Reflections from Montreal and Toronto

I had the privilege of joining colleagues leading the ESRC funded Urban Retrofit project for some of their study tour in Canada. With huge thanks in particular to Jeff Biggar and Graeme Stewart-Robertson from Dalhousie University for cramming so many fascinating visits in and around Montreal and Toronto.

I could write a whole essay on what I learned from these great cities – I suspect they might make me do that for the project!  But for now, here are a few headline reflections:

• DENSITY – I have been on my soapbox about this for months now. We know from ONS data that in the last two decades in the UK, the economy in the densest decile of the country grew by an average of 2.2% per year than the rest of the country.  Agglomeration is real. And the city planners in Montreal and Toronto totally get that. Despite Canada being massive, the scale of commercial and residential building in these two cities is jaw-dropping. Nothing encapsulated that more than plans for the Namur-Hippodrome site in Montreal.  On a former racecourse, no more than one kilometre squared – roughly the size of a golf course – they plan on building 20,000 homes. That is two new wowns on our current criteria. And this isn’t even in the city centre.
• FINANCING – We had many familiar discussions on the challenges of financing brownfield development and renewal.  Development finance is hard to find. Plans iterate back and forth to balance viability concerns with the social and environmental needs of the projects. And there was often a cocktail of municipal, provincial and federal funding being deployed to accelerate projects and ensure that housing remained affordable. At Technopôle Angus in Montreal I was impressed to see them integrate commercial and residential developments over time in recognition of changing and interdependent yields. And it was also fascinating to see a use of co-operative structures to recycle funding and the critical role that a standardised developer contribution and progressive property tax model had in generating revenue from the high-end developments in Alexandra Park in Toronto to reinvest in affordable housing.
• DEDICATION – Most importantly were the people we met. Whether that was community leaders like Nathan McDonnell in Milton Park (Montreal), who has been welcomed as a migrant into his community and now works with his neighbours to provide community facilities and pockets of greenery. Or public officials like Michael Lam from Toronto Community Housing who is in it for the long-haul, building trust with residents and giving them a sense of ownership of the regeneration of their neighbourhood. Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. Truly inspiring.

Finally, a word of thanks to the rest of the study tour.  As we walked – 50km in 5 days – we talked. There is something rejuvenating to spend time in a multi-disciplinary team – academics, practitioners and policy experts – realising how you see the same thing from different angles and appreciating the respective insights their experience brings to the issues. I look forward to further engagement as the Urban Retrofit programme continues around the UK, albeit with less smoked meat!