and costly to prove for the renter. Because housing is such big business, there is plenty of incentive to evict current tenants and name a new, higher price. Alina McKay is Research Manager for the Housing Research Collaborative the the University of British Columbia and Sean Grisdale is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. They have both been conducting research on evictions and security of tenure.

With Justin Trudeau stepping down as Prime Minister and the very real possibility of an federal election, Premier Doug Ford mulling over a snap provincial election, and President-elect Trump threatening a trade war, it's almost impossible to predict what 2025 will hold. And yet, Toronto and other municipalities in Canada must muddle through as best they can and create an annual budget. That process has already started in Toronto. To rate Trudeau's legacy (for better or worse) in Toronto, and to identify possible pitfalls and goals for the megacity's newest budget, we've put together a panel discussion featuring CivicAction CEO Leslie Woo and Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc.

This time of year, with the temperature below freezing, it feels appropriate to talk about housing. So, we're bringing you two conversations with two authors who have both recently written about that very topic. Carolyn Whitzman is the author of Home Truths: Fixing Canada's Housing Crisis. And Mitchell Cohen wrote Rhythms of Change: Reflections on the Regent Park Revitalization. The first book provides a macro view of housing in Canada, and the second provides a look at a specific development in Toronto.

Découvrez comment Montréal repousse les limites de l'innovation urbaine. Grâce aux témoignages de Maxime Thibault Vézina, Chef de division au Laboratoire d'innovation urbaine à la Ville de Montréal, et de Raphaël Guyard, conseiller sénior à la Maison de l'Innovation Sociale, explorez comment la technologie, des démarches participatives pour adapter la réglementation, et la collaboration entre acteurs publics, privés et citoyens s'unissent pour façonner une ville plus inclusive, durable et tournée vers l'avenir.

The City of Toronto has been named a "role model city" by the United Nations Environment Program for Supporting Urban Ecosystems. It's part of an initiative the UN calls "Generation Restoration," part of their Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. To find out why Toronto has been named a role model, and what that city can teach others across the world about fostering and protecting their urban ecosystems, we speak to Kim Statham, director of Toronto Urban Forestry, and Wendy Strickland, project manager for the Toronto Ravine Strategy. Listen to the episode to hear how cities can play a role in ecosystem restoration.

With Premier Doug Ford's repeated promises to rip up bike lanes in Toronto, and possibly even other Ontario cities and towns, we've decided to dive deep into why and what that might mean for the future or road safety and city planning. We have a panel discussion featuring Cycle Toronto Executive Director Michael Longfied and Toronto Today Editor Allison Smith. We talk about both the impact of removing cycling infrastructure and why Doug Ford has suddenly made a few kilometres of bike lanes in Toronto a provincial priority. And we speak to Deputy Mayor and City Councillor Amber Morley about she defends the new Bloor Street bike lanes in her ward, and how/if the City can move forward with safe street projects.

We're pleased to bring you another season of The Overhead, and we begin by checking back on a topic we've been tracking from the start: community land trusts. This time, we're focusing specifically on the "community" aspect of land trusts. We've spoken about the benefits of removing certain land from the market, preserving it as affordable housing in perpetuity. But how do land trusts help longstanding cultural communities so they can continue to call their neigbourhoods home? We see different communities turning to land trust model as a way to avoid displacement, or reassert cultural ownership over land they've traditionally called home: in the traditionally Black neighbourhoods of Hogan's Alley in Vancouver and Africville in Halifax, or in Toronto's Chinatown. To answer this, we spoke to Nat Pace, network director of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts, and Chiyi Tam, managing director of the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust. As Tam puts it, when we talk about the heritage of a place, we spend a lot of time speaking about the buildings or the character. We lose sight of what really makes a place: "Heritage is the people, it's not the buildings. And affordability is a core function to do heritage preservation work, in and amongst all of our communities — whether that's dragon dancing or whether that's the literal existence of Africville." How can ownership over land help preserve our diverse communities?

