Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Urban policy – Ontario – Toronto'

This thesis is a comparative, data-based analysis of the labour market experiences of the Italian and Jewish populations of Toronto at the end of the 1970s, beginning of the 1980s. It also provides historical and empirical information on the emergence and development of ethnic enclaves, and assesses whether such distinct enclave economies constitute channels for upward mobility for the Italian and Jewish individuals who participate in them.
The historical findings provide evidence for the distinctiveness of an enclave labour market within these two ethnic communities. The empirical evidence reveals however, that participation in the enclave economies is quite low for Toronto's Jewish and Italian communities. The evidence does not indicate that participation in the enclave is associated with either economic benefits or losses. However, informal networks and ethnic ties have strong positive effects on enclavic participation.

This thesis stems from a general interest in press coverage of culture industries and products and the ways in which it links them to contemporary social and political concerns. The present project specifically takes The Globe and The Toronto World, two of the major daily newspapers of Toronto, as its combined object of analysis. It selects particular events and periods during the emergence of early film as popular amusement as the contexts for the study of articles, reports, columns, and editorials that centred around urban cultural issues as well as cinema. It explores the extent to which these particular events and periods figured in the papers' attention upon the new medium and its place in the everyday life of the city. These contexts were selected with an assumption of their newsworthiness for the daily press. However, upon examination it became evident that, while the majority of them did produce a concentrated attention in both dailies, not all of them did. Still, because they instantiated profound shifts in urban entertainment at the turn of the century, they were kept as historical backgrounds for the analysis of the newspapers's construction of modern culture. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 162-169).
Studies suggest autonomous vehicles can enable a more equitable, efficient, and sustainable transportation network. Yet, experts point out this outcome is not guaranteed, and that without outside policy intervention autonomous vehicle (AV) use might actually exacerbate congestion, sprawl, and inequitable access to travel. These challenges will be most acutely felt in areas under the purview of local governments-such as transportation congestion, land use, and impacts on public transit. As such, the goal of this thesis is to assist municipal policymakers with mitigating these impacts by answering the question: How can local governments effectively regulate autonomous vehicles? Looking at Toronto, Canada, specifically, this thesis addresses the following issues: - When is a contract, and when is a regulation, the most appropriate tool to encourage AV companies to act in ways that help foster a sustainable and equitable transportation network? - What does the City of Toronto require to develop effective AV regulation? - How can the City of Toronto codify broad AV policies into specific, enforceable regulations? This thesis employs three research methods: a literature review, a document analysis, and qualitative interviews with relevant experts. The primary literature review looks at the possible benefits and harms that might come from AV development and the policies local governments can enact to correct for these externalities. Interviews were conducted with 23 experts from the public and private sectors and academia, with responses analysed and themes drawn out to develop answers to the above research questions. Finally, analysis of Toronto's Official Plan and Municipal Code helped inform the creation of a proposed Article 10-A of the code to regulate AV rideshare companies. Chapters three to five of this thesis develop a framework (laid out in Figure 0.1) for thinking about how best to design effective AV regulation. Firstly, the government needs legal capacity to regulate in a given area. Toronto, for example, is responsible for overseeing local rideshare company activity. The remaining four elements all relate to human resources. Interviews show Toronto's bureaucrats believe they have a responsibility and ability to craft effective and ambitious regulations that advance the city's goals. These willing civil servants need the time and the expertise to design good policy, and the Toronto government has an AV working group that provides a forum for such a discussion. To see regulations enacted effectively, however, the mayor and council must not only support rules eventually proposed by the working group; they may also need to approach the provincial government to convince them to craft their own complementary AV legislation. Figure 0.1. The five elements to effective regulation [illustration] Chapter six explores how broad AV policy can be applied concretely. Along with Article 10-A (Appendix C), it offers an example of the specific legal language for AV regulation. Divided into two broad categories--'Equity' and 'Urban Form and Street Space'-the article addresses some of the anticipated issues that might arise with AV rideshare operations including a need to allow citizens without a smartphone are able to use the service, limit AV rideshare travel on local roads, and ensure all neighbourhoods enjoy a relatively similar level of service (accounting for geography and density). Beyond the proposed article itself, chapter six provides feedback from Toronto officials as to the challenges the provisions in the article might face were the government to attempt their ratification. Positively, none of the regulations were unanimously viewed as infeasible, with staff seemingly eager to act boldly when it comes to addressing the challenges of AV activity. As such, this thesis can be used both by Toronto policymakers and their counterparts elsewhere as the basis for discussion in designing the specific rules for AV operations that will be incorporated into a future version of the Municipal Code.
by Benjamin M. Gillies-Podgorecki.
M.C.P.

