Public Policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy | University of Toronto

The COVID-19 pandemic brings into focus the need to establish a focal point for comprehensive, comparable, and actionable information on the state of Canada’s cities

Part repository, aggregator, clearing house, and knowledge broker, the observatory would collect, standardize, analyze, and publish qualitative and quantitative data on Canadian cities and, crucially, the political systems and policy frameworks that govern them.

Most importantly, the observatory would serve as a building block toward greater intergovernmental dialogue on urban priorities, bringing local challenges to the attention of upper-level governments, and highlighting opportunities for shared problem solving.

UPL director Gabriel Eidelman and Prof. Neil Bradford (Huron University College at Western) partnered with the Canadian Urban Institute to produce The Case for a Canadian Urban Policy Observatory, a discussion paper outlining the observatory’s potential mandate and functions, how it could add value to existing practices, as well as institutional models governments could follow to realize these aims.