This paper concerns itself with the nature of local government associations in Canada. The small body of literature concerning local government associations which precedes this study confines itself to an evaluation of local government associations based on their performance in the intergovernmental arena. In other words, ability to lobby the provincial government is the yardstick by which local government associations have been measured in the past. As this body of literature maintains that local government associations are a type of interest group, it is appropriate to attempt to situate the behaviour of these associations within some kind of interest group framework. A review of interest group literature suggests that it is inappropriate to analyse and evaluate local government associations based on the single activity of lobbying the provincial government. Local government associations spend much of their time providing other services to their membership. As well, the provision of these services impacts their ability to lobby effectively. The interest group literature suggests that members join interest groups for a variety of reasons, only some of which are related to the pursuit of a collective good. The criticisms of Lionel Feldman and Katherine Graham in Bargaining for Cities: Municipalities and Intergovernmental Relations, An Assessment and in Peter G. Johnson's research on the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities are based on too narrow an interpretation of the activity of local government associations. This paper discusses their criticisms that local government associations are neither legitimate nor representative, that they act solely as agents of provincial governments, and that they allow themselves to be circumscribed by more senior levels of government. A case study of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) provides an overview of the organizational structure of this local government association, which suggests that the UBCM is an interest group whose main activities include lobbying the provincial government and providing other services to its membership. The presentation of survey data addresses itself primarily to Feldman/Graham's and Johnson's criticisms of local government associations, and concludes that when a broader range of local government association activity is taken into account, these criticisms are largely ill-founded. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

The management of the coastal zone is a complex task facing all three levels of Canadian Government. While academic research and public attention tend to focus on federal and provincial agencies, the role of local government has been left largely unexplored. This thesis examines the role of local government in coastal zone management in British Columbia and evaluates local government’s contribution to the management of the coastal zone based on the performance of local planning policies in the coastal community of Richmond, B.C. Coastal zone management (C.Z.M.) is a specialized subset of contemporary resource management models having three hierarchically integrated components representing biophysical, socio-economic and institutional subsystems. A literature review yielded many management issues of which seven were selected to reflect the local government experience in C.Z.M. The seven issues are: Habitat Conservation, Water Quality, Coastal Hazards, Public Access and Aesthetics, Public Input, Water Dependency and Interjurisdictional Coordination. The evaluation of Richmond’s C.Z.M. policies was undertaken using a methodology similar to those employed by Rosentraub (1975) and Jessen et al. (1983). A retrospective analysis of Development Permit Application files processed between 1988 and 1991 was employed in the evaluation of existing policies contained within Richmond’s Official Community Plan. While the exact extent of local responsibilities remains poorly defined by existing legislation, local regulatory powers in C.Z.M. were determined to be nonetheless significant. The British Columbia Municipal Act provided a considerable amount of regulatory authority for each of the seven coastal zone management issues, namely in the form of Zoning bylaws, Official Community Plan bylaws and Development Permits. The findings indicate that Richmond’s existing policies displayed limited effectiveness concerning the management of C.Z.M. issues such as Habitat Conservation, Water Quality, Coastal Hazards and Interjurisdictional Coordination. However, the results also suggested that local policies addressing coastal zone issues such as public access and aesthetics were effective. Furthermore, explicit policies for Water Dependency and Public Input were non existent. Several recommendations were made in this thesis. The first is an expanded recognition of C.Z.M. as a local government concern and responsibility. Further recommendations include increased interjurisdictional involvement, greater public access to waterfront surrounding industrial sites and discouraging the pressure to develop in the floodplain.

