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This paper examines how policymakers interpret and deploy cultural economy approaches within municipal economic development strategies and cultural plans. Focusing on the 33 largest municipalities in Ontario, Canada, we conduct a keyword analysis of 63 municipal planning documents, supplemented with key informant interviews with economic development and cultural planning staff. Our analysis reveals that the use of cultural economy approaches in economic development and cultural plans varies depending upon city size, municipal governance structure and municipal organizational structure. However, despite the widespread use of cultural economy ideas in planning documents, we conclude that its uptake in municipal policymaking fails to reflect its professional and scholarly popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political history of the failed struggle to require companies to justify their plant closing decisions in Canada's industrial heartland of Ontario. Demands for the public review of plant closing decisions began, locally, in the auto town of Windsor in the 1950s and 1960s and reached Toronto with the closure of Dunlop Tire in 1970. Another wave of closures struck in 1980, this time reaching deep into rural and small-town Ontario as well as larger industrial towns and cities, generalizing concern. The resulting Select Committee on Plant Shutdowns and Employee Adjustment, created by the Ontario legislature, took it upon itself to conduct the kind of public review of recent closures that was long demanded. Due to the strength of the political opposition to any interference with management rights, it was essential that proponents could point to precedents in Western Europe. Trade unionists also grounded their argument in favour of government regulation in the moral economy idea that long-service workers accrued a proprietary right to their jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the characteristics of areas with numerous group homes (residential care facilities) that cater to a variety of user groups. An overview of patterns of locational concentration precedes the results of an ecological analysts for the Minor Planning Districts of the City of Toronto. The pattern of ecological correlates among the three group home types analyzed supports results obtained elsewhere, but cautions against referring ecological associations Identified for one sort of facility to other facility types. The conclusion questions the suitability of present areas of locational concentration of group homes as host environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local industrial complexes have recognizable patterns of location They are groups of industries which have production interrelationships and which are geographically associated at the urban scale Their existence is attributed to agglomeration economies in general and those gained by juxtaposing linked industries in particular A case study of the Province of Ontario, Canada. shows that local industrial complexes are most prevalent in large towns and in towns located at the center of the provincial space economy Certain types of complex are absent from peripheral regions and from smaller towns These geographical regularities suggest that complexes should be used very selectively as a policy instrument to develop depressed areas . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air quality is a major concern for the public; therefore, the reliability of accurate models in predicting the air quality is of a major interest. In this study, a Gaussian air dispersion model, known as the Air dispersion model for Road Sources in Urban areaS (ARSUS), was developed to predict the ground level concentrations for a contaminant of interest. It was demonstrated that this model could be used successfully in place of or in conjunction with ambient air monitoring stations in determining the local Air Quality Index (AQI). The ARSUS model was validated against the US EPA ISC3 model before it was used to conduct two studies in this investigation. These two studies simulated weekday morning rush-hour tailpipe emissions of CO and predicted ground level concentrations. The first study used the ARSUS model to predict ground level concentrations of CO from the tailpipe emissions for roads and highways located in the vicinity of the Toronto West ambient air monitoring station. The second study involved an expansion of the domain to predict ground level concentrations of CO from tailpipe emissions from highways in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The predicted concentrations were then compared to the data collected from the Toronto West ambient air monitoring station. The results of the ARSUS model indicated that the air quality in the immediate vicinity of roads or highways is highly impacted by the tailpipe emissions. Higher concentrations were observed for the areas adjacent to the road and highway sources. The tailpipe emissions of CO from highways had a higher contribution to the local air quality. The predicted ground level concentrations from the ARSUS model under-predicted when compared to the observed data from the monitoring station; however, despite this, the predictive model is viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the transformation of Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario. Description of the place; Factors causing the development of the park; Chronology of events from the rise of public parks.

Reports on a study that examined and compared the responses of six municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario to the challenges of global economic changes. Transfer to the municipal governments of administrative and financial responsibilities for local services; Tendency for municipalities to compete with each other for economic advantage.

Public policy objectives concerning urban population distribution often are achieved through residential land use regulation. Control over population distribution also can be exerted indirectly through the ,;election of employment sites. If population policy goals can be expressed as a target for each zone of the urban area. then it is possible to determine that spatial distribution of employment for which population distribution comes as close as possible to these targets. Using the matrix structure of the Garin-Lowry urban development model, a goal program is derived which determines the basic employment distribution which minimizes deviations from desired zonal populations for Metropolitan Toronto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses autocovariance procedures which provide useful insights into the spatial patterns of population change in the cities, towns and villages of southern Ontario. Reflection of distance decay and urban hierarchy effects by covariance patterns; Revelation of spatial constraints on population change that complement the better known temporal constraints; Increase in local variability of change rates with an acceleration of aggregate growth.