Urban Studies
Ph.D.
Although governments have implemented several reforms to better integrate or coordinate regional transportation and land use decisions, little is known about the effects of new institutional designs on planning and development outcomes. This study compares the effects of two different types of institutional reforms on the planning process, transportation investments and land use decisions, while assessing their characteristics in terms of accountability, democracy, and effectiveness. Using semi-structured interviews, planning documents, as well as transportation spending and land use decisions, this longitudinal, comparative case study assesses the effects of the centralized, regulatory framework implemented in Toronto in 2005-2006, to the collaborative governance framework adopted in Chicago in 2005. Although each institutional design features different sets of constraints and opportunities, both reforms improved the planning process by establishing a renewed commitment to the exercise of regional planning. However, their impact on transportation investments was limited because the allocation of transportation funds is still primarily controlled by the province and the state governments who continue to control the purse strings and allocate money to advance their own political agendas. Both cases also show how difficult it is to increase densities and curb urban sprawl because local land uses, zoning and development approvals remain the prerogative of local governments and a function of locational preferences of individuals and corporations, which are contingent upon the market and shaped by global economic forces. Besides stronger regional institutions, the evidence presented in this study calls for new political strategies that address the fiscalization of land use and that offer financial incentives for the adoption of smart growth policies.
Temple University--Theses

While environmental and economic sustainability have been driving factors in the movement towards a more resilient built environment, social sustainability is a factor that has received significantly less attention over the years. Federal support for low-income housing has fallen drastically, and the deficit of available, adequate, affordable homes continues to grow. In this thesis, I explore one way that architects can design affordable housing that is intrinsically sustainable. In the past, subsidized low-income housing has been built as if to provide a short-term solution—as if poverty and lack of affordable housing is a short-term problem. However, I argue that adaptable architecture is essential for the design of affordable housing that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. Further, architects must balance affordability, durability, and adaptability to design sustainable solutions that are resistant to obsolescence. I conclude by applying principles and processes of adaptability in the design of Apto Ontario, an adaptable affordable housing development in the low-income historic downtown of Ontario, California (Greater Los Angeles). Along a new Bus Rapid Transit corridor, Apto Ontario would create a diverse, resilient, socially sustainable community in an area threatened by the rise of housing costs.

This thesis draws on David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” and an international political economy (IPE) approach centred on the institutional arrangements and power structures that privilege certain actors and values, in order to critique current capitalist practices of primitive accumulation by the global corporate extractive industry. The thesis examines how accumulation by dispossession by the global extractive industry is facilitated by the “free entry” or “free mining” principle. It does so by focusing on Canada as a leader in the global extractive industry and the spread of this country’s mining laws to other countries – in other words, the transnationalisation of norms in the global extractive industry – so as to maintain a consistent and familiar operating environment for Canadian extractive companies. The transnationalisation of norms is further promoted by key international institutions such as the World Bank, which is also the world’s largest development lender and also plays a key role in shaping the regulations that govern natural resource extraction. The thesis briefly investigates some Canadian examples of resource extraction projects, in order to demonstrate the weaknesses of Canadian mining laws, particularly the lack of protection of landowners’ rights under the free entry system and the subsequent need for “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC). The thesis also considers some of the challenges to the adoption and implementation of the right to FPIC. These challenges include embedded institutional structures like the free entry mining system, international political economy (IPE) as shaped by international institutions and powerful corporations, as well as concerns regarding ‘local’ power structures or the legitimacy of representatives of communities affected by extractive projects. The thesis concludes that in order for Canada to be truly recognized as a leader in the global extractive industry, it must establish legal norms domestically to ensure that Canadian mining companies and residents can be held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad. The thesis also concludes that Canada needs to address underlying structural issues such as the free entry mining system and implement FPIC, in order to curb “accumulation by dispossession” by the extractive industry, both domestically and abroad.

