Overview: Presentations

A selection of presentations and/or external sites are linked where available.

Managing the Collision between City and Country
Presentation by Tom Daniels, Professor, University of Pennsylvania

For the past 50 years, urban sprawl has consumed huge swaths of Southern Ontario’s best farmland and last green spaces. Currently, more than 50 square kilometers of land is paved over annually with single family dwellings and countless roads. Due to this and other reasons, farmers across Ontario are now fighting back with a campaign called “Farmers Feed Cities!” The urban-rural divide has never been greater. How can this divide be narrowed? What growth management and urban planning techniques can best deal with our fringe metropolitan areas? What consensus is required to ensure that outcomes can be win-win-win for all stakeholders?

Energy Supply/Demand Trends and Forecasts: Implications for a Sustainable Energy Future
Presentation by David Hughes, Peak Oil & Energy Resource Analyst, Geological Survey of Canada

Energy issues regarding peak oil are rarely discussed by planners and politicians dealing with land use and transportation issues. Yet demand in the developing world is forecast to grow by 91% through 2025, when this region will account for nearly half of the world’s energy consumption – 85% from oil, gas and coal. Are these forecast growth rates sustainable given the magnitude and distribution of the world’s remaining energy reserves? What are some of the political and social ramifications of maintaining this rate of consumption? How does Ontario and Canada fit into this “Big Picture”? How do we assure a sustainable energy future?

Malmö, Sweden -- the Sustainable City of Tomorrow
Trevor Graham, City of Malmö, Sweden
Embassy of Sweden website
City of Malmö, Sweden website - sustainable city development

City government has worked proactively with all stakeholders to shift Malmö’s largely industrial economy to a "knowledge economy" in a span of barely 15 years. Carefully directed investment in high calibre new technology and training programmes, including the opening of a 22,000-student university in 1998, are helping to fill gaps left by older declining industries. These expenditures are being bolstered and supported through exceptional innovations in brownfield redevelopment, housing, transportation, resource conservation and public service delivery. The result is an “ekostaden” (eco-city) that is nothing less than inspiring!

Getting to Yes: Stakeholder and Governance Solutions for Achieving Smart Growth in Ontario
Good planning promises strong, prosperous communities with a healthy environment and an excellent quality of life. Many political and planning pundits have said that the public is ready to see smart growth actually implemented rather than see more studies collecting dust on a shelf. But how do we best coordinate the strengths, powers, interests, economics and politics of local, regional and provincial government to achieve smart growth?

Presentation by Karen Farbridge, Professor, University of Guelph

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Transportation Policy and Street Design: Taking the Higher Road
For far too long, moving automobiles rather than people has been at the heart of transportation policy and road design in North America. But a new framework that supports successful communities appears to be just around the corner. In the face of ever-increasing pavement, congestion, car crashes, energy costs, smog and climate change, multi-modal solutions to traditional auto-oriented street design are doubly beneficial to our health, economy and environment. What new approaches are needed to entice people to walk, bike, blade or take public transit? Which street designs work and which ones don’t?

Presentation by Richard Gilbert, University of Winnipeg

The Great Arc: The Escarpment Across the Canada / U.S. Border
A specially selected collection of six presentations focusied on U.S. and Canadian strategies for the integrated management and conservation of protected areas. Included are case studies from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Ontario and Wisconsin.

Patrick Lawrence, Associate Professor, University of Toledo
Lynda Schneekloth, Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo

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Understanding the Working Countryside: Rural Vitality in an Urban Age
Farming is a diverse, flexible and innovative industry. The challenges faced by farmers are equally complex, a shifting flux of policies (fiscal, planning and conservation), land speculation, the clash between urban and rural values, changes in rural demographics and generational attitudes towards farming as a lifestyle.

Presentation by Jeanne Maurer, Ryerson University
Presentation by Elbert van Donkersgoed, GTA Agricultural Action Plan