MWdigest January 2018
THE FUTURE OF URBAN TRUCKING
INNOVATION & LEADERSHIP IN MID-SIZED CITIES
MAKING THE MOST OF MAKING CHANGE
COMING EVENTS
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WHAT’S INSIDE – FOR SUBSCRIBERS
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THE FUTURE OF URBAN TRUCKING
ACTIVATING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN VERNON, B.C.
REGULARS
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@MunicipalWorld @MunicipalJobs
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
27 GOVERNANCE ZONE 7
INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP IN CANADA’S MID-SIZED CITIES
29 MANAGEMENT ZONE
31 THE READING ROOM 11
A TEENY TINY MOVEMENT (PART 2)
13 IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT SHINY OBJECTS
33 ENVIRONMENTAL ZONE
12, 14, 35 COMING EVENTS
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17 VALLEYVIEW, ALBERTA WELLBEING PROJECT (PART 2)
19 MUNICIPAL NATURAL ASSETS
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22 GROWING RELATIONSHIPS ON A BETTER PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT MODEL
25 PLOWING AHEAD WITH A GREEN FLEET IN OXFORD COUNTY
From the JANUARY 2018 issue of
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11 CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 2018
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MWdigest JANUARY 2018
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE A Word from the Editor Time to turn the page ...
The Future of Urban Trucking With a shortage of 34,000 truckers in Canada by 2024, autonomous vehicles represent a valuable opportunity to address shortages and improve safety. Learn more about the technological advances in the industry, and what this means for the future.
Innovation and Leadership in Canada’s Mid-sized Cities The funding for solutions to solve the infrastructure deficit generally revolves around large urban areas in Canada; however, mid-sized cities have their own unique challenges and opportunities. Discover new planning models that will help communities ensure that they have a viable plan in dealing with infrastructure going forward.
Editor’s Flashback This online-only feature column highlights select articles from past issues of Municipal World’s monthly print magazine. In this issue, we share “How to Change” – by Peter deJager, from the March 2017 issue.
Coming Events
Time to turn a new page. Since 1891, when we first began informing municipal leaders on the latest developments in the field, we’ve maintained our reputation as a cutting-edge communication vehicle. We’ve covered innovative trends, featured game-changing people, and highlighted emerging issues with a page-turning proficiency, all while gathering a loyal audience along the way. Now, we think it’s time that our look matches our legacy. Throughout this year, you’ll notice updates to the Municipal World aesthetic. From a refreshed logo to an upgraded website, our new appearance will be both contemporary and classic – a polished package that celebrates the past we’re so proud of while forging new innovations to richly share your stories.
From a refreshed logo to an upgraded website, our new appearance will be both contemporary and classic – a polished package that celebrates the past we’re so proud of while forging new innovations to richly share your stories. The new Municipal World branding is a true nod to our roots. The iconic globe image was included in the Municipal World logo from 1895 until 1981, and we’re proud to revitalize it with a new streamlined font, bright and welcoming colours, and new typography principles. Rest assured though – we know that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. We plan to use our revamped platform to stand out even more in this community and to raise our voice even louder for you in the environments where you work, live, and play. We hope that you’ll continue to stay connected with Municipal World as we make these alterations of advancement, and we look forward to honouring and sharing all your stories. Here’s to you, our readership – may these subtle, yet supportive changes create new opportunities for us to bring people together to support happier and healthier communities.
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The future of urban trucking Wes Guckert, PTP is President & CEO of The Traffic Group, a traffic engineering and transportation planning firm serving clients nationally and internationally. He can be reached by email wguckert@ trafficgroup.com or via @wes_guckert on Twitter.