This month, we respond to Doug Ford's stated plan of banning new bike lanes in Ontario municipalities and building an underground highway from Markham to Scarborough. Then we speak to environmental lawyer and cycling advocate Albert Koehl about his book Wheeling Through Toronto: a history of the bicycle and its riders. We talk about how attitudes towards cyclists have changed over time, or even repeated themselves. Finally, we talk to transportation consultant and former TTC Chair Adam Giambrone about the need for a culture change at Toronto's transportation commission.

It's been a while since we had a good, old-fashioned transit talk with friends of the show Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing contributor) and Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter). We talk about returning TTC service levels to pre-pandemic levels, what we should look for in the next TTC CEO, what is even happening with the Eglinton Crosstown, and Doug Ford's transit expansion plans.

We heard a lot about drones at the Paris Olympics, but what about in our own backyard? In this episode, Spacing's John Lorinc tells us about a piece he wrote called Eyes in the Sky, which documents the stealthy creep of the Toronto Police Service's use of drones to keep tabs on residents. Next, author and green advocate Lorraine Johnson tells us about an open letter she co-signed urging Canadian municipalities to change their outdated bylaws which prohibit growing habit gardens and other helpful plant species in our lawns and backyards. Finaly, Ingrid Buday founded No More Noise Toronto out of frustration with the city's high-volume noise pollution, especially traffic sounds. The group advocates for new bylaws protecting residents' right to peace and quiet, and gathers its own data to make the case.

Toronto is often accused of being over-regulated. It's a fair criticism. For example, photographer and urbanist commentator Dan Seljak tells us how he stumbled upon the small Finch Store selling espresso, fighting to stay open in the face of City zoning laws. For more of the story, and how Finch Store was granted a reprieve, we speak to local City Councillor Alejandra Bravo. And we speak to Councillor Gord Perks, chair of the Planning and Housing Committee, about why Toronto works on complaints-based bylaw enforcement, and how we can improve the system for small businesses, special events, and more.

It's Bike Month! It's a time we celebrate cycle culture in Toronto and surrounding cities and towns. At least officially. Despite some significant gains in cycling infrastructure, there are still a lot of people and (more troubling) politicians who'd like to run riders off the road. To put this all into perspective, we spoke to Lanrick Bennett Jr., a cycling advocate who, for the last few years, has represented Toronto as the Bicycle Mayor. And, Spacing co-founder Shawn Micallef tells us about the new edition of his book Stroll: psychogeographic walking tours of Toronto. In 2010, Shawn wrote the book as a series of guided walks, with historic background and personal reflections, through different parts of the city. Now, 14 years later, he's retread those steps for a brand new version of the book.

Wildfire season has already begun in Canada. Due to climate change, we are seeing more frequent and devastating fires. They choke the air, the decimate the landscape, and they displace people from their homes. So we have to fight them with everything we've got. Neal McLoughlin is superintendent of the Predictive Services Unit at BC Wildfire Service. He tells us how AI and drone technology is helping to monitor, fight, and prevent forest fires. And Moulay Akhloufi is a professor at the University of Moncton, where he heads their Perception, Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab. He tells us how his team has been exploring every avenue available to detect wildfires, and predict how they'll spread. That includes video games.

With the change of the seasons, we talk about different kinds of renewal. First, Senior Editor John Lorinc talks about the special Spacing investigation into the cyber attack on the Toronto Public Library that shut the service down for months. How did it happen, and how do we make sure our public institutions are hacker-proof? And, the latest Spacing Magazine issue is on shelves now. As a preview, we share the full conversation with Toronto Public Space Committee organizer Cara Chellew (available in the issue as a Q&A) about the need for new Toronto street furniture: garbage bins that work, bus shelters that actually provide shelter, and places for people to sit.

