Muniscope is Canada’s national resource on municipal issues, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Committee on Urban and Regional Research (ICURR). With a dedicated team of professional researchers backed by the largest circulating library of its kind in Canada, Muniscope is your best source for information to support local government policies, practices and service delivery.

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WHAT'S NEW

Bibliography on Rescaling and Regional Cooperation (Report)

   This is a bibliography that covers the topics of rescaling, municipal
   restructuring, regional governance, regional revenue and tax sharing
   mechanisms and regional co-operation among local governments in
   Canada. The report includes documents taken in large part from the
   Muniscope library and includes documentation produced by
   municipalities, provincial governments, think tanks as well as
   academic experts.
(Click here for the full report)

Grants in Lieu of Property Taxes (Report)

   Across Canada municipalities have three primary sources of revenue:
   property taxes, license fees, and user fees. The largest portion of
   municipal revenue is derived from property taxes. Typically, all levels
   of government are exempt from paying municipal property taxes, but in
   almost every province and territory, the government pays municipalities
   a grant in lieu of property taxes.

Most jurisdictions define the grant-in-lieu payment structure in legislation, aside from Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. However, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have both created special policies for a grant-in-lieu program.
(Click here for the full report)

Provincial and Territorial Media Releases

The Muniscope library is one of Canada's foremost
document collections focusing on material related
to local government and planning. The catalogue
provides access to the library's many books,
papers, technical reports, and conference
proceedings as well as web-based reports and
journal articles.

Book of Interest:

  Débattre pour transformer l'action
  urbaine : planification urbaine et
  développement durable à
  Grenoble, Lyon et Montréal
  / Combe, L. [et al.]. — Montréal :
  Presses de l'Université de Montréal,
                     2012.

The first part of the book explores the capacity of
public participation to transform urban action and
influence sustainable urban design principles. The
second part provides an overview of three public
participation exercises in metropolitan planning:
(1) the urban mobility plan of Grenoble, (2) the
regional plan for Lyon and (3) the urban plan and
select policies of the City of Montréal. The third part
presents an analysis of transformations of urban
action, focusing on processes and contents. The
conclusion summarizes the main findings and
results of the research on the ability of public
participation to transform urban public action.