The idea of any vehicle navigating the roadways on its own may seem like something out the movies, particularly when thinking about a truck driving itself. But, we have already been “back to the future.” Tesla, Volvo, and Uber are all now in the self-driving truck business. In October 2016, Uber’s driverless truck – formerly known as Otto, now called Uber ATG – delivered a shipment of Budweiser beer 120 miles down Colorado’s Interstate 25. After navigating the roads from the brewery to the highway, the driver hit the “engage” button and left his seat. It was the first delivery of commercial cargo by a self-driving vehicle. It was also as good a demonstration as any of the impact of the emerging new mobility, in which transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft deploy both autonomous vehicles and human-driven ones equipped with technology devel-
The push for driverless technology and MaaS is ubiquitous and has already begun to change the way transportation engineers and traffic managers plan for the most efficient, least expensive, and safest ways to move freight. oped for driverless-vehicle technology. It’s being referred to as “mobility as a service,” or MaaS, and its future is closer then you may think. Making Strides Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has predicted that we’ll see these changes within five to 10 years, and at least 19 companies say they expect to put self-driving vehicles on the road by 2021. The push for driverless technology and MaaS is ubiquitous and has already begun to change the way transportation engineers and traffic managers plan for the most efficient, least expensive, and safest ways to move freight. In Canada, Suncor has completed commercial field trials of six automated trucks at the North Steepbank Extension Mine, and has been testing its autonomous haulage systems since 2016. During the trials, heavy haulers ran 24/7 for an entire year, moving more than nine million tons of dirt – driven only by computers and sensors. JANUARY 2018 | MWDIGEST | 7
This technology is likely to be introduced at Alberta’s Fort Hills oil sands project in the future. The push is on in Europe, too: in 2016, a convoy of driverless trucks, from manufacturers including Daimler and Scania (a subsidiary of Volkswagen), drove across Europe to their destination at the Port of Rotterdam. Scania drove the longest distance – through Sweden, Denmark, and Germany – before reaching the Netherlands. Crisis on the Horizon This new technology couldn’t come at a better time for the freight and logistics industry, which has already reached a crisis point. There will be a shortage of 34,000 Canadian drivers by 2024, while the U.S. already has a shortage of 40,000 to 60,000 truck drivers. The Canadian Trucking Alliance’s new report, Understanding the Truck Driver Supply and Demand Gap found that the shortage of professional truck drivers in the Canadian for-hire trucking industry is escalating more rapidly than industry analysts previously thought. The study also found that the shortage could actually climb to 48,000 drivers, depending on whether or not various trends materialize. Age is the biggest reason for this shortage. The number of younger drivers in the trucking industry has been on the decline. Between 2006-2011, drivers between 25-34 dropped from 18 percent to under 15 percent. To top it off, the average age of a truck driver is now 55, and the shortage is forcing the industry to look to the new mobility as a means to transport goods. The demand for products delivered by trucks in the United States is expected to increase by 27 percent over the next 10 years, while e-commerce continues to grow at a rate of 16 percent year over year. Similar to the U.S., a 2017 Transport Canada report found that trucking activity has increased, with real gross domestic product (GDP) six percent higher in 2011 than in 2006. These are the most recent statistics available. According to the same report, Canadian for-hire carriers moved 225 billion tonne-kilometres of freight in 2010, up eight percent from 2009. And, the U.S. and Canada continue 8 | MWDIGEST | JANUARY 2018
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CULTURAL PLANNING
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to increase trade between the borders via trucking. Moving goods between Canada and the U.S. is largely done through the use of roadways, not by rail, sea, or air. In 2011, 45 percent ($149 billion Canadian) of exports and 73 percent ($162 billion Canadian) of imports were transported between the two countries by truck. As populations increase and urbanization continues, innovative ways to effectively and efficiently move goods from Point A to Point B will need to be identified. Technology is going to be vital to urban logistics. Safety Concerns Perhaps the greatest benefit of autonomous-vehicle technology will be in the area of safety. This remains one of the greatest challenges in the movement of goods by trucks. Freight transportation is involved in approximately 13 percent of all highway fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, roughly 94 percent of crashes are due in part to human error. At a conference of the American State Highway and Transportation Officials, current U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao discussed traffic safety. She highlighted the deaths of more than 35,000 people who were killed as a result of crashes in 2015 – a seven percent increase from the previous year.