We all know access to clean water is vital. We also know that water quality and access is jeopardized by things like pollution and drought. On the other hand, the growing frequency of powerful downpours causes stormwater issues. All that to say, the state of the water we rely on for so many thing is in constant flux. What we need is good, local data, about the bodies of water that sustain us. That's where Mary Kruk, water data specialist with DataStream, and Steph Neufeld, watershed manager with Edmonton's water utility EPCOR, can help. With DataStream, Kruk helps compile water data from all over the country, and make it available and easily accessible to everyone who needs it. In Edmonton, Neufeld is using that data to inform the City about it's many important watersheds.

Dans cet épisode, nous sommes allés dans les coulisses de la planification urbaine de Victoriaville. Nous nous sommes intéressés à la manière dont les municipalités comme Victoriaville s'y prennent pour mettre en branle des projets urbanistiques en tenant compte à la fois des paramètres environnementaux, économiques et sociaux.  Les entretiens avec Jean-François Morissette, Directeur des Services de la gestion du territoire et du développement durable, et Valérie Ebacher, urbaniste chez Vivre en Ville, soulignent l'importance des collaborations interdisciplinaires. Grâce à ces échanges, nous comprenons mieux la nécessité croissante d'inclure dans les projets urbains une diversité de compétences afin de relever les défis municipaux complexes auxquels les villes sont confrontées, notamment dans le contexte pressant des changements climatiques.

In 2005, Ontario passed the Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which made accessibility for all public establishments a legal requirement by 2025. That goal won't be met, unfortunately. To tell us about the progress that was made because of the legislation, and what still needs to happen, we speak to AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. And, as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we talk to Jeremy Hopkin, who has colourized a panoramic photo series of Toronto in the mid 1800s. We ask him about the project, and what these photos tell us about early Toronto life.

With the Toronto budget about to be voted on shortly, we talk to crisis worker and homelessness advocate Diana Chan McNally about what the City needs to invest to help refugees and other unhoused people, whey the federal government needs to step up, and why the police don't need another big budget increase. And, as part of the Spacing 20th Anniversary celebration, we talk to historian and author Adam Bunch, who recently won the 2023 Governor General's History Award for Popular Media, and who wrote our blog's most-read story, which he treats us to.

Spacing is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary. To celebrate, we talk to publisher Matthew Blackett and senior editor Dylan Reid about how the magazine came together, the latest issue and anniversary book The Big Book of Spacing, and our special exhibit at the Urbanspace Gallery. And, at the same time the magazine began, David Miller had just become mayor of Toronto on a platform of change and urbanist principles. We ask him about Spacing's impact at City Hall, and how urban thinking has changed in the city in two decades.

With climate change leading to more frequent and more extreme climate events, predicting the next disaster and planning for it is essential. In many areas of the country, that means using data to anticipate extreme heat events, and give communities time to prepare. Dr. Ryan Reynolds is the researcher behind Resilience Mapping Canada. Reynolds uses data and other tools to help communities prepare for climate events, extreme heat, flooding, and more. In determining who is most vulnerable in extreme heat, Reynolds says: "This includes the elderly (in B.C. we decided that was about 60 plus) that were most vulnerable... Another one is adults who live alone. They're not necessarily being checked in on on a regular basis, so if they are having problems they might not be able to get assistance with that particular issue... Small children, particularly if they're accidentally left in vehicles... Health factors: there are particular health and mental health conditions that are exacerbated by extreme heat."  Barbara Roden is mayor Village of Ashcroft, British Columbia. Ashcroft is actually a designated desert, so the community must be especially prepared for extreme heat events. To that end, they developed the Heat Alert Response Plan. For a small town, this presents challenges, but the village is embracing it. As Roden says: "People like the fact that we're taking these steps, we are prepared. They just like to see their local government anticipating these things and being proactive, rather than reactive." Listen to the episode to hear more about planning for extreme heat.

Many people across the country struggle to make ends meet. In many cases, that means they experience energy poverty: they can't afford to use energy when they need to, if at all. At the same time, we are trying to address climate change and become more resilient. What if we could address both concerns at the same time? Energize Bridgewater was the winner of the 2019 Smart Cities Challenge. The program aims to identify where energy inefficiencies are in homes and find solutions to improve that efficiency, making the Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, better prepared for our changing climate, and helping vulnerable residents who experience energy poverty and struggle to afford power. We talk to Bridgewater's Senior Energy Manager Asad Hussein and planner Meghan Doucette about the success of the program, and its future goals.

