Urban Governance — The Ultimate Jack of All Trades Hub
This week, we took a deep dive on specific urban issues — spending a large portion of our class discussing the individual projects my colleagues and I submitted for the course. These submissions covered issues ranging from bike lanes and housing development to equitable internet access and food security. The common thread tying our projects together, however, was that all of these issues were specific examples of the complexity of urban governance. This led me to the conclusion that municipal councillors absolutely need to be jacks of all trades, capable of understanding, analyzing, and proposing solutions to a wide variety of issues on any given day.
However, Professor Eidelman was quick to point out that solving these issues is not the sole responsibility of municipal councillors. In fact, councillors rely on the hard work of their municipal staff and the support offered by regional, provincial, and even the federal government. As a result, anyone working in urban policy making needs to be a jack of all trades, as they are dealing with multi-stakeholder problems, complex intergovernmental collaborations, and, as a result, need to apply a holistic lens to any problem solving they embark on. Ultimately, I think that’s what makes urban governance so complex, but also uniquely rewarding — as it provides an opportunity to collaborate on diverse projects in pursuit of the betterment of Canadian communities.
Consequently, this complex, jack of all trades approach that is necessary for effective problem solving at the urban level is why I am so passionate about improving and optimizing intergovernmental collaboration. Elected officials and public servants at all levels of government are already tasked with solving various “wicked problems”, and this is made more difficult, in many cases, by confusing, non-uniform intergovernmental collaboration. Take social housing in Ontario as an example. While social housing provision is a municipal responsibility, municipalities lack the necessary revenue tools to fully fund this service, leaving funding gaps to be filled by informal, unilateral provincial decisions. The federal government’s involvement in housing via the CMHC and the new National Housing Strategy only further compounds the intertwined and opaque nature of intergovernmental collaboration in this space.
With issues this complex, involving so many stakeholders, it is crucial that we develop strong intergovernmental alignment into our problem-solving approach. While the urban governance sphere requires people who are jacks of all trades, effective solutions also require that these jacks work in harmony to develop coherent solutions. I’m hopeful that my multi-disciplinary background will enable me to enter this urban sphere and drive forward the collaboration that’s needed for positive change.