Given these stats, what is a viable solution? Once again, technology comes into play. An estimated 80 percent of crashes could be avoided or mitigated with the autonomous-vehicle technology that is already being deployed for human-driven vehicles. This technology includes head-up user displays; forward collision warning;
intersection movement assist; electronic emergency braking; lane keep assist; blind spot driver assistance; and adaptive cruise control, to name just a few. Adaptive cruise control allows for “truck training” in such a way that it provides relief for driver fatigue. At the same time, it results in a process that reduces fuel consumption by eliminating drag. Other technologies, called Transportation Management Systems (TMS), will allow self-driving trucks to operate longer hours than human drivers, who are limited to 11 hours of driving and then require eight hours of rest. Self-driving trucks will create an
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A Marathon, Not a Sprint Although these technologies are coming, it is worth noting that they will not materialize overnight. It will be a
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process that won’t crush the industry, but will supplement it instead. And, it is likely to actually help extend the careers of many drivers – particularly older drivers. The idea of a heavily-loaded 18-wheeler cruising the highway with no one at the wheel may seem unsettling now, but it won’t be that long before it becomes a common sight. These technologies will reduce the cost of moving goods across the country, while benefiting both efficiency and safety. The technology is developing at a rapid and accelerating pace. We need to not only understand it, but to embrace it – and to prepare for it. MW
Innovation and leadership in Canada’s mid-sized cities
Jo Flatt is Senior Manager, Policy & Partnerships at Evergreen. She leads the organization’s MidSized Cities Program, an interdisciplinary initiative to help midsized cities thrive. Jo has led numerous consultation efforts including the City of London’s Urban Agriculture Strategy. She is also an instructor at the University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance. She can be reached at jflatt@ evergreen.ca.
a distinct status or a focused area of When we talk about city building, it study.1 While it may seem obvious, cittends to be the large, global cities, like Toronto, New York, Paris, and Tokyo that ies of different sizes have different needs dominate the conversation. These dis– and it is critical that we as city buildcussions seldom consider the full range ers invest in the range of tools, policies, of city-types that exist, or the diversity programs, and services that can help all of urban experiences that smaller and cities thrive. mid-sized cities can provide. This is parEvergreen’s Mid-Sized Cities Program ticularly true in the Canadian context; is an interdisciplinary, multi-year probut, it is also evident across the western gram to support the social, economic, world, where we see disproportionate and environmental vibrancy of Canadian levels of investments in infrastructure, mid-sized cities. It aims to fill an imporimmigration, and development between tant gap for municipalities of a medium the small and the big. Mid-sized cities size by putting forward needed research, (MSCs), those with populations between piloting initiatives with local impact, and 50,000 to 500,000, total 88 cities across building the capacity of decision makers Canada, representing 36.7 percent of the and city builders across Canada. Over country’s population. Yet, these cities the coming year, leading researchers and suffer from a scarcity of planning models practitioners will address some of the key suited to their particular circumstances, issues and opportunities facing Canada’s because they are not recognized as having mid-sized cities in a monthly article for Municipal World describing best practices, research findings, and case studies that 1 2011 Census Data – includes Hamilton, Queare relevant for these communities.2 bec City, and Brampton (even though they are above 500,000). Calculated by Austin Zwick, member of the Mid-Sized Cities Research Collaborative.
2 Evergreen, the lead of the program, is a national non-profit organization with a mandate to create flourishing cities across Canada, with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Hamilton.
