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Contact:
Patrick Smith, 604.291.3088/604.291.1544 (home); psmith@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, Media & PR, 604.291.4323 marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca

SFU political science professor Patrick Smith will lead a B.C. research team participating in a $2.5 million study to help create better intergovernmental partnerships.

Smith, along with SFU colleagues Kennedy Stewart and Peter Oberlander, and three other B.C. researchers, will examine how federal, provincial and municipal governments can work together, as well as with voluntary and business interests, to tackle pressing municipal issues. The study is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Smith says besides contending with such issues as deteriorating roads and transit systems, increased demand for affordable housing and integrating new Canadians into their communities, municipalities are also facing greater involvement in finding solutions for everything from SARS to power blackouts.

Over the next five years, a series of conferences and publications will be generated, starting with a B.C. research team meeting this spring. "Like most societies, Canada has experienced what former premier Mike Harcourt describes as an urban tsunamai — we are now an urban nation — and urban affairs is back on the policy agenda," says Smith. "Issues of multi-level governance, and the intergovernmental relations implied, will be central to ensuring Canada contributes urban solutions to global problems."

Researchers will study how policies are formulated in each region across Canada looking for factors in successful policy making. They’ll examine strategies various municipalities use to attract and retain knowledge workers. They’ll also study how provincial governments mediate between the municipal and federal levels of government, and how municipalities work together to advance common interests.

Researchers from 15 Canadian universities, the U.S., Belgium, South Africa and Germany will take part in the study, comparing the development of local policies across jurisdictions and identifying successful models of partnership and cooperation. Key areas include emergency planning, federal property, immigrant settlement, municipal image-building and infrastructure and urban aboriginal policy.

Smith has written extensively on global cities and local-metropolitan governance and has studied accountability in municipal governments along with Stewart, who teaches in SFU’s graduate public policy program. Oberlander is founder of UBC’s planning school, a former deputy minister of state for urban affairs and currently an adjunct professor at SFU.

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(Digital photo of Smith is available)

Website: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, www.sshrc.ca