Team
Ray Tomalty is Principal of Smart Cities Research Services and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Urban Planning at McGill University. He specializes in research on smart growth and urban sustainability, including related topics such as intensification, innovative approaches to development, regional planning, affordable housing, sustainable transportation, growth management, fiscal tools to promote community sustainability, and indicators as a means of measuring community sustainability.
Dr. Tomalty is currently leading a project (with Don Alexander) on "Smart Growth in Canada," a survey of achievements "on the ground" in six metropolitan regions. Drs. Tomalty and Alexander also collaborated on two Sprawl Reports for Smart Growth BC and are currently working (with Mark Anielski) on an Ontario Sprawl Report for the Pembina Institute.
Dr. Tomalty recently completed two studies on intensification for CMHC. The first involved 12 detailed case studies of intensification policies in cities across Canada, while the second (with Alexandra Jozsa) included 10 case studies on greyfield and other commercial redevelopment projects involving housing in small and medium size cities in Ontario. This built upon the earlier work he had done (with Engin Isin) on residential intensification in Canada, a survey of 1000 municipal officials across the country. Dr. Tomalty has also done extensive research on the use of development charges and property taxation to promote intensification.
His work on affordable housing included a study for CMHC on planning tools that could be used to promote the private production of lower-cost housing. Such tools include density bonusing, inclusionary zoning and performance measures. He later wrote (with Anna Hercz and Christine Warne) a guide for municipalities interested in developing an affordable housing strategy. Other work on affordable housing includes his research for the City of Ottawa on ways it could meet its aggressive affordable housing objectives, and for the Regional Municipality of Halifax, in the context of its new regional plan.
Much of Dr. Tomalty's work over the last few years has focused on the use of indicators to monitor progress towards community sustainability. He recently completed a contract (with David Bruce and Lynn Morrow) for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on the potential for implementing a national system of community reporting based on sustainability indicators. This followed a series of three reports to CMHC (with Alexandra Jozsa) on the use of indicators to assess sustainability in Canada's largest metropolitan regions. In 2001, he worked with Steven Peck of the Cardinal Group to create a report on the use of indicators and targets in sustainability initiatives at the local level.
Another theme of his research has been the federal role in helping communities in Canada move towards sustainability. In 2002, he was a co-researcher (in association with Peck & Associates) on a study that explored the barriers to sustainable real estate development and proposed measures that the federal government could undertake to help stimulate innovative forms of development in the Canadian real estate industry. One of the proposed measures was a performance evaluation system that could be used by municipalities to assess development proposals. He is currently following up on this recommendation by working with CMHC to develop a national system for evaluating subdivision proposals from sustainability and livability perspectives. He is also working with the Ontario Smart Growth Network to explore the feasibility of setting up a neighbourhood certification system for communities in Ontario.
Dr. Tomalty has managed a number of research projects for CMHC, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Cities of Halifax and Ottawa and other agencies. He has an extensive network of contacts throughout the planning and development communities across Canada.
He has a Masters of Public Administration from Queen's University and a Ph.D. in Regional Planning and Resource Management from the University of Waterloo.
Don Alexander is a professor in the Geography Department of Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, BC, where he teaches courses on urban growth management, urban land assessment, and world regional geography. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. He holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Waterloo, and a Master's degree in Canadian Heritage and Development Studies from Trent University.
For the past fifteen years, he has been involved in research and activism on urban sustainability, smart growth, place-making, and urban heritage interpretation. Highlights have included serving as the lead author and project manager for the BC Sprawl Report 2001 and the BC Sprawl Report 2004, being president of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada from May 2000 to May 2001, and working on a book, still in process, entitled Place: Repairing the Fabric of Human Experience.
For well over a decade, Steven Peck has conducted public policy research on a variety of environment and economy issues. He is an expert on environmental technology transfer and public policy. In 1995, he wrote "Ecological Cities: Canada's Overview" a review of the status of sustainable community development for the OECD's Urban Affairs Group. In 1996, he established the Cardinal Group Inc., a consulting firm that provides services focused on processes, policies and programs that result in sustainable businesses and urban development. Mr. Peck co-authored with Ray Tomalty a 1999 CMHC sponsored report entitled: "Implementing Sustainable Community Development: Charting a Federal Role for the 21st Century". This report explores barriers to sustainable practices and recommends approaches to overcome them. He was the primary author of the seminal work on green roofs entitled "Greenbacks from Green Roofs: Forging a New Industry in Canada," published by CMHC in 1999. In 2001, he co-authored another CMHC report entitled, "From Theory to Practice: Lessons Learned from the Use of Performance Assessment Measures for Sustainable Communities," with Ray Tomalty.
In addition to his policy research, Mr. Peck is the founder and Executive Director of a private sector consortium call "Green Roofs for Healthy Cities". This group recently organizing a workshop to conduct research to determine the public and private performance of green roof systems in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Mr. Peck also sits on the Board of the Economic Developers Council of Ontario, an association of local economic development professionals where he leads the Professional Development Committee.
Mr. Peck is also the founder of the Canadian Eco-Industrial Network, a group of businesses and community leaders working to implement sustainable economic development practices through collective resource management projects across Canada.
Geoff Noxon is an Ottawa-based urban transportation expert with two decades of experience in both private and public sectors. Noxon Associates Limited, his consulting firm, develops effective sustainable transportation plans, policies and programs for municipalities, federal departments and national organizations. Geoff is known for his pioneering work in the field of transportation demand management (TDM) and his contributions to improved practice in active transportation, public transit and multimodal planning. Over the last decade, he has developed many widely used sustainable transportation resources for Transport Canada, FCM, CUTA and ACT Canada.
Geoff is a Professional Engineer with a Master’s degree in transportation engineering from Queen’s University. He is a member of TAC’s Urban Transportation Council and Sustainable Transportation Standing Committee, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers.