Gatineau – Today, mayors from some of Canada’s biggest cities gathered with thought-leaders from industry, academia, civil society, and the public sector to explore solutions to one of our most pressing quality-of-life and environmental challenges: urban mobility.
“Canadians are increasingly attracted to sustainable transport like public transit, cycling and walking—and we need to listen to them,” said meeting host Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, Mayor of Gatineau. “There are huge benefits in shifting how we get around, from a cleaner environment to healthier lifestyles. We’re looking for ways to support this trend, from optimizing public transit networks to improving infrastructure that promotes human-powered active transportation.”
Participants included 10 big-city mayors, transportation thought-leaders and decision-makers from across Canada. With the goal of building an ambitious shared platform for action on urban mobility, participants explored both proven and innovative strategies to increase transit ridership, promote active transportation, improve road safety, and contribute to a modal shift.
“All over Canada, cities are leading the way toward safer, cleaner, more efficient transportation,” said Bill Karsten, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “This is about building better lives for Canadians, and that means balancing planning objectives and designing long-term, sustainable policies. The kinds of vigorous exchanges we had today are exactly what we need to move forward. We engaged with experts and municipalities, shared best practices, analyzed existing policies and explored fresh solutions to mobility challenges we all face.”
This was the third national gathering of The Urban Project (UP), led by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. UP is a forum to leverage expertise—within all orders of government, civil society, the private sector and academia—to explore urban challenges and scalable solutions to improve the lives of Canadians. Previous UP events explored innovative economies (Edmonton, November 2018) and rental housing affordability (Vancouver, May 2019).
Led by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Urban Project is generously supported by Canada Post, Evolugen, Maytree, the Metcalf Foundation, the McConnell Foundation and TD Bank Group, and are pleased to work with the University of Toronto’s School of Cities and the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance.
For more information, please contact:
FCM Media Relations, (613) 907-6395, media@fcm.ca