Ian McCormack

There is a well‑worn adage that there is always more work to do than resources available to do it. Local governments are no exception. Councils, administrations, and even citizens often want to do more, but municipal budgets rarely allow us to be everything to everybody. There are a few common ways governments try to resolve this tension, many of which are unpalatable. Increasing capacity by raising taxes typically meets strong resistance, and the same is true for increasing user fees for...

If you follow local government across Canada for any length of time, you start to see two kinds of councils. Some argue loudly, often, and productively and still manage to govern. Others can’t get out of their own way. Meetings become theatre. Personal grievances replace policy debate. And what should be the everyday work of democratic decision-making turns into a weekly exercise in damage control. The difference is rarely ideology. It’s rarely even competence. More often, the difference is...

It’s rare that a week goes by when the topic of ‘good governance’ doesn’t come up in conversation somewhere. Sometimes it’s me questioning an elected officials about what those words mean to them, sometimes it’s the question going the other direction. Just as frequently, the topic emerges in some other context related to how a local government or other organization operates. It’s always perplexed me that we really don’t have a standard definition of what good governance means – other than...