This thesis examines the property value impacts of neighbourhood improvements to infrastructure provided by local government. The direct and indirect effects of a revitalization effort are studied in order to determine whether neighbourhood improvement programs generate positive spill over effects (externalities) to surrounding single family homes. These impacts are examined for a number of reasons: (a) property value determination studies have thus far omitted a treatment of detailed neighbourhood infrastructure variables; (b) the literature discussing externalities created by government intervention has either focussed primarily on the negative effects created by federal intervention, been theoretical in nature, or has been empirically inconclusive or contradictory; (c) the implementation of a neighbourhood improvement program in Canada was conceived of as a policy which would protect the investment of housing rehabilitation projects and has thus been expected to create positive neighbourhood effects. The empirical analysis performed in this study examines neighbourhood improvements in general and a neighbourhood improvement program in particular. The Canadian Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP) is empirically analyzed using multiple regression analysis. An analysis of covariance technique allows us to test whether neighbourhood improvements have a greater impact on housing values if they were provided in NIP designated areas or in NIP years. The empirical results of this study indicate that there are very few externalities created by the NIP program. In some cases, improvements were found to have a negative impact on single family house prices indicating that some improvements generate a negative effect. In addition, living adjacent to a NIP designated area was found to negatively affect single family house prices in one of the study years. These findings imply that a justification for similar improvement efforts need to be based on something other than property value increases. Policy analysts should consider other economic and non-economic justifications for such efforts before embarking on similar programs. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The management of the coastal zone is a complex task facing all three levels of Canadian Government. While academic research and public attention tend to focus on federal and provincial agencies, the role of local government has been left largely unexplored. This thesis examines the role of local government in coastal zone management in British Columbia and evaluates local government’s contribution to the management of the coastal zone based on the performance of local planning policies in the coastal community of Richmond, B.C. Coastal zone management (C.Z.M.) is a specialized subset of contemporary resource management models having three hierarchically integrated components representing biophysical, socio-economic and institutional subsystems. A literature review yielded many management issues of which seven were selected to reflect the local government experience in C.Z.M. The seven issues are: Habitat Conservation, Water Quality, Coastal Hazards, Public Access and Aesthetics, Public Input, Water Dependency and Interjurisdictional Coordination. The evaluation of Richmond’s C.Z.M. policies was undertaken using a methodology similar to those employed by Rosentraub (1975) and Jessen et al. (1983). A retrospective analysis of Development Permit Application files processed between 1988 and 1991 was employed in the evaluation of existing policies contained within Richmond’s Official Community Plan. While the exact extent of local responsibilities remains poorly defined by existing legislation, local regulatory powers in C.Z.M. were determined to be nonetheless significant. The British Columbia Municipal Act provided a considerable amount of regulatory authority for each of the seven coastal zone management issues, namely in the form of Zoning bylaws, Official Community Plan bylaws and Development Permits. The findings indicate that Richmond’s existing policies displayed limited effectiveness concerning the management of C.Z.M. issues such as Habitat Conservation, Water Quality, Coastal Hazards and Interjurisdictional Coordination. However, the results also suggested that local policies addressing coastal zone issues such as public access and aesthetics were effective. Furthermore, explicit policies for Water Dependency and Public Input were non existent. Several recommendations were made in this thesis. The first is an expanded recognition of C.Z.M. as a local government concern and responsibility. Further recommendations include increased interjurisdictional involvement, greater public access to waterfront surrounding industrial sites and discouraging the pressure to develop in the floodplain. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This thesis evaluates the preparedness of the professional staff in the municipal planning team for programs of administrative decentralization. Administrative decentralization is defined as the delegation of policymaking and programming authority from the central administration down to subunits or field offices. Its use in professional planning today is local area planning. The impetus behind this thesis is the problem presented by what is called the paradox of desenixsalization. That is, two contradictory motions, the irresistable force and the immovable object, are observed in modern local public administration. On the one hand, the citizen participation movement is refocussing its energies on the civic bureaucracy, demanding that it decentralize its decision-making authority. On the other hand, these civic bureaucracies are, on all accounts, resistant to such reform and incapable of handling these new demands. This paradox suggests that a reconditioning and reorientation of staff competence in the planning organization is required. The thesis is structured in tw© parts: first, the construction of an ideal set of new competencies required of the planner for decentralization; second, the application of this ideal set to a local planning organization. The first dtep is accomplished from a study of past experience in decentralizing planning services, current social planning theory, and administration-organization theory. Prom this analysis, eighteen qualities for the professional planner are concluded and organized into attitudes and values, knowledge, and skills and techniques. The second part of the thesis consists of the application of the ideal set. - A questionnaire containing the model's qualities is developed and applied to the professional staff of the City of Vancouver Planning Department. The form tests for the acceptability and availability of the new competencies as they relate to seven key personnel characteristics of planning organizations. These characteristics are: organizational position, service within the planning profession, personal age, professional background, professional allegiance, organizational allegiance, and experience with decentralization. Two conclusions from the model's application in the case agency stand out. First, organizational position, allegiance to the profession, and experience with decentralization are prime personnel characteristics in staff preparedness for decentralization. Second, the