'Creating a framework for comparison of municipal finance within complex systems of local governance in Canada and England

Internationally, municipal government is struggling to finance local public services and place making objectives. This can be due to the impacts of funding reductions, downloading of responsibilities to the local level, inflation, or structural changes in society - such as age-related dependency. Analyses of these situations typically focus on a single technical element of the finance system, such as nature of local taxation, rather than a wider connected system approach to municipal finance and associated governance. For example, considerations of municipal government take place without consideration of its relationship with regional or central government, or municipal autonomy without consideration of equalisation between relative location. The objective of this project is to synthesise existing knowledge concerning municipal finance systems in England and Canada and centre this in complex adaptive system (CAS) thinking, to improve understanding of the connected complexity of municipal finance, to aid comparison of municipal finance within these broader systems of governance and, indeed, other international jurisdictions.
The project has three main components or objectives: 1) We will synthesise existing academic and grey literature on municipal finance and governance in Canada and England, so we can begin to piece together the complex relationship between finance and governance structure. 2) We will synthesise existing studies of governance that utilize complex adaptive systems as their primary framework to develop a framework for mapping municipal finance with larger governance systems. And 3) We will use this framework to create preliminary profiles of the governance systems in England, Canada, and each of its ten provinces. These profiles will facilitate future comparative research and inform policymakers and the public on the place of municipal finance within broader systems of governance.
By addressing these objectives, we intend to contribute to multi-disciplinary scholarly conversations around resilient municipal finance strategies, inter-territorial equity, multi-scalar governance coordination, the provision and payment of public services and appropriate methodological perspectives for understanding these practical conundrums. The original blending of the complex adaptive system approach with studies into municipal finance offers a conciliarity position that resolves the regular tension between scales and forms of government through presenting a standpoint that considers all municipalities, provinces, territories and federal or state governments as a connected whole. In addition, using complex adaptive system thinking to link literature and reveal gaps in knowledge is a novel contribution to the review and analysis of literature.
Beyond the potential contribution to academia, the jurisdictional profiles and new research framework should be of interest to a wide audience including government professionals at municipal, provincial, territorial and federal/national government levels in each country, elected officials across the same scales of governance, local citizens, businesses who contribute tax-based revenue, and professional organisations associated with public accountancy and audit. To mobilise and share our findings, we have partnered with the Local Government Information Unit (the largest municipal membership organisation in England) and the Institute of Urban Studies, (established in 1969, the IUS is Canada's oldest research institute focusing on municipal and urban governance). These organisations will help broker and catalyse our research dissemination, ensuring that our findings reach the public, practitioners, and academic communities.