A walk through all the intricacies of municipal government, including:
– the unique structure of decision-making in civic government,
– areas of jurisdiction and what the City can and cannot do,
– land use and zoning,
– transportation,
– policing,
– relationships with other orders of government,
– the complexities, limitations and trade-offs with use of different available revenue sources, e.g. property tax, user fees, utility charges, and investment revenue,
– how a municipal budget works
– the relationship with the public and different levels of engagement,
and other topics of municipal government that may arise from class discussion
The course will include some guest appearances from various experts in their fields.
Instructor: Ben Henderson
Ben Henderson served on Edmonton City Council from 2007-2021 as Councillor for Ward 8, the central southside. He currently serves as co-chair of End Poverty Edmonton. While at the City he led initiatives that created the City’s Poverty Elimination Strategy, the Winter City Strategy, the Public Engagement Strategy, and the Energy Transition Strategy. He also served for ten years as Chair of the Utility Committee. For seven years he served as the Chair of the Green Municipal Fund, a $1.7 billion endowment/revolving loan fund within the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) entrusted by the Federal Government to help municipalities improve their environmental sustainability. He also served for six years on the FCM board, as Chair of the Inter City Forum on Social Policy, and for four years on the Canada Council on the Social Determinants of Health. The first part of his career was spent in live theatre.
