This research explores dynamics around Aboriginal language learning and use in Vancouver, British Columbia. With many different First Nations and Aboriginal languages represented in the city, urban Aboriginal language revitalization is complex and challenging. Sixteen research participants talked with me about competing priorities for urban Aboriginal individuals and families, the linguistic diversity of the British Columbia First Nations, and how demographic urbanization of Aboriginal peoples intersects with movements of language revitalization. The resulting analysis highlights some emerging language ideologies connected to urban Aboriginal language use and learning. Language ideologies have been defined as “the cultural system of ideas about social and linguistic relationships, together with their loading of moral and political interests” (Irvine, cited in Kroskrity 2000:5). By identifying some commonalities in research participants’ attitudes around Aboriginal languages in the city, I argue that ‘placing language’ and ‘finding a place for language’ are critical issues for looking at Aboriginal language use and learning in Vancouver. By ‘placing language’, I mean that participants stressed the locality of Aboriginal languages, drawing important connections between land and language. Many honoured local languages by stating that their use and preservation should be top priorities in urban-specific language revitalization initiatives. They also recognized that other Native languages are represented in the city and could be fostered by collaboration with home communities, including reserve language programs. By ‘finding a place for language’, I mean taking time and making effort toward language learning and use in the fast-paced urban environment. Determining a place and a time for language in daily life or during events is crucial for language revitalization efforts in the city. This thesis specifies some suggestions for finding a place for language, highlighting different ideas shared by participants about public school language education, community centres as places for language learning, and use of local languages in service organizations and educational institutions and in the public sphere.

Urban renewal and rampant suburbanization, like in many North American cities, has led to the decline of downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. This thesis proposes a small-scale, child-oriented in?ll project as an alternate mode of development that retains historic fabric and repairs the urban ethos. A narrow, T-shaped, vacant lot in the heart of downtown provides the testing grounds for this intervention. Dynamic program combinations, and playful architectural propositions are presented as strategies to reintegrate children as active participants within the downtown area.

As auto-dependent development has forced the urban limits of the city to sprawl, it has put considerable pressure on the transportation corridors that serve the city center. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, this condition is exacerbated by the downtown being bounded by water on three sides. Thus, there are a limited number of transportation corridors onto and off of the peninsula. This thesis examines how transit stations for a proposed public transportation line, within an underused rail corridor, can actively support and engage the communities they serve. A personal rapid transit network is proposed as a mobility-on-demand public transit system within this corridor. This introduction of a new transportation strategy is seen as a paradigm shift for the way transportation is conceived of in Halifax. Thus, the typology of the station will be studied in three different social and topographic environments, to form prototypes for the potential of transit stations throughout Halifax.

Eighty percent of the Canadian population lives in urban centres, where typical land use patterns negatively impact urban ecosystems and decrease quality of life. Current municipal Community Improvement Plans target urban vacancies for intensification efforts, which can increase fragmentation and degradation of the urban ecosystem. This project examines the urban environment: its vacancies, ecological patterns and human impacts. A strategy was derived from ecological principles aiming to design more sustainable urban landscape patterns. Applied to the Two Rivers neighbourhood in Guelph, Ontario, the strategy identified 19.5 hectares of land capable of contributing to more sustainable ecological patterns of which 12.41 hectares were brownfields. Results revealed 4.3% more high-quality land cover, in 53% more patches, 45 m closer together, but with increasing edge contrast. An area-wide strategic integration of vacant lands may provide previously unconsidered opportunities to improve urban ecological patterns and create a more sustainable urban environment.

Ontario Place in Toronto has a long legacy of unfulfilled plans, conflicting interests and missed opportunities. Its evolution is punctuated by myriad socio-cultural, political and economic shifts. Landscape biography, an empirical research strategy, is used to capture the diversity, complexity and the transformational character of this landmark site through archival research and oral histories over five phases of development. With origins in cultural geography and social anthropology, landscape biography is a compelling analytic tool to study the evolutionary dynamics of landscape change. Ontario Place is closely examined within the broader context of Toronto’s post-industrial waterfront to highlight and explain contingent moments in this cultural landscape’s historical trajectory. Findings reveal that Ontario Place, like waterfront itself, is the aftermath of political indifference and short-term expediency multiplied over several years. A road-map is created to visualize long-term evolutionary cause-and-effect relationships and a framework is developed to provide guidance for future transformations of this public asset based on historically grounded research.

