Officially launching in October 2023, under the banner of the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) I co-authored Housing is on the line: How public transit can help tackle Canada's housing crisis - a report containing 17 unique policy recommendations on how all orders of government can work together to create more affordable lives for Canadians. This report launched in Ottawa with much anticipation, in part because of its relevance to government and the contributions the recommendations make to the national conversation on housing, transit and affordability. Federal officials were keenly interested in this work, as it coincides with the development of the new federal Permanent Transit Fund.

To test the 5 themes and associated policy recommendations we developed, we facilitated multi-sectoral sessions in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal - in total with over 200 individuals. Consultation also included Infrastructure Canada and the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC).

The result is 5 themes:

1) Activate land by making it easier for municipalities to acquire land around transit stations, addressing speculation near transit stations, and prioritizing intensification in existing transit-accessible areas;

2) Evolving the mandate of transit authorities to proactively encourage the development of housing on transit property, including at park-and-ride lots and directly on top of transit stations through overbuild, taking on a stronger role in promoting the integration of transit and housing within their respective municipalities and leveraging data to advance investments in areas with housing and transit affordability considerations;

3) Ensuring inclusivity by incentivizing developers to prioritize purpose-built rentals and non-market housing in transit-accessible areas, as well as addressing transit-oriented displacement;

4) Streamlining approval processes to get Transit-Oriented Developments (TOD) built faster, including through prioritizing TOD applications, proactive rezoning, and reforming appeal mechanisms; and

5) Maximizing investments by encouraging regional collaboration, using performance-based allocation, exploring location-efficient mortgages, and addressing concerns about transit operating costs related to transit expansion.

I’m very proud of the work of our team on this project and pleased to have been deeply involved from start to finish!

Since early 2022 I have worked closely with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), based in Ottawa, Ont. My professional relationship with FCM spans more than a decade, beginning with my role as a senior policy advisor in intergovernmental affairs in the City Manager’s Office at the City of Edmonton.

As Chief of Staff to Mayor Don Iveson, I chaired a caucus of mayoral chiefs of staff from across Canada, working closely with FCM staff to build caucus agendas and steer 22 mayors and their offices toward common vision and advocacy objectives. During this period, our efforts resulted in a the federal government’s announcement of a Permanent Transit Fund and an Affordable Housing Strategy.

In the summer of 2022, I stepped into an interim role as the Executive Director of the Policy and Public Affairs team. To kick-off, I facilitated a team retreat that included senior leaders from across the organization. For several months I coached the team of policy and government relations staff to prepare to chart a new course with the incoming ED. The close and trusting relationships I built with many of those staff persists today.

My current role with FCM is as the Executive Lead, Governance, which oversees all governance functions association with a complex 74-member Board of Directors, comprised of local and regional municipal leaders across Canada.

My team and I are responsible for several key governance reforms over multiple years, including: reducing the number of operational committees, implementing a new Board Code of Ethical Conduct, and integrating Anti-racism, equity and inclusion policy and practices.

I’m thrilled to be working closely with this team and very much enjoying the opportunity to return to my governance practice, particularly in such a such a complex space.

In the Spring of 2023, David Cooper (Leading Mobility) asked me to step into a project to create a new regional transit and transportation master plan for the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board - in part because of my experience navigating complex regional and provincial political dynamics (with the Edmonton Metro region). I supported this team to organize, prepare -and ultimately- dynamically steer a very well received facilitation session with municipal representatives from across the Calgary metro region.