Our Sustainable Communities program focuses on analyzing and developing a broad array of market-based instruments to help municipalities address environmental concerns while boosting their economies and improving their fiscal capacity.

Because prices are a strong influence on decisions, in order to achieve their policy goals governments will need to work to align prices with those goals. Where prices are pulling in the direction of policy goals, it will be much easier to achieve those goals. Governments in Canada - and in all developed countries - already employ pricing policy to help achieve their policy goals, e.g. to promote retirement savings (RRSP tax deductions), reduce youth tobacco consumption (tobacco taxes) or reduce waste and pollution (fee for plastics bags at grocery stories, tipping fees at municipal landfill, or carbon taxes).

For further discussion of the issues outlined in this submission, please refer to Sustainable Prosperity’s, "Government of Ontario Development Charges System Review – Submission," “Suburban Sprawl: Exposing Hidden Costs, Identifying Innovations,” and “Managing Urban Sprawl: Reconsidering Development Cost Charges in Canada.”