model's themes of politics-intervention and humility contain the crucial qualities for administrative decentralization in contemporary planning organizations inasmuch as they are both unacceptable to and unavailable in the case agency. With these discoveries, the research ends with some general anticipation of the evolving local area planning program sponsored by the City of Vancouver Planning Department. The ideal set of new competencies is also refined, and the paradox of decentralization is re-evaluated. The thesis predicts that future local area planning in Vancouver will be faced with the dilemma of matching policy and goals with program and delivery, that new approaches in planning style will meet with intra-departmental oonflict, and that there will be a tendency to follow the path set by the centralist-traditionalist counterpart. In the refinement of the model, the themes of politics-intervention and humility are reconsidered in view of their importance to decentralization. In the former theme, three new levels of intervention for the planner are distinguished, along with their respective competencies for the professional. In the latter theme, the distinction between professional and personal humility is sharpened. Lastly, the paradox of decentralization, upon reconsideration, appears to be overstated. The planning organization, as represented by the City of Vancouver Planning Department, is not the immovable object depicted in current commentary and theory. Rather, it appears to be in a state of transition between the inanimate bureaucratic form and the innovative organization implied in the ideal set of new competencies. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

An analysis of the literature on sustainability reveals that community decision making is an important component in the definition and implementation of sustainability. Although the importance of participation by all members of a community is stressed in the literature, analysis of marginalized groups focuses mainly on class and culture. When gender lines are explored, it is mostly within the context of the developing world. The purpose of this research was to examine the nature of women's participation in defining and implementing sustainability. This exploration had three objectives: to define effective public participation in the context of local level environmental decision making, to identify barriers to women inherent in public participation processes associated with environmental planning decisions and to make recommendations which eliminate barriers to women's participation in planning decisions. Barriers to women's participation were divided into three categories: institutional, community and societal. This research used a case study approach with multiple sources of evidence to examine these barriers. The public participation process involved in developing the Squamish Estuary Management Plan was analyzed to explore the nature and extent of women's participation. Research methods included document and newspaper coverage analysis, interviews and workshops. These revealed that specific barriers exist which discourage and prevent women from participating in planning decisions. At an institutional level, these included lack of trust, centralized decision-making, poor communication structures, an atmosphere that was not childfriendly and the failure to present the Plan in a way which was relevant to women's lives. Community barriers consisted of the fear of retaliation and the large number of community issues. Societal barriers identified were the devaluing of women's voices, level of income and the restrictions caused by women's societal roles. These barriers reduced the effectiveness of the public participation process. Results were used to develop a series of recommendations about how to encourage women's participation in decision-making, ensuring that women in communities are involved in shaping and defining sustainability.

This dissertation is a case study of The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), a municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1968, COPE claims to represent a coming together of "ordinary citizens" united around a programme of people's needs. In direct opposition to its chief political opponent, the corporatesponsored Non-Partisan Association (NPA), COPE has attempted to articulate the diverse issues and objectives of progressive movements within the civic electoral arena. Following a neo-Gramscian approach, the research highlights both the internal and external challenges confronting COPE throughout the party's long history in Vancouver politics. A neo-Gramscian perspective emphasizes the process of coalition-formation—that is, the creation of a broadly inclusive and widely endorsed counter-hegemonic project. In the advanced capitalist democracies, the task of building electoral coalitions has generally been taken up by political parties that have either tried to gain the active support of social movements, or dismissed their concerns as unwelcome 'distractions' from the main goal of winning state power. However, as the limitations of conventional party politics became increasingly apparent, and as new social movements began to challenge established political boundaries, many experiments in constructing a "new" kind of party have taken place. I have examined COPE as an instance of a "new politics" or movement-oriented party. My research focuses on COPE's efforts to articulate the aims of "new" and "old" political agendas, and to adopt a new social movement style within the realm of electoral politics, thereby serving as a counter-hegemonic vehicle within the local political context. The analysis begins with a review of the concrete practices and experiences of several exemplary movement-oriented parties in various political settings. Based on this literature, the conceptual framework of the study is narrowed to a focus on the content of political debate and the style of political action expected of a movement-party. The COP case study is also situated within the political-economic context of Vancouver's development as a post-Fordist "global city." Systematic examination of COPE's archival documents, observation of the group, and interviews with COPE members reveal that, in its present form, COPE does not rise to the status of a counter-hegemonic force in Vancouver politics, although its particular experience is instructive. Analysis of COPE underscores the necessity of coalition-building around multiple issues and identities, and the need to reconceive the notion of politics to include both electoral and extra-parliamentary struggles. An examination of COPE's historical evolution also points to the need for a greater degree of political flexibility in order to effectively respond to the limits and possibilities presented by specific historical moments. In a post-Fordist era, COPE's electoral appeals to "working people" or "ordinary people" assume a homogeneity among progressive movements that is belied by interrelated processes of economic polarization and political demobilization/exclusion, as well as by the social diversity of the global city. A post-Fordist counter-hegemonic project requires a vision and a political strategy capable of bridging the gaps between disparate interests and movements.

