Transcript Examining the Social Elements of Public

City of Ottawa/ Infrastructure Canada:
Knowledge-Building, Outreach and Awareness Research
Program
Examining the Social Elements of Public
Infrastructure : Impacts on Competitiveness and
Implications for Governance
Outline of presentation








Research project
Research questions and theoretical
framework
Case studies: Calgary and Ottawa
Break
Toronto case studies
Key findings
Data and measurement
Implications for policy and governance


A three year research program
 Funded by Infrastructure Canada
 Coordinated by City of Ottawa Housing
Branch
Goals:
o Reframe traditional view of infrastructure and its
role in local economy and city competitiveness
o Expand knowledge and engagement

What do we mean by competitiveness
= economic development

How do cities compete?

How does infrastructure contribute to
competitiveness?

Does social infrastructure contribute to
competitiveness, and if so, how?

What implications does an evolving scope and
role for infrastructure have for governance?
Key Issues for Case Studies
Selecting Cities/Cases
 What is each City’s strategy and the intent of
the investment?
 What was the context?
 Have the effects been measured – are they
measureable?
 What are the implications of new
infrastructure strategies for governance?

Case Studies
Affordable
Rural
Broadband Initiative, Ottawa
Sheppard
St.
Housing Strategy, Calgary
Avenue Subway, Toronto
Lawrence Neighborhood, Toronto
MaRS
Centre, Toronto
Calgary Affordable Housing






Aggregate investment $160m/6 yrs
Concurrent with ED Strategy
Context – excessive growth – affordable
housing needed to sustain growth
Employment, GDP data – inconclusive
evidence re direct effect
But – important in managing externality of
growth
In place infra, physical capital, indirect effects
Expansion of rural broadband
across the City of Ottawa
What was the investment?



P3: $750K City, $10.4 M private investment
Funding went primarily towards building
transmission towers
Supportive of human capital, local and
external network infrastructure
How it came about



New political dynamic: 2001 amalgamation
Well developed economic rationale: The City
of Ottawa’s 20/20 Economic Plan, Broadband
Plan (2003)
Mobilisation of rural residents (Rural Summit)
Intent of Broadband investment






Expand the City's innovation economy;
Attract knowledge-based workers to the City;
Improve quality of life through access to
online health care, education, government
and commercial services;
Reduce daily commuter traffic;
Bridge the "digital divide" between urban and
rural Ottawa
Foster economic development outside the
urban core.
*Broadband Plan, 2003
Electronic Survey


17.7% response rate
29% business owners
Key findings of survey
1. 75% of business owning respondents stated that access to
high-speed Internet has improved their business sales and
profitability while 63% noted that access to high-speed has
helped reduce their business expenses.
2. 15% of rural business owners stated that without access to
high-speed, they would relocate to other areas.
3. 20% of non-business owning respondents would not be able
to continue working for their current employer if they did not
have the capacity to telecommute.
Broadband: key findings

Multiple factors led to the success of
this investment
Political
Economic rationale
Resident mobilisation
Governance model
Type of investment
Geography
Break
Sheppard Avenue Subway






Investment of 933.9 million, 2002
“Straddled” the inception of a competitiveness
strategy
Example of intended internal network infra
Truncated from major system investment
Has not appreciably contributed to
competitive business growth in North York
Centre or elsewhere
Good data availability
St Lawrence Neighbourhood








Aggregate investment $46million/10 yrs
Predates formal competitiveness strategy
New n’hood, brownfield area next to CBD
Removed externality (derelict land use)
Catalyst for residential growth in downtown
Expanded CBD labour supply (low wage)
Data suggestive but inconclusive
In place infra, physical capital, indirect effects
MaRS Centre





Investment from Province/GOC, with City
facilitation
Directly in line with competitiveness strategy
Combines in-place capture of knowledge
and innovation with network functions,
directly supporting external business
Anecdotally appears to be well situated to
contribute to the Discovery District
Very little data
Insights from the case studies?
Increasing awareness and explicit strategy on
competitiveness – at least in rhetoric
 Cases often pre-date a formal
competitiveness strategy – but still contribute
 More recent cases (Broadband, Mars) more
directly follow from competitiveness strategy
 Seldom are there mechanisms to measure
impact ex poste
 Importance of infrastructure investment on
human capital effects

Measuring Competitiveness
Effects in Case Studies?
Some useful data elements available and were
applied (e.g. Sheppard – transit data; Broadband
electronic survey; Calgary and St L employment
data).
More frequently, data was not available at
appropriate scale, or frequency to explicitly
measure impact of discrete investments (causality)
Conceptual model helps identify which data would
be useful – for future collection and monitoring
outcomes
Policy Implications
Importance of specific goals and strategies
 Indirect effects (managing externalities)
 Relative importance of scale and targeting
 Importance of physical/functional connection
 Importance of systems (aggregate impacts)
 Human and physical capital and the meaning
of “infrastructure” (re social elements of
public infrastructure)

Implications for Governance
Preoccupation with apriori justification for
project but limited attention to ex poste
measurement of impacts
 Strengthen linkages between strategic goals
and investment decisions
 Importance of capital budget process
 Multiple government conditionality can
undermine (no fed/prov policy/strategy for
city competitiveness

Research Team

Russell Mawby, City Ottawa/Places Group, (as of

November 2008)
David Hay, CPRN/Information Partnership Inc. (as
of October 2007)

Steve Pomeroy, Focus Consulting Inc, and



University of Ottawa
John Burrett, Capacity Strategic Networks Inc
Leonore Evans, Carleton University
Duncan Maclennan, University of Ottawa
(through 2006)