This thesis explores the recognition of institutional racism in Ontario. It examines discourses of institutional racism between the late 1960s and early 1980s and argues that the recognition of institutional racism at the provincial and national levels was facilitated by overt acts of racism in one of Canada’s most populous and diverse cities – Toronto. The targets of overt racism were new immigrants from decolonizing nations who utilized the discourse of rights in the context of an increase in racist incidents to press for state recognition of institutional racism. This rise in racially motivated violence concerned most Canadians as it went against Canadians’ self-perception as a raceless, tolerant and peaceful society. The recognition of structural racism was a gradual and contested process as municipal, provincial and federal government actors often denied its existence and deemed overt acts of racism aberrant. When racist acts did occur, state officials and media reports blamed the increased racial tensions on the personal prejudice of extremists. Activist groups composed of visible minorities and human rights activists were key in the formation of a counter-narrative that challenged this persistent denial of structural racism. These groups played a fundamental role in redefining the nature of racism in Canadian society. A central theme of this dissertation is that disintegrating race relations allowed for a redefinition of the Canadian state. It was the increase in racist incidents in 1970s Toronto that fostered a broad discussion on racism in Canada. This discussion emphasized that Canada’s people of colour experienced second-class citizenship because of structural inequalities which were rooted in Canadian institutions. Racial violence in 1970s Toronto was crucial in the recognition of institutional racism as racist incidents brought visible minorities into the public sphere and gave them an opportunity to identify the existence of systemic and institutional racism in Canadian society. However, the recognition of institutional and systemic racism did not result in a deep transformation of the Canadian racial state as policy changes have not been successful in challenging structural inequality.
Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-28 21:13:35.14

Earth is becoming more urban. As the human population continues the current trend of migrating towards urbanized regions, the pressures to develop urban greenspaces will inevitably increase. Greenspaces play a critical role in urban livability for both human and non-human beings. This research examines the creation and management of the Rouge Park (Ontario, Canada), which is a large greenspace approximately 46 km2 located in the eastern portion of the Greater Toronto Area. The output of this research consists of three parts. The first provides an identification of the relevant actors, and a detailed chronology of the social and political events that led to the establishment of the Rouge Park. The second section explores the competing narratives of science, conservation, and development that were fundamental in shaping the protected area that we see today. The final section examines the governance and administration of the Rouge Park, and investigates the activities and involvement of civil society actors working in its day-to-day management. Using qualitative methods, I demonstrate that science and scientific expertise can be powerful tools of legitimization for civil society actors. In particular, I examine the benefits and pitfalls of placing ecologically-based rationalizations at the forefront of conservation policy deliberations. Furthermore, I show that despite shortcomings in the governance structure of the park, the current arrangement has provided civil society actors with increased opportunities to shape their community. My results show that a locally grounded nature conservation movement can serve as a powerful motivating force for citizens to enact long-term environmental planning initiatives.

Conventional transportation demand management approaches have had limited success in reducing automobile dependency. As a result, it has become increasingly important to understand the decision-making processes involved in determining travel behaviour. The purpose of this dissertation is to extend research on urban form and travel behaviour beyond adult travel by examining teen travelers aged 13-19 in the Greater Toronto Area. Data from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) survey are used to study four main research questions: 1) How has teen mode choice changed from 1986 to 2006? 2) How do these choices vary as teens transition from the 13-15 age group to being of driving age (16-19)? 3) How do these choices vary across the different urban and suburban regions of the GTA? 4) What are some of the differences between teen travel and adult travel? The issue is further probed through the collection of quantitative and qualitative travel data from first year students at the University of Toronto, and a series of focus groups held in locations in the GTA. The first year survey explores attitudes towards different modes in relation to the locational attributes of the respondent‘s hometown neighbourhood. The focus group sessions involve interviews with 26 teen and a take-home parental questionnaire. Results show that across the GTA, active transportation has decreased while auto passenger mode shares have increased. Younger teens walk more and older teens take transit more for both school and discretionary travel. Jurisdictions with better transit supply and orientation have higher transit mode shares for school trips, but discretionary trips have low transit mode shares. Walk mode shares for both school and discretionary travel are similar across all jurisdictions, regardless of whether they are urban or suburban. Additionally, the survey participants' narratives illustrate that the desire to travel actively and independently is strong. However, the reality of the final travel choice is determined by the presence of supportive infrastructure that facilitates active mode choices while shaping perceptions and attitudes formed as a result of daily travel experiences. Findings illustrate the relevance of qualitative work in advancing transportation research--particularly in understanding human travel decisions.

Dozens of major cities around the world have launched large-scale waterfront redevelopment projects over the past fifty years. Absent from this list of noteworthy achievements, however, is Toronto, a case of grand ambitions gone horribly awry. Despite three extensive revitalization plans in the second half of the 20th century, Toronto’s central waterfront, an area roughly double the city’s central business district, has remained mired in political gridlock for decades. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain why this came to pass. Informed by extensive archival and interview research, as well as geospatial data analyzed using Geographic Information Systems software, the thesis demonstrates that above and beyond political challenges typical of any major urban redevelopment project, in Toronto, issues of land ownership — specifically, public land ownership — were pivotal in defining the scope and pace of waterfront planning and implementation. Few, if any, waterfront redevelopment projects around the world have been attempted amidst the same degree of public land ownership and jurisdictional fragmentation as that which plagued implementation efforts in Toronto. From 1961-1998, no less than 81% of all land in the central waterfront was owned by one public body or another, dispersed across a patchwork of public agencies, corporations, and special purpose authorities nestled within multiple levels of government. Such fragmentation, specifically across public bodies, added a layer of complexity to the existing intergovernmental dynamic that effectively crippled implementation efforts. It created a “joint-decision trap” impervious to conventional resolution via bargaining, problem solving, or unilateral action. This tangled political history poses a considerable challenge to conventional liberal, structuralist, and regime-based theories of urban politics derived from US experiences. It also highlights the limits of conventional implementation theory in the study of urban development, and calls into question longstanding interpretations of federal-provincial-municipal relations and multilevel governance in Canada.

A brownfield is previously developed land which suffers from actual or perceived contamination due to past uses. The City of Ottawa, like many of Canada's municipalities, is faced with a significant inventory of brownfields. As the legacy of industrial activities in earlier times, these sites have become an environmental threat, blight to the community and economic loss for their owners and the City. Unlike many of Ontario's more highly industrialized municipalities, Ottawa has a less industrialized history and, as the Nation's Capital, faces unique brownfield challenges and development climate, requiring a policy approach that is tailored to the Ottawa development market. Ottawa's major brownfield sites are owned by different levels of governments and private firms, ranging from the National Capital Commission owned LeBreton Flats to the City of Ottawa owned Bayview Yards. This thesis intends to examine current development trends for brownfields, impediments and opportunities for development, assess the efficacy of current policies and provide suggestions for the improvement of the existing brownfield development planning process in Ottawa, using an applied research method. This study is developed through interviews with key informants, a collective case study analysis, a literature review and site visits. This thesis intends to study current policy and provide recommendations to improve Ottawa's approach to brownfield development. The City of Ottawa has developed a Brownfield Community Improvement Plan, featuring multiple grant programs which has proved to be successful in incentivizing the development of brownfield sites which otherwise would have remained idle. However, the creation and development of this policy was a challenging process, requiring review and improvement in light of ongoing development applications. The findings of this paper indicate the policy has been successful due to its encouragement of brownfield projects which otherwise would not have occurred. In addition, case studies of Bayview Yards, CLC Rockcliffe Lands, Lansdowne Park, LeBreton Flats, 1357 Baseline Road and 300 West Hunt Club Road illustrate the pursuit of significant brownfield development projects in the City. However, despite its success, some challenges still exist which the City of Ottawa must endeavour to overcome. By tackling these challenges, the City could further aid in erasing brownfields from Ottawa's urban fabric and leave a legacy to its residents, characterized by a robust urban centre free from severe environmental contamination.