An analysis of the literature on sustainability reveals that community decision making is an important component in the definition and implementation of sustainability. Although the importance of participation by all members of a community is stressed in the literature, analysis of marginalized groups focuses mainly on class and culture. When gender lines are explored, it is mostly within the context of the developing world. The purpose of this research was to examine the nature of women's participation in defining and implementing sustainability. This exploration had three objectives: to define effective public participation in the context of local level environmental decision making, to identify barriers to women inherent in public participation processes associated with environmental planning decisions and to make recommendations which eliminate barriers to women's participation in planning decisions. Barriers to women's participation were divided into three categories: institutional, community and societal. This research used a case study approach with multiple sources of evidence to examine these barriers. The public participation process involved in developing the Squamish Estuary Management Plan was analyzed to explore the nature and extent of women's participation. Research methods included document and newspaper coverage analysis, interviews and workshops. These revealed that specific barriers exist which discourage and prevent women from participating in planning decisions. At an institutional level, these included lack of trust, centralized decision-making, poor communication structures, an atmosphere that was not childfriendly and the failure to present the Plan in a way which was relevant to women's lives. Community barriers consisted of the fear of retaliation and the large number of community issues. Societal barriers identified were the devaluing of women's voices, level of income and the restrictions caused by women's societal roles. These barriers reduced the effectiveness of the public participation process. Results were used to develop a series of recommendations about how to encourage women's participation in decision-making, ensuring that women in communities are involved in shaping and defining sustainability. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation is a case study of The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), a municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1968, COPE claims to represent a coming together of "ordinary citizens" united around a programme of people's needs. In direct opposition to its chief political opponent, the corporatesponsored Non-Partisan Association (NPA), COPE has attempted to articulate the diverse issues and objectives of progressive movements within the civic electoral arena. Following a neo-Gramscian approach, the research highlights both the internal and external challenges confronting COPE throughout the party's long history in Vancouver politics. A neo-Gramscian perspective emphasizes the process of coalition-formation—that is, the creation of a broadly inclusive and widely endorsed counter-hegemonic project. In the advanced capitalist democracies, the task of building electoral coalitions has generally been taken up by political parties that have either tried to gain the active support of social movements, or dismissed their concerns as unwelcome 'distractions' from the main goal of winning state power. However, as the limitations of conventional party politics became increasingly apparent, and as new social movements began to challenge established political boundaries, many experiments in constructing a "new" kind of party have taken place. I have examined COPE as an instance of a "new politics" or movement-oriented party. My research focuses on COPE's efforts to articulate the aims of "new" and "old" political agendas, and to adopt a new social movement style within the realm of electoral politics, thereby serving as a counter-hegemonic vehicle within the local political context. The analysis begins with a review of the concrete practices and experiences of several exemplary movement-oriented parties in various political settings. Based on this literature, the conceptual framework of the study is narrowed to a focus on the content of political debate and the style of political action expected of a movement-party. The COP case study is also situated within the political-economic context of Vancouver's development as a post-Fordist "global city." Systematic examination of COPE's archival documents, observation of the group, and interviews with COPE members reveal that, in its present form, COPE does not rise to the status of a counter-hegemonic force in Vancouver politics, although its particular experience is instructive. Analysis of COPE underscores the necessity of coalition-building around multiple issues and identities, and the need to reconceive the notion of politics to include both electoral and extra-parliamentary struggles. An examination of COPE's historical evolution also points to the need for a greater degree of political flexibility in order to effectively respond to the limits and possibilities presented by specific historical moments. In a post-Fordist era, COPE's electoral appeals to "working people" or "ordinary people" assume a homogeneity among progressive movements that is belied by interrelated processes of economic polarization and political demobilization/exclusion, as well as by the social diversity of the global city. A post-Fordist counter-hegemonic project requires a vision and a political strategy capable of bridging the gaps between disparate interests and movements. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate