Before the first faceoff at the World Juniors, teams decide how they want to show up. This time of year, councils have that same choice. It’s worth remembering that councils don’t just make decisions. They set the tone. That tone shows up everywhere, in council chambers, in staff offices, and around kitchen tables across the community. Late last year, I wrote about council not being a battlefield, but a family table. That idea still resonates. Families, like councils, don’t a

Last month, we spilled some ink about the federal budget, the new direction of federal finances, and the expected impact on local infrastructure. This month, we examine the issue from the other side – i.e. what should municipalities across Canada prioritize to take advantage of this new federal approach? In short, the Prime Minister himself said it best: “We used to build things in this country. Over our history, we have shown that we can come together to build big infrastruc

After weeks of anxiety and rumours around a possible federal election, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget has officially passed the House of Commons with four abstentions, winning by only the narrowest of margins – 170 to 168 .   Even in an ordinary political cycle, the policy contents of a budget almost always play second fiddle to the narrative battle around the budget, but this year, the politics behind the budget were more transparently on display than ever before.