Seven Oaks Magazine.

Global Urban Development and Canada: A Retrospective Look At The World Urban Forum
July 11, 2006
Jonathan Mosley

The opening ceremony of the third United Nations World Urban Forum began at 10:00 am on Monday 17 June. At 1:00 pm when the last of the inaugural addresses concluded the queue to complete registration and receive event passes continued to stretch out the doors of the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre and onto the sidewalk. In the line-up for the UNWUF Canada was well represented in front of the numerous international participants who waited out front of the convention centre. A broad cross-section of Canadian society, from students and interested citizens to social workers and representatives from governments and NGOs stood patiently in the warm sun with delegates from across the globe. It is therefore a pity that our own Prime Minister could not represent us equally well. His overtly political keynote address at the opening ceremony was considered by many attending to be a disappointment that failed to engage fully with the international context of the event.

It is predicted that before the Olympics come to Vancouver, more than fifty percent of the world’s population will live in cities. The UNWUF was an opportunity to analyse and discuss the implications of this growing urban environment, in which many of us live, as well as the problems and challenges of it. It was, in particular, a chance to address the needs of ongoing global urban development in order to be sustainable and equitable.

One of the biggest challenges of such a discussion is defining equity and sustainability. (At present, these terms mean drastically different things to different people, although both are employed regularly by politicians, lobbyists and corporations across the spectrum.) Leading academic definitions generally state that sustainable development stays within the biophysical carrying capacity of earth, provides adequate material standards of living for everyone and propagates responsible government. It is this understanding of sustainable government which the UNWUF aimed to embrace and promote. From this perspective Vancouver provided the perfect location for such an event because it is home to two major universities with cutting-edge academic research into sustainability.

The UNWUF was an opportunity to showcase some of this research, and also for academics to get together and discuss ideas and strategies. One of the most interesting products of such research is MetroQuest. It is built on research pioneered at UBC by Professor John Robinson. MetroQuest is a computer model generator that can simulate future scenarios based on current conditions and policy choices. It acts as a way for cities to predict future development and plan strategies to cope with the problems of increasing growth. Many cities, especially in Canada, are woefully short-sighted when it comes to planning choices, which is why this is such an excellent tool. With MetroQuest citizens can see how current trends will lead to longer commutes, more pollution, and less access to clean water and ready food sources.

The chance to stimulate imaginative visions of ideal future development is at the heart of the UNWUF. To be sure, it is a vision of the future that Canadian politics lacks. One UNWUF participant remarked that he does not see any politicians who are ready to stand up for a vision of the future if it means change or is potentially unpopular.

One example of vision held aloft by the UNWUF is the thinking of Prof. John Friedmann. Friedmann was invited to give the inaugural UN-HABITAT Lecture, which carries a US$10,000 purse. In front of a packed house at the Fairmont Waterfront, Friedmann gave a lecture entitled ‘The Wealth of Cities: Towards an Asset Based Development of Urbanizing Regions’. In it he argued for a reassessment of the current criteria used to understand a given city’s wealth and challenged the belief in the primary need of mobile foreign investment to drive urban (or for that matter any) development, particularly in the developing world. Friedmann favours greater emphasis on endogenous development, which is pragmatically geared towards individual cities by taking into account local resources and advantages. Friedmann address primarily the third world, where increasing urbanization is most intensive, when he calls for an 80% development model. This is a development model geared to the needs of the 80% of most urban populations who are poor and benefit most from investment in pubic infrastructure such as public transit and affordable housing that is adequate and centrally located. While the developed world is already highly urbanized, the poor, who make up a comparatively smaller percentage of the population in countries like Canada, face the same problems of deprivation. Indeed if Canada wished to become sustainable, a great majority of Canadians would benefit from an 80% development model.

Yet, the greatest challenge is translating an academic vision of the future into reality. The main difficulty lies in mobilizing the political will to effect change and it was in this respect that the UNWUF was most wanting.

At the present time many national and regional governments, Canada included, are in the process of off-loading their responsibilities. One result is increased privatization of public services. UN-HABITAT delegate Knut Unger described such privatization as an attack against democratic values but admitted it is to be expected when economic values rule, not human rights. That said, there was little talk of what could be done to reduce privatization or how to address those, like the IMF, who support privatization. The decline of national and regional responsibilities has meant that more responsibility has been loaded on local governments. In Canada, as with much of the world, the problem with this is that local governments lack the power and finances to implement effective policy, which in any case requires the support of effective legislation.

Regardless of the challenges, it does appear that local government can encourage positive change, an example of which is the ‘rights based approach’ to urban development. This is a strategy based on civic rights to adequate income, housing, and services, which seeks to empower civil society through local government in order to create a model of development based on shared values. Montreal has recently created a charter that engenders this ‘rights based approach’. It covers areas ranging from democracy and security to economic and sustainable environmental development to social and cultural life.

In the end, the real victory will be when the rights and responsibilities discussed at the UNWUF are universal and even in Canada there is much to be done before this is the case. It is fitting that the UNWUF took place in Vancouver since it has the most impoverished urban neighbourhood and one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country. More shocking is that fact that Canada is the only member of the thirty-country Organization for Economic and Co-operative Development without a national housing strategy for its poor. Indeed if we here in Canada wish to maintain and improve the current state of urban development it will be necessary to become involved in change by pressuring governments and accepting the initially high price tag that effective sustainable development incurs.