This research explores culture-led regeneration; specifically, how and why small, community-based culture-led regeneration projects potentially affect their respective communities. Methodology is founded on an in-depth case study of The Edge Artist Village in Winnipeg, supported by a literature review, quantitative research examining property values, and archival research. The practicum shows that The Edge Artist Village has had a tremendous impact on the community of North Main Street. While various stakeholders interpreted The Edge‘s impact in different ways, perceptions of safety in the community have improved, and long vacant buildings in the neighbourhood are finding new tenants. This study makes recommendations as to how planners can potentially play a role in encouraging culture-led regeneration projects such as The Edge Artist Village, and suggests ways in which private developers and municipal government can collaborate more effectively to support their communities.

The Sahtúgot’ı̨nę have lived in the Sahtú Region around Great Bear Lake since time immemorial. Our Elders believe that spirituality is the foundation for our language, culture and worldview and that it is essential for our language and culture to be taught in the context of spirituality. This thesis provides a description and a definition of spirituality from the perspective of the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę, distinguishing spirituality from concepts such as worldview, culture and medicine power. In keeping with our traditional ways of preserving and transmitting knowledge to future generations, the paper relies heavily on stories passed on to us from our Elders. The paper elaborates on key concepts of Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality. First, like human beings, all animals on this earth have a living spirit or bets’ı̨nę́. Other entities on this earth - plants and trees, the water and the wind - are also living beings with their own yǝ́dı́ı. Specific geographic sites with a special significance to the Sahtúgot’ı̨nę are also said to be yǝ́dı́ı. The other key concept is the existence of three dimensions of existence and their inter-relationship which is crucial to the understanding of Sahtúgot’ı̨nę spirituality. / Graduate

This research explores the effectiveness of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as a financial tool to stimulate residential and commercial development in downtown Winnipeg. Cost is a commonly cited barrier to developing downtown, resulting in deteriorating and vacant city centers. TIF can remove some of the financial barriers to development, ultimately revitalizing downtown and benefitting the community as a whole. A comprehensive literature review was used to inform unstructured interviews with urban planners, developers, and various city officials to determine how TIF could be effectively implemented to revitalize Winnipeg’s downtown. Examining precedents from Winnipeg and across North America highlight the positive and negative impacts of TIF, as well as its promotion as a tool for urban renewal. TIF is an effective method of increasing property values, and encouraging development in priority areas. Tailoring present TIF methods to local conditions can help avoid increasing property taxes, wrongful use of land expropriation, or insufficient revenue generation.

No description available.

Downtowns contribute significantly to the economy of cities and as a result, decision makers are increasingly recognizing the fundamental value and importance of maintaining viable downtown cores. Following the post-war era of urban decay and suburban expansion, there have been widespread attempts nationwide to reverse trends and to revitalize downtowns. In the Winnipeg context, urban renewal was practiced throughout the 1960s and 1970s; tripartite agreements were utilized during the 1980s; and development corporations were introduced throughout the 1980s and 1990s as a way to encourage private sector investment with targeted public sector investments. This practicum investigates the relationship between planning and development in the downtown revitalization context. In particular, this research aims to discover the extent to which a downtown development agency may have facilitated the better integration of planning and development in a city’s downtown, where revitalization has been very much on the public agenda. Winnipeg’s CentreVenture Development Corporation was used as a case study to explore this relationship. It was established in 1999 and continues to operate today. This paper attempts to determine the extent of its involvement, and the manner by which this arms-length government agency has aided and influenced tangible development in Winnipeg’s downtown. Furthermore, the case study was used to understand the nature, scope and form of related downtown revitalization, and to distill any learning about the general topic that might be applicable in other comparable settings. The practicum concludes by providing potentially transferable best practices to cities with similar characteristics and with recommendations for both CentreVenture Development Corporation and its shareholder, the City of Winnipeg.