Unicity: The Transition

Book: 225 pp., ill.; digital fileThis paper reviews the first two years of the Unicity system, examining the implementation of the system and its preliminary impact and effectiveness in Greater Winnipeg. More broadly, it looks at the effectiveness of institutional reform as a tool for change, and a catalyst for increased citizen participation in local government. A significant portion of this report is a performance overview of various components of local government under the new Unicity structure: council, administration, community committees, and resident advisory groups. It looks at how the new government handled emergent planning issues in Winnipeg, particularly major downtown developments, and how the new council voted on policy issues. It compares planning and policy-making of the Unicity years to those of the Metro government era (1960-71). Finally, it provides analysis and recommendations. The paper argues that Unicity introduced a number of improvements and innovations, but the change did not adequately address the basic problems of urban governance in Winnipeg, particularly a lack of citizen engagement, and a lack of cogent, long-term approach to neighbourhood and social planning. The report found that reorganizing the regional system of governance was a worthwhile endeavor, but that this does not necessarily lead to better regional governing practices. Moreover, the impact of Unicity is secondary to the impacts federal and provincial government on the Greater Winnipeg region. It concludes by saying that further political and administrative reforms are necessary to have citizens be more engaged, and for local government to be more responsive to the community

Urban forum project : a report on community communications in six Canadian urban centres

Report: 66 p., digital fileThe urban environment has technology, talent, resources, interested and involved citizens and policy-makers. It does not however have much citizen involvement in public policy-making nor does it have much two-way communication between the different sectors of the environment. In order for people and governments to survive in an ever increasingly complex environment, two-way communication on vital matters becomes a necessity. To effect such a two-way system requires little more than the conscious decision to use the existing technology to serve the public interest by expanding the flows of information and giving citizens access to the media. The need for this type of system has become obvious to people all across Canada, and all across Canada people have been attempting to create their own little public communication systems. The following reports are sketches of the type of attempts being made in urban centers across Canada and the directions that they are going in, and include recommendations as to how an urban forum system, involving two-way communication between people and various levels of government might be instituted

CO and trans-cinnamaldehyde as corrosion inhibitors of I825, L80-13Cr and N80 alloys in concentrated HCl solutions at high pressure and temperature

Peer reviewedPostprin

Meeting the problems and needs of resident advisory groups

ii, 74 l. 28 cm

A public communication system

Report: 55, [6] p., digital fileA study of the use of the new communications technology by government to enhance citizen participation and increase program effectiveness.Government of Ontario, Committee on Government Productivity; Institute of Urban