Formalized Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) between communities and resource project proponents are increasingly popular for defining benefits and mitigating adverse effects of natural resource development. These agreements are contracts signed by project developers, governments and impacted communities. This session will share a suite of planning student presentations from the School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM-Planning) Planning Program related to IBAs and Indigenous governance. While there is considerable information available about IBAs, significant gaps remain. There is an absence of research and knowledge to help communities, practitioners, and policymakers evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of these agreements. Also lacking are the fiscal mechanisms possible in IBAs, which ultimately determine who gets what, and what is fair. Underscoring the research are questions surrounding the growing tension between market-oriented resource development policies and growing recognition of Indigenous rights. This session will speak to these gaps, providing IBA models and case studies illustrating pathways for improving IBA structure and outcomes.
In a region which has seen exponential change in housing prices, home ownership is increasingly out of reach in most of British Columbia’s urban centres. Strong growth pressures, historically low vacancies, and rent increases stressed tenants. In a fun, interactive session with fast-paced presentations, four BC municipalities—Burnaby, New Westminster, City of North Vancouver and Victoria—will compare and contrast their different approaches to addressing this “wicked” problem. While enabled under singular provincial legislation, the four cities have walked different paths. From supply-based approaches to incentives, zoning, regulatory restrictions, and everything in between, each municipality will share their respective creative approaches to rental policies, affordability, getting rental on the ground, and taking care of tenants.
Applying a Climate Lens to Ottawa's Official Plan
We are at a critical moment when global commitments, national policies, and local planning must work together to combat climate change and its impacts. Ottawa has seen increases in temperature, precipitation, heatwaves, flooding and tornadoes. Applying a climate lens in developing Ottawa’s new Official Plan was, therefore, a priority action approved by City Council in 2020, along with setting aggressive new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100% by 2050. This presentation will explain how Ottawa incorporated climate change considerations into its land use and growth management policies. Strategic goals were applied to multiple sections of the Plan using two distinct pathways: a mitigation pathway to reduce emissions, and an adaptation pathway to address the impacts of climate change.
Canada’s First Transect Official Plan
Ottawa’s new Official Plan is Canada’s first big-city plan to eschew the mid-20th Century land-use-based planning policy framework in favour of a Transect-based framework focused on form and function. The new Plan represents a milestone for the city as it surpasses the one million population mark and opens the O-Train system as the backbone of its transit network. The Transect-based plan aims to establish policy goals, objectives and approaches that are sensitive to context, capturing the range of environments for which the municipality plans (Downtown, Inner Urban, Outer Urban, Greenbelt, Suburban and Rural). It also sets the stage for evolution from suburban to urban, following the concentric rings that radiate from the downtown out.