The urban tsunami: A role for Canadian planners
Subject
Abstract
During the 1999 CIP Conference
in Montreal, I presented two
initiatives. The first of these was
the Sustainable Cities Initiative of
the National Roundtable on the
Environment and Economy, an
initiative which I chaired from
1997 to early 1999. The second
was the Georgia-Puget Basin
project, which involves a number
of activities focused on a "smart
growth" strategy and action plan
for the immensely challenging
geographic area encompassing
Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle.
In this article, I will give brief
descriptions of these two exciting
strategic activities involving
urban sustainability. I will then
show how they are linked, and
conclude with a challenge to
Canadian planners to help create
a practitioner-friendly approach
to urban sustainability both at
home and abroad. As we
approach the twenty-first
century -the first truly urban
century, when more people will
live in cities than in the
countryside- there are huge
opportunities for Canadian
planners and business people to
do good and do well.