While some individuals can successfully age at home, others with similar levels of need may require facility based long-term care (LTC). The question addressed in this thesis is: “What factors determine whether or not older persons age at home?” I argue that in addition to the characteristics and care needs of individuals (the demand side); access to home and community care (H&CC) at the local level (the supply side) determines whether or not older people receive care at home relative to other settings. In emphasizing the role of the supply side, I draw on Neoinstitutional Theory and the Theory of Human Ecology to examine how institutions of the state (policies, norms, values, and organizational structures) facilitate or constrain opportunities to age at home across urban and rural areas. In conducting my analysis I draw on the Balance of Care (BoC) framework to analyze the characteristics of individuals waiting for LTC placement in Thunder Bay (urban community) and the surrounding Region (rural communities) of Northwestern Ontario. The BoC framework provides the means to estimate the extent to which their needs could potentially be met in the community if home and community care (H&CC) services were available. The results show that individuals waiting for LTC placement in Thunder Bay experienced higher levels of impairment than those in the Region. However in both areas, most individuals required assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (e.g. housekeeping, meal preparation, etc). In both areas there was limited access to informal caregivers. If a H&CC package were to be made available, 8% of those waiting for facility based LTC in Thunder Bay could potentially be supported safely and cost-effectively at home compared to 50% in the surrounding Region. The results confirm that the supply side matters. When H&CC cannot be accessed, LTC may become the default option, particularly in rural and remote areas. If given access to H&CC, a significant proportion of individuals can potentially age at home.

In this thesis I recount the historical relationship between settlement and food lands in Southern Ontario. Informed by landscape and food regime theory, I use a landscape approach to interpret the history of this relationship to deepen our understanding of a pertinent, and historically specific problem of land access for sustainable farming. This thesis presents entrenched barriers to landscape renewal as institutional legacies of various layers of history. It argues that at the moment and for the last century Southern Ontario has had two different, parallel sets of determinants for land-use operating on the same landscape in the form of agricultural policy and urban planning. To the extent that they are not purposefully coordinated, not just with each other but with the social and ecological foundations of our habitation, this is at the root of the problem of land access for sustainable farming.

In this study I explore the social organization of community gardening in Toronto. I have done this by: exploring (a) the experiences of community garden coordinators hired by non-profit organizations do to improve poor Torontonians’ access to food, and how this work occurs within and is affected by the larger framework of (b) the City of Toronto’s Community Gardens Program. This inquiry was carried out using institutional ethnography, with data collection occurring through open-ended interviews with garden coordinators and the analysis of non-profit and municipal documents. The results of the study are that garden coordinator’s work to improve access to food for poor Torontonians is at odds with the municipal understanding of community gardens and park space existing to attract economic investment to Toronto via “creative professionals.”

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Education.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-211). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11922

Local festivals and cultural events, signage and streetscape improvements, and regional marketing efforts indicate that tourism is present in some Business Improvement Areas (BIAs). However, the extent and form of this relationship has never before been examined in the North America context. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the involvement of Ontario’s BIAs in tourism. It reports on the findings of a 2008 province-wide survey of approximately 260 BIAs, touching on a variety of topics, including: the proportion of BIAs that are involved in tourism, the factors prompting them to attract tourists, the ways that they promote themselves to tourists, the types of tourism experiences that they offer, the positive and negative impacts of their tourism efforts, and whether they partner with other stakeholders in tourism promotion efforts. The data are then used to propose a typology of Business Improvement Areas showing differing levels and forms of tourism involvement. The thesis concludes by considering four case studies of successful tourism-oriented BIAs (Downtown Kingston, Downtown London, Downtown Yonge and Creemore), which are examined to identify the characteristics that have led to their success. The findings show that the majority of Ontario’s Business Improvement Areas are involved in tourism, using diverse methods to promote themselves as destinations. Their tourism offering usually includes special events and festivals, but can also involve investments in other attractions. Although BIAs are aware of both positive and negative impacts from tourism, tourism management efforts are uncommon. Seven characteristics of successful tourism-oriented BIAs are identified: innovation, self-awareness, appearance, attractions, partnerships, experiences, and planning. BIAs that strongly manifest these characteristics are believed to be likely candidates to benefit from the tourism industry.

This thesis presents a case study of Canada’s first Black owned radio station, FLOW 93.5 FM, to demonstrate how official multiculturalism, in its formulation and implementation, negates Canada’s history of slavery and racial inequality. As a response to diversity, multiculturalism shifts the focus away from racial inequality to cultural difference. Consequently, Black self-determination is unauthorized. By investigating FLOW’s radio license applications, programming and advertisements, this thesis reveals just how the vision of a Black focus radio station dissolved in order to fit the practical and ideological framework of multiculturalism so that Blackness could be easily commodified. This thesis concludes that FLOW is not a Black radio station but instead is a multicultural radio station – one that specifically markets a de-politicized Blackness. As a result, multiculturalism poses serious consequences for imagining and engaging with Blackness as a politics that may address the needs of Black communities in Canada.