Canada’s Mid-Sized Cities Are at a Turning Point. In the last few decades, Canada’s MSCs have experienced significant and often unexpected changes. International JANUARY 2018 | MWDIGEST | 11
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trends of globalization and technology have pushed these cities out of historically strong sectors, such as resource extraction and manufacturing, and toward service-based industries. In the race to transition, MSCs often fall short in supplying the talent and infrastructure needed to compete in attracting young families, retaining early career professionals, and meeting the needs of aging populations. At the same time, the predominant planning frameworks found in these communities have also lost their currency. Most MSCs were designed under planning paradigms that promoted suburbanization dynamics. Sprawl continues to consume vital farmland, promote dispersion, reduce local populations, and drain fiscal resources. On the flip side, MCSs have a paramount opportunity to reinvent their futures to ensure social equity, environmental sustainability, and economic prosperity. Evidence suggests that they are better positioned to be innovation and sustainability leaders than their larger counterparts, because of their nimbleness and less built-out urban infrastructure. Many are also demonstrating significant signs of change, with renewed political leadership, rising voter turnouts, higher levels of civic engagement, and younger political faces who are revitalizing politics and opening new windows of opportunity to do things differently. But, of course, not all MSCs are made the same. Across the country, there is a significant variation in growth rates, largely resulting from the proximity to major metro areas. Supporting the uniqueness and variability of these cities requires new approaches that are place based and responsive to the assets of each city. If used effectively, these assets can be leveraged to mobilize the economy and improve the social wellbeing of residents. Assets can be tangible or intangible, and include historic downtowns, anchor institutions, labour force expertise, balanced economies, social connectivity, housing affordability, unique landscapes, and outdoor recreation, among many others. These assets should be considered part of the main building blocks for 3 This section is based on two recent reports published by Evergreen and co-authored by Jo Flatt and Luisa Sotomayor. See www.evergreen.ca/blog/ entry/mid-sized-cities-research-series. 12 | MWDIGEST | JANUARY 2018
defining strategic place-based solutions to enhancing each city’s quality of place. Success in this area requires planning and policy approaches that are informed by collective and long-term efforts, and models of city building that are specific to the unique contexts of MSCs.3 Mid-Sized Cities Program Building on this perspective, the Mid-Sized Cities Program takes an asset-based and customized approach to how it works with its partner cities. The program started in the fall of 2014 in Ontario with an initial focus on two areas of opportunity: on-the-ground pilot projects in mid-sized cities; and creating the Mid-Sized Cities Research Collaborative. The pilot projects were a critical first step of the program. Work started in Hamilton, where it was quickly learned that this community is organized, passionate, and powerful, especially in the West Harbour neighbourhood, an area undergoing significant change and development. Following extensive public consultation, a commercial storefront was transformed into a shared community space. The 294 James Street North Community Hub has become a central place for residents to connect with each other, learn about the developments happening in the neighbourhood, and for the city to communicate any anticipated changes and gather feedback. In just two years, over 25,000 people have come through its doors. Used by community organizations, residents, and the city, 294 James Street North has become a cornerstone of the neighbourhood. Building on this success, three more pilots ran in Peterborough, Greater Sudbury, and London. Each project involved the creation of a local steering committee or lead partner, stakeholder consultation, and a short timeline of only eight months to implement the pilot. In Peterborough, where green business, sustainable education, and natural assets are at the root of the city’s identity, the focus of the pilot became positioning the city as a green economy and community leader. The MSC program, in partnership with the city, Chamber of Commerce, Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development, and the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough, created the Peterborough
Green Economy Action Lab to build alignment among leaders across sectors and identify a few quick wins. In Greater Sudbury, the steering committee included senior leaders from the Chamber of Commerce, Sudbury Community Foundation, and City of Sudbury planning and economic development departments. In partnership with the mayor’s office (and for the first time), 30 of the city’s leading anchor institutions and large public or non-profit institutions were connected to identify practices and strategies to support local economic and social vibrancy. In London, some
In September 2016, the MSC Research Collaborative was launched following feedback from numerous city leaders indicating a gap in available resources and literature for mid-sized cities. Since its inception, the initiative has grown to over 25 researchers, representing more than 15 universities and colleges across North America. The collaborative set out to customize academic research for a practitioner audience – civic, public, and private sector leaders working on the front lines of policymaking, community engagement, and development in MSCs
Over the coming months, these articles in Municipal World will showcase some of the work that is underway, including the state of data and technology in mid-sized cities ... momentum had already been generated by the London Plan, the city’s Official Plan, which engaged upward of 300,000 people in its development. Building on this great work, the MSC program collaborated with the City of London and the Urban League of London to support community-led implementation of the plan through the 100in1Day platform. 100in1Day is a city-building network that culminates in a one-day festival where residents, businesses, and organizations lead pop-up events and activities to implement the changes they want to see in their neighbourhoods. The event was a huge success, engaging participants from communities, organizations, and businesses across the city.
across Ontario. It released its first research series in May 2017 and will be releasing a follow-up series in May 2018. This will be followed by a Researcher and Practitioner Roundtable to support cross-pollination and learning among academics and practice leaders. And, the collaborative is open to new partners that are interested in contributing to this field of work. Over the coming months, these articles in Municipal World will showcase some of the work that is underway, including the state of data and technology in mid-sized cities, site visits and workshops in MSCs, and city-to-city learning opportunities for senior staff working on urban development issues. MW
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MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING cjdl@cjdleng.com
460
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editor’s flashback
Making the most of making change
Peter de Jager is a bylaw abiding citizen – he’s never thrown a shovel in anger. You can contact him at pdejager@technobility.com and view some of his presentations at Vimeo.com/ technobility.
This article was originally published in the March 2017 issue of Municipal World.
“Some portion of change initiatives fail.” Given that we can all point to failed change initiatives we were personally involved with, we can accept the above blanket statement as fact. How often do change implementations fail – 70 percent of the time? Sixty? Thirty? The truth is, we don’t know. But, given that any failure to implement a change is a waste of valuable resources, we hope there’s room for improvement. There are many times that we need change implementations to succeed. For example, when we implement that new payroll system, people should continue to get paid. Similarly, when we change the layout of our office, productivity should, eventually, improve. Another factual (if heretical) observation is that not all the changes we attempt to initiate should succeed – nor should we even attempt many such changes. There are many examples of where a “successful” implementation of a change has destroyed or severely damaged an organization’s ability to do business. Consider the pharmaceuticals company that (to save money) makes a change to sterilization procedures on an assembly line, resulting in product contamination – causing post-operative infections and generating several thousand lawsuits. Or, the organizational software application that, although successfully installed, fails to
deliver – resulting in $100 million in lost sales. (Google “ERP disasters.”) Just because we think a change is necessary – doesn’t mean that it is. On the other hand, even when it is necessary to change, that alone doesn’t mean that we’ll succeed in the initiative. In an ideal world, the changes that we shouldn’t be considering would never get off the ground (and certainly would never get pushed through to completion). Likewise, it would be perfect if all those changes that we should implement would soar effortlessly to success. The challenge is simple. (The challenge is always simple; it’s the solution that’s always difficult.) How do we: only attempt the changes that are necessary in our organization; and succeed in those attempts? For the past 30 years, I’ve conducted a small informal survey – with consistent results. I’ve asked people, based upon their personal experience, to indicate the reason that changes they’ve been involved in have a) failed or b) succeeded. Overwhelmingly, audiences from all over the world, at every level of the organization, in every type of organization – public, private, profit, and non-profit – agree: Changes that are dictated from top down to the rest of the organization tend to fail; changes that are driven via organization-wide involvement tend to succeed.
