A Creative City Planning Framework for the City of Toronto (2008)
This project formed a central pillar of Agenda for Prosperity: Prospectus for a Great City, Toronto’s landmark economic development strategy, which advanced a vision of wealth creation rooted in the city’s cultural heritage and driven by culture-led creative economies. At a time when urban theorist Richard Florida was shaping global discourse through his concept of the “4Ts” of successful cities (Talent, Technology, Tolerance, and Territory) Toronto was uniquely well positioned to respond. The city’s strategy combined strong social infrastructure with a deep bench of higher education institutions, safe and vibrant neighborhoods, and an exceptional concentration of creative and cultural industries.
A key contribution to this broader agenda was the report A Bigger Tool Kit for Creativity, which articulated an integrated approach to linking creative economies with taxation and urban planning systems. Its guiding principle—“building the tax base, not the tax burden”—framed culture not as a cost centre but as a generator of long-term economic and social value. Central to this approach was the comprehensive mapping of Toronto’s cultural assets and resources, which in turn informed a new model of municipal cultural planning. This model embedded culture within planning systems and aligned it with wider social and economic development agendas, strengthening the city’s capacity for creativity and innovation.
The report was co-authored with Glen Murray, a leading Canadian urbanist and former mayor of Winnipeg, whose work has been instrumental in advancing progressive approaches to city-building. Together, this initiative helped position Toronto as a global leader in integrating cultural planning into economic development strategy.
