Local Governance Hub
Permanent URI for this community
Local communities and regions all have unique assets, capabilities and development ambitions. For over 20 years, the Local Governance Hub (formerly the Local Government Institute) has collaborated with local and regional governments, First Nations governments and organisations, community organisations and a wide range of professionals to support their capacity building and development goals. Our LGH Policy Briefs Series shares research and practice on local governance.
Browse
Browsing Local Governance Hub by Date Added
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Canada’s Wildfire Challenge: Building Financial Resilience in a Changing Climate(2025-01-27) Swail, JasonKey messages ● Climate driven forest fires are increasingly straining Canada’s public finance systems. ● Municipalities and Indigenous communities face the greatest financial challenges. ● Proactive budgeting can improve financial resilience. ● Investing in prevention strategies reduces long term costs. ● Intergovernmental cooperation can ensure effective responses to wildfire crises. IntroductionItem Fiscal Limitations to Government Crisis Response: The Municipal Experience in Responding to Infrastructure Failure(Local Governance Hub, 2025-01-27) Stewart, VeronikaKey messages • Government response to crises is limited by structural factors, including imperfect economic forecasting, preference for status quo, and short-term political cycles. • Municipalities face significant financial constraints in crisis management due to limited revenue sources, reliance on regressive property taxes, and restrictions on borrowing. • Local governments heavily depend on intergovernmental transfers, which can be unreliable and restrictive for crisis prevention and management. • The infrastructure crisis in Canada, exemplified by Prince Rupert's water system failure, highlights the fiscal limitations of local governments in addressing predictable crises. • Recommendations to improve municipal crisis response include broadening taxation powers, increasing intergovernmental transfers, and granting more financial flexibility to local governments.Item Enhancing Public Participation in the Town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia(Local Governance Hub, 2025-09-25) Byrne, KaylaThis policy brief analyzes the state of public participation in the Town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, identifying fragmented and largely reactive engagement practices that undermine trust and collaboration among residents, councillors, and staff. Drawing on municipal policy reviews, interviews, and focus group findings, the brief reveals that existing consultation mechanisms often occur too late to meaningfully shape outcomes, leading to resident frustration and perceived exclusion. While prior efforts, such as Project Lunenburg, showcased the town’s capacity for inclusive planning, the lack of follow-through on participatory commitments has weakened legitimacy and accountability. The research finds broad agreement across stakeholder groups on the need for a shift from procedural, compliance-driven engagement toward more proactive, collaborative models rooted in transparency and shared decision-making. Recommendations include a phased pathway: immediate improvements to communication and feedback loops; medium-term adoption of a tiered engagement framework and stronger advisory committees; and long-term institutional change to embed co-governance into municipal operations. By embracing these reforms, Lunenburg can cultivate a participatory governance culture, rebuild public trust, and ensure decisions reflect the community’s diverse priorities.Item Shared streets, shared stakes: Lessons from Banff’s Bear Street(Local Governance Hub, 2025-12-10) McDonald, KierstenBear Street shows that shared streets can turn a car‑dominated road into a lively, pedes-trian‑first space that pulls people off Banff Avenue. Stakeholders care most about business impacts and street design, especially construc-tion disruption, parking, and long‑term viability. Even intensive engagement over several years can still leave people divided, so how par-ticipation is designed matters as much as how much of it there is. The project boosts resilience and environmental goals in a tight, tourism town but also nudges the street toward more tourist‑oriented, higher‑revenue businesses. Future projects need to tightly align construction timing, communication, and street role within a clear mobility and land‑use strategy that foregrounds justice and trust.Item Keeping people and pets together: Community animal services for vulnerable guardians in Victoria, BC(Local Governance Hub, 2025-06-04) Hamill, EmmaPet guardianship provides critical mental health, social, and emotional benefits for people experiencing poverty and homelessness: reducing suicidal ideation, supporting recovery from addiction, and fostering a sense of purpose and identity. Victoria’s existing animal welfare services are fragmented, under-resourced, and largely inaccessible to those most in need, with service users relying primarily on word of mouth rather than digital channels to learn about supports. Structural barriers—particularly veterinary costs, lack of pet-friendly housing and sheltering, and information gaps—drive unnecessary animal surrenders and compound the hardship faced by vulnerable guardians. Cross-sector collaboration between animal welfare organizations, social service providers, and local government is essential; formal partnerships remain rare despite widespread interest from service providers. Practical, low-barrier tools such as the Victoria Pet Survival Guide, combined with expanded low-cost veterinary services, mobile outreach, and pet-friendly policies, can keep people and their animals together while reducing pressure on sheltering systems.