Overcrowded housing is a key COVID-19 culprit. (Nazish Mirekar/Unsplash) Carolyn Whitzman, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and Penny Gurstein, University of British ColumbiaCOVID-19 is a health, social, economic and…

CEOs have diverse opinions about the effectiveness of remote work. (Mohammad Shahhosseini/Unsplash) Jean-Nicolas Reyt, McGill UniversityWhen the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, millions of Canadians switched from working in a central…

THE POINTERIn May, the City of Mississauga gnashed its teeth.At the time, it was knee-deep in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of long-term care homes in the city were in outbreak, with dozens of deaths recorded.…

From the street, you wouldn’t be able to tell a net-zero or passive house from any other recently built home. Even from the inside, the only visible clues are thick walls and deep windowsills. Only if you looked at the utilities bill…

Across Toronto and the wider region, up to 176,000 new units could be added to rental sites to meet crushing demand. These 950 infill sites are already purchased and zoned — there is simply room and an opportunity to add more. A recent…

When people talk about spending to stimulate the economy, governments are often quick to turn to “shovel ready” projects. According to Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the CanInfra Challenge, we have an infrastructure deficit of…

In late September 2020, a small road crew began laying brightly coloured sheets of thermoplastic material over Downtown Kitchener’s newly redesigned and re-surfaced Queen Street. It’s a material often used to create pedestrian crosswalks or…

The Bay department store in downtown Winnipeg will close in early 2021. (Jino Distasio), Author provided Over the past year, cities have become remarkably different places. The response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has resulted in…

NATIONAL OBSERVERMike Levenston stands over a half-harvested stalk of kale, eyeing the autumnal remnants slowly disintegrating into the soil. It's a familiar scene for Levenston, an urban gardener who has been growing food and community…

THE POINTERAttention City Hall: stop squandering the public's money – especially during a pandemic. Councillor Carolyn Parrish thinks COVID-19 has only amplified the need for fiscal responsibility.She is tired of a wasteful…