Women and children experiencing violence need housing options to be able to start a new life free of abuse, survive, and support themselves. But housing options that suit their particular situation and needs are often limited, due to the housing crisis, as well as a lack of appropriate services. For these reasons, Tanyss Knowles, director of programs at the BC Society of Supportive Houses, says there is a connection between women and children fleeing violence and homelessness: We know affordability is a growing issue across Canada and has been in B.C. for a long time. So women who come into temporary emergency services after leaving a violent home often can't move on to permanent housing because of the lack of affordable housing. And this has created a bottleneck in services, as more and more women and children are being denied access to services when they're seeking to leave a violent situation. Sometimes, the barrier to housing for women and children fleeing abuse is baked into the standards set by government. Alina McKay, research coordinator at the Housing Research Collaborative, and University of British Columbia grad student Victoria Barclay have been researching how the National Occupancy Standards can actually impede access to housing. Victoria explains: Because of the National Occupancy Standards, women who are fleeing violence with children are often actually denied housing because the family does not fit what that unit looks like. So if they need, according to their gender and the age of their children, four bedrooms when only two bedrooms are available, they're denied housing. Often that can mean they end up homeless. How do we ensure women and children fleeing violence have a place to flee to?

Dans cet épisode, on découvre comment la ville de Lac-Mégantic, après avoir vécu le pire, s'est reconstruite pour devenir une meilleure version d'elle-même. En juillet 2013, un train de cargaison qui transportait du pétrole a pris feu, déraillé et explosé en plein milieu de la ville de Lac-Mégantic. Six millions de litres de pétrole brut ont été déversés et la majeure partie du centre-ville a été détruite par l'incendie après que. Cette tragédie a laissé beaucoup de marques et de traumatismes chez les gens de Lac-Mégantic, mais elle a aussi permis à cette ville de se reconstruire de façon inouïe. Non seulement, les résidents et résidentes de Lac-Mégantic ont fait preuve de résilience, mais ils ont également réussi, avec les efforts des fonctionnaires et des acteurs communautaires, à repenser leur ville - qu'il fallait presque rebâtir à zéro - de façon à ce qu'une tragédie comme celle-ci ne puisse plus jamais se reproduire. Comment ont-ils fait? Comment le principe de résilience a-t-il pris forme dans la communauté de Lac-Mégantic? C'est ce que Danielle Maltais, professeure titulaire à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi et directrice de la Chaire de recherche Événements traumatiques, santé mentale et résilience, nous a expliqué dans cet épisode de Face au Futur. Et, après avoir mis sur papier les grandes lignes de ce à quoi la ville devrait ressembler à l'avenir, Lac-Mégantic s'est rebâti en harmonie avec la nature. Alors que le pétrole a été responsable de la pire des catastrophes, c'est désormais des modèles énergétiques écoresponsables qui font avancer la région. Mathieu Pepin, chargé de projet en transition énergétique pour la Ville de Lac-Mégantic, nous a notamment parlé de la manière dont le projet de micro-réseau, unique en son genre, a pris forme et comment il continue, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, à inspirer d'autres communautés.

We meet Globe & Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic in the new Love Park on Toronto's waterfront, to talk about good public space design, bad maintenance practices, and the legacy of legendary landscape architect Claude Cormier. We talk to playwright Michael Healey about "The Master Plan," a play about the doomed futuristic neighbourhood Google and Waterfront Toronto tried to build on the lakeshore. And, as a preview of our latest Spacing issue "Once Upon a Time in Toronto," we talk to author/playwright/screenwriter Catherine Hernandez about why she writes about Scarborough, and the pain of having to leave the neighbourhood that inspires you.