JANUARY 2018 | MWDIGEST | 15
LEAD
“Leadership is a scarce and very valuable commodity that is absolutely critical to the success or failure of organizations, and is often more known by its absence than its presence.” George B. Cuff Executive Policy Governance
In addition to the forces inherent in “dictated” and “involved” change, there is another issue that’s commonly raised as pertinent to failure versus success: communication – usually in the context of answering the question, “Why is this change necessary?” These results make a “common sense” type of sense. Dictated change ignores the checks and balances that exist within the work experience, and the intelligence of the entire organization. Once the realities of the day-to-day operations are taken into account, it becomes apparent that some ideas are inherently bad. If the change is dictated, there’s nobody in a position of power who can point out where exactly that change may cause problems. Dictated change also suffers from the increased necessity of communicating accurately to everyone why the change is necessary. Communication is difficult at the best of times; but, when
When change is driven by a grassroots desire to solve a problem, then the issue of communication becomes almost trivial. When people understand the problem, they are more likely to feel driven to find a solution and to drive the implementation of that solution forward. dictating that others need to work “differently,” it becomes not only difficult, but also critical. Even when the change is necessary, if the majority of people don’t believe that it is, it will likely fail. This phenomenon is called organizational inertia. Change requires willing effort on everybody’s part, and we simply don’t give our all to that which we don’t believe in. It’s human nature. When change is driven by a grassroots desire to solve a problem, then the issue of communication becomes almost trivial. When people understand the problem, they are more likely to feel driven to find a solution and to drive the implementation of that solution forward. Organizational involvement is, almost by definition, self-communicating. It’s self-motivating, self-powered, and self-perpetuating. This is exactly where things get difficult, if not impossible. If an organization operates from a strictly hierarchical perspective, then decisions are made at the top and pushed down into the organization. (Consider government structures as a randomly-chosen example.) This means that the opportunities for large-scale involvement are diminished – perhaps not totally, but it’s an uphill battle to push back against ill-advised change. It’s not impossible, just nearly so. In these situations, we fall back to better communication. And, this communication must focus clearly on the most important question in any change: Why should we do things differently? The answer to that question will be explored next month. MW 16 | MWDIGEST | JANUARY 2018
coming events calendar February 5-6 – 2018 IPAC Leadership Conference: The Dynamic Leader Toronto ON. https://www.ipac.ca/iPAC_EN/Events_Awards/Shared_Content/Events/Events_List.aspx February 6-8 – 2018 Sustainable Communities Conference Ottawa ON. http://www.fcm.ca/ home/events/upcoming-events.htm February 7-9 – 19th Annual Privacy and Security Conference Victoria BC. http://www. rebootcommunications.com/event/privsec2018 February 15-18 – Northwest Territories Association of Communities 52nd Annual General Meeting Hay River NT. http://www.nwtac.com/about/agm February 20-22 – LGMA CAO 2018 Forum: Leading Through Changing Times Vancouver BC. https://members.lgma.ca/upcoming-events/event-details/?EventID=13 February 22 – LaNIGP Reverse Trade Show 2018 Port Allen, LA. http://lanigp.org/ meetinginfo.php?id=17&ts=1508273043 February 22 – Heritage Forum Saskatoon SK. http://www.seda.sk.ca/html/seda-events/ Heritage/index.cfm February 27-28 – Public Sector HR 2018 Ottawa ON. http://www.conferenceboard.ca/conf/ public-hr/default.aspx February 28 - March 1 – 51st International Conference on Water Management Modeling Toronto ON. https://www.icwmm.org February 28 - March 2 – Urban Future Global Conference 2018 Vienna, Austria. https:// www.urban-future.org March 3 – Special Events – How do YOU Handle Them? Online. https://www.gartner.com/ events/na/it-financial-procurement-asset-management March 5-7 – 2018 Cities and Climate Change Science Conference Edmonton AB. http:// www.citiesipcc.org March 5-7 – SWANApalooza 2018: the Annual Landfill Gas and Biogas Symposium, the Annual Landfill Symposium, and the Road to Zero Waste Conference Denver, CO. https:// swana.org/Events/SWANApalooza.aspx March 5-8 – CAGP 2018 Spring Conference New Bern, NC. https://www.cagponline.org/ insidepages/meetings/details.cfm?meetingid=BB0EB43B-5056-8960-3EE6-F936002FD471 March 7-8 – Youth Development Through Recreation Services Symposium Red Deer AB. https://arpaonline.ca/events/ydrs-symposium/ydrs-about March 12-15 – Future of Ponds and Wetlands Conference and Training March 2018 Calgary AB. http://www.alidp.org/events-and-education/dft18 March 13-16 – Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities 2018 Annual Convention Regina SK. http://sarm.ca/events/conventions
JANUARY 2018 | MWDIGEST | 17
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