Last season, we talked to a group of people from the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT) in Toronto as part of a range of options for non-market housing. Over a year later, we check in with the state of land trusts across the country: where are they, what are their impact, and what do they need to succeed and even scale upward to other communities? Susannah Bunce, associate professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Human Geography, has been researching the KMCLT. She has insight into how land trusts can grow and succeed, and the role they play in combatting displacement: It removes land from the speculative market and holds land, in trust, by the non-profit organization for the purposes of keeping housing and land prices at a lower level for community benefit. That principle of community land trust organizing and the model itself is fundamental to combatting gentrification. Nat Pace is network director for the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts, and provides a look at trusts across the country, in communities large and small, urban and remote, and the role they play in increasing equity: Right now in Canada, we have quite a few examples of equity-deserving communities using the model. There's a very interesting cluster in Nova Scotia of African-Nova Scotian communities who are looking to develop their own localized community land trusts as a way to create land bases for their communities, and also reclaim land titles that have been lost. What can land trusts do to provide affordable housing and increase equity in this country?

This Spring, Spacing Radio had the opportunity to take the show on the road to the International Transport Forum in Leipzig, Germany. Now that the whole "who will be the mayor of Toronto" thing is settled, we bring you some highlights from the Forum. Heather Thompson, CEO of the Institute for Transportation and and Development Policy, talks about the importance of smaller-order, local transit like buses. Ann Frye of consultant firm Ann Frye Ltd. talks about striking a balance between accessibility and rethinking mobility. And ITF Secretary-General Young Tae Kim talks about tackling transport emissions and traffic congestion holistically. Finally, Spacing contributors Heather Breeze and Conrad Speckert talk about their "Single Stair Solution," which is also found in the latest "Fire!" issue of the magazine.

The days of the "mom-and-pop" landlord are largely behind us. Now, housing units are being snapped up or developed by large corporate entities and private equity firms. It can be hard to figure out who  actually owns a building. Homes being treated like major sources of capital, instead of places for people to live. This is a major factor in the housing crisis, pushes people who are renting out of their homes and neighbourhoods, and changes the physical and social fabric of communities. Erika Sagert, policy manager for the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, has been trying to identify just how many people are affected by this financialization of housing: "It's really hard to be a renter in Canada. The numbers, in terms of sheer volume, really stand out. We talk a lot about proportion, so we're looking at one third of renter households in Canada are spending more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. The number that stands out to me is 1.6 million rental households." When it comes to the types of private equity shaping the rental market, and their effect on Black and other marginalized communities, Toronto Metropolitan University's Dr. Nemoy Lewis and research assistant Dimitri Panou have been tracking just that. As Dr. Lewis says: "When we think about the term 'displacement,' it gives us the idea that we can just go down the street and move into the next apartment. But that next apartment might be owned by... a different financialized landlord who are also engaged in the same practice. So, as such, these landlords are causing folks to be expelled and banished from major urban centres." Finally, Cloé St-Hilaire, PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo, is researching financialized rentals in Montreal, who owns what, and who is impacted the most: "We saw there was a strong positive correlation between the percentage of financialized landlords and the percentage of households that were living in high-density areas, and there was also a strong correlation with renters' housing stress. So the more the renters were housing-stressed in the census tract, the more there was a propensity of having financialized landlords." What do we do when big capital has taken over the landlord business?

The June 26th mayoral by-election is coming up fast. We've seen plenty of debate, a crowded field of candidates, and increased voter engagement. What's next? Spacing senior editor John Lorinc, Toronto Star city hall reporter Alyshah Hasham, and Ontario reporter for The Narwhal Fatima Syed join us to talk about duelling housing platforms, the environment, the big, Doug Ford-shaped question mark, and more.

Evictions can completely upend your life. At best, you have to begin the search for a new home in an increasingly expensive and competitive housing market. At worst, you can't find an affordable replacement. It's a scary situation, even in the best circumstances. In this episode, we get into why evictions happen, how frequently, tenant rights, and "bad faith" evictions. First, we speak to Adam Mongrain, director of housing policy with the Quebec advocacy group Vivre en Ville about an online rental registry, which would provide renters and governments about changes in rental prices, and prevent unfair price hikes. Next, Julie Mah is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, who has done a lot of work on gentrification and urban displacement, and tells us about how that can cause evictions. Finally, Alexandra Flynn, associate professor at the University of British Columbia's Allard School of Law talks about the high eviction rate in B.C. municipalities, changes to the provinces "Residential Tenancy Act," the housing as a human right, including for those living in encampments. Why do evictions happen, and what can we do to prevent them? We get into it.

Now that John Tory has officially stepped down as mayor, the field of candidates hoping to replace him is a big one. With roughly 50 candidates on the ballot so far, there's a lot to make sense of. To help weigh the merits of some of the major candidates, and the ideas proposed so far, we talk to Spacing Senior Editor John Lorinc and Toronto Metropolitan University Associate Professor Cheryl Thompson about what stands out in the race so far. And the new Spacing Magazine is available now, and it's all about the Ontario Line — the new subway meant to connect the downtown to the northeast of the city. Civil engineer and University of Toronto Associate Professor Shoshanna Saxe tells us about her latest Spacing contribution about how to get the most value-for-money from the new subway line.

The term "Smart Cities" has been kicking around for about a decade now. When we began The Future Fix series, that term was headline news. Everyone, including multiple levels of governments, was being asked to imagine a new kind of urban space, where data and technology were woven into the very fabric of the neighbourhood. Since then, the Smart Cities conversation has evolved, important questions have been asked, a global pandemic happened, and we have more examples, from communities across Canada, about what works, and what to avoid. John Lorinc is a Spacing senior editor and author of the book "Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias." He's been researching data and tech as it relates to cities and urban politics and planning for years now, and his book earned the Writer's Trust of Canada Balsilie Prize for Public Policy. “Because of the pandemic and because so much of our lives had to go online for this period of time, and in many ways stay online, a lot of the ideas around Smart Cities and this hyperconnectivity and this use of big data became actually part of the way our cities our cities function. Except we stopped calling it 'Smart Cities'.” Martin Canning is executive director of government innovation at Evergreen. He tells us about what he's learned about data and technology projects in communities across the countries, through his work with the Community Solutions Network, and what makes a "Smart" project successful. "There's a dark side and there's a light side, and I'll stick to the light side, when we're thinking about the future and where technology is often driving us, sometimes pulling us. But when it comes to cities, and public sector markets, and government innovation and community innovation in Canada and around the world, what I see [...] is not just an appetite, but a culture that is opening to allow for multi-sectoral partnership like we haven't seen before." Listen to the episode to hear more about the future of "future fixes." The Future Fix is a partnership between Spacing and Evergreen for the Community Solutions Network: a program of Future Cities Canada. As the program lead, Evergreen is working with Open North and partners to help communities of all sizes across Canada navigate the smart cities landscape. The Community Solutions Network is supported with funding provided by Infrastructure Canada.

Not all technology has to be disruptive, it may actually be most useful as an extension of our ways of life, instead of as a replacement. In the arctic, the Inuit have extensive traditional knowledge of traversing sea ice for hunting, gathering supplies, and travelling between communities. SmartICE is a social enterprise which uses technology to build on this traditional knowledge and map the ever-changing sea ice, so people can make informed decisions about how and where to travel. Andrew Arreak is SmartICE Regional Operations Lead for Qikiqtaaluk Region, and explains the benefit this technology provides to northern communities. “Every year the ice conditions are different... if we knew what was coming in terms of ice conditions, I don't think we would need a SmartICE at all up in the north. It is a great adapting tool that we are able to use so we can provide the information for our local people.  Since I've started working there has been less people falling through the ice, less search and rescue callouts, and people are more confident on how long they should be out at certain times of year before the ice starts to break.” The Future Fix is a partnership between Spacing and Evergreen for the Community Solutions Network: a program of Future Cities Canada. As the program lead, Evergreen is working with Open North and partners to help communities of all sizes across Canada navigate the smart cities landscape. The Community Solutions Network is supported with funding provided by Infrastructure Canada.

We're back for 2023, and there is... a lot to catch up on. To begin, Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter for The Narwhal, guides us through Doug Ford's Greenbelt plan. What will the long term effects be? Who stands to benefit? Did certain developers catch wind of the changes to land that was formerly protected? Then, Ontario Place for All co-founder Norm Di Pasquale tells us about the growing criticism of plans to turn Ontario Place into a privatized tourist destination.

We've had some time to make sense of the Toronto election, and what it might mean for the next four years in this city. Is there a silver lining to be found? Is Toronto due for another urbanist renaissance? We talk to Spacing co-founder and Star columnist Shawn Micallef. And we talk to the co-editor of the new book "The Signs that Define Toronto" Kurt Kraler about how the project came together, and what signs mean to the look, feel, and culture of a city.

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Digital Placemaking Data and technology allow placemakers to experiment with new ways of measuring, designing, and most importantly engaging with the people they are designing public space for. Ideally, digital placemaking empowers everyone to shape the spaces they use, love, and rely on. Farhaan Ladhani is co-founder and CEO of Digital Public Square, an organization who's ethos is "healthy communities enabled by good technology." Farhaan explains how digital placemaking can help create ideal public spaces for a wide variety of people: “Thinking about the way in which these tools can be used to foster engagement in the community can be really useful for all sorts of things, from consultation, through to participation on decision making, through to the provision of information.”

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. Lorraine Lam is community organizer who works with unhoused people, John Lorinc is a Spacing senior editor, together, we try to make sense of the encampment evictions of last year, and how the next mayor and council must better serve people who are at risk in our communities.

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. This is a special, French-language edition. Spacing et Evergreen présentent ensemble une nouvelle série de podcast, Face au futur : des solutions pour les communautés du Canada, d'une côte à l'autre.  CET ÉPISODE: Trois-Rivières : un virage intelligent Face au futur est presenté en collaboration avec le magasin Spacing et Evergreen dans le cadre du programme Réseau de solutions pour les communautés. C'est une initiative de Villes d'avenir Canada. Après la ville de Québec, Trois-Rivières est la deuxième ville la plus ancienne de la province. C'est aussi l'une des villes industrielles les plus anciennes au Canada. Comment une municipalité comme celle-ci gère-t-elle ses enjeux de mobilité? Vincent Turgeon et Samuel Laferrière qui œuvrent auprès de la municipalité de Trois-Rivières nous expliquent comment, alors qu'ils tentaient de renouveler les systèmes de préemption pour les véhicules d'incendie, ont décidé de prendre le virage de la mobilité indépendante.

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. But the Big Smoke isn't the only municipality going to the polls October 24th. All across Ontario, people are choosing their mayor, their local councillor, even their regional chair in some cases. To get the story outside the Toronto bubble, and to speak to the future of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, we talk to The 905er podcast hosts Roland Tanner and Joel MacLeod. They break down races across the region surrounding Toronto, talk sprawl vs. tall, and how GTHA municipalities can band together to demand better regional transit.

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we are bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. In this episode, it's a classic transit panel with Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and City Hall Watcher proprietor) and Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing urban affairs columnist).  We talk about lessons we did (and didn't) learn from the pandemic, the need to restore TTC service levels and ridership, and we walk you some of the campaign promises made so far.

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. THIS EPISODE: Experiments in Mobility It can be hard to convince governments at any level to invest in a new idea. This is especially true with transportation, where breaking away from the status quo can sometimes seem an impossible dream. But when opportunity to explore potential new ways of moving people is granted, on a small scale, and for a brief period of time, that allows us to experiment — to see what works, and what's worth investing in more generally. Camile Machado is project manager for New Mobility at TransLink, Metro Vancouver's transit network. She tells us about a range of pilot projects and research being to to find new tech and data-driven ways to solve transit issue and improve service. “The mobility ecosystem is changing really fast, with all these trends of shared mobility, autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification — they're all changing the landscape. So, in response to that, TransLink created what we call TransLink Tomorrow, which is this strategy to really try out all this new technology, all these new concepts.” Listen to the episode to hear more about TransLink's New Mobility projects.

As Toronto gets ready to vote, we'll be bringing you regular panel discussions with journalists and experts who will break down the candidates, platforms, and issues that will shape our city for the next four years. In this episode, we talk to Spacing senior editor Shawn Micallef and Spacing contributor and West End Phoenix associate editor Kunal Chaudhary about how it's too quiet out there, public space, and the divided city.

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series. This is a special, French-language edition. Spacing et Evergreen présentent ensemble une nouvelle série de podcast, Face au futur : des solutions pour les communautés du Canada, d'une côte à l'autre.  CET ÉPISODE: La culture de la bicyclette est-elle inclusive? Si vous vivez à Montréal ou que vous y êtes déjà allé, vous avez certainement remarqué qu'il y a beaucoup de cyclistes. On peut même dire que c'est une ville où la culture de la bicyclette est bien établie. Comment fait-on pour maintenir le statut d'une ville agréable pour les cyclistes et à quels défis la municipalité est-elle confrontée? Marianne Giguère, conseillère à la Ville de Montréal, nous parle de gestion et d'inclusion tandis que Catherine Morency, professeure à Polytechnique Montréal, nous explique comment la technologie peut intervenir pour faciliter la vie des cyclistes, et même, des autres citoyens.

Another election, another surprise announcement from Premier Doug Ford that throws it all into disarray. Ford's proposal for "Strong Mayor" powers for Toronto and Ottawa's next mayors have left many wondering why the Premier is intervening in local-level governance. One of these people is former Toronto Mayor David Miller. We speak to Miller — currently managing director of C40 Cities, advising municipalities on fighting climate change — about why a Strong Mayor system would be harmful to local democracy, as long as key issues for this elections such as housing, transit, active transportation, and the environment.

We're all used to headlines about impossibly soaring housing prices in Canadian cities: prices that leave many out of the market, and out in the cold. But this model of perpetually increasing home values is the dream for many owners. You buy a home, let it accumulate in value, and do whatever you can to insure that growing value isn't threatened. But this model is unsustainable and leaves many people without proper housing options. Dr. Paul Kershaw is a University of British Columbia professor, founder of Generation Squeeze, and author of the paper "Wealth and the Problem of Housing Inequity Across Generations." He says these rising home values have changed what it means to be wealthy: “We have to be cognizant of the fact that there is a cultural and political addiction to high and rising home prices for many in this country, because it makes us better off. And some people will resist that [...] I'll get angry emails: 'I'm not rich!' But what we need to have right now is more and more dialogue about who's affluent and who's not. And the rise in home values is so disrupting and transforming class dynamics.” PARTNA is a Black-founded, Black-led organization working with multiple levels of government to let owners of detached and semi-detached houses add long-term, affordable units to their properties. Cheryll Case is the planning director  and Jason Allen John is finance director. Cheryll says there are existing homeowners who are ready to break with the status quo and help make a change, and that's where PARTNA comes in: “There's so many housing owners who are seeing the crisis of housing inaffordability who want to do something. They don't know what to do. No one is reaching out to help them. We come in to help them build affordable housing.” Can we really change the way we see housing from an asset garnering increasingly high value to a human right everyone should have access to?

The Toronto municipal election is underway, and we'll be spending the summer bringing you coverage, all the way up to E-Day on October 24th. But how do we get people engaged, and avoid the abysmally low voter turnout we saw in the Ontario provincial election? What does "Ford More Years" of Premier Doug mean for the municipal race, and the next council? What key items should be made election issues? And what does new police data which admits to systemic, racist overpolicing of minorities and use of force mean for the police reform movement? To answer these and other questions, we've got panel guests John Lorinc (Spacing senior editor) and Jennifer Pagliaro (Toronto Star crime reporter focusing on youth justice, formerly of the City Hall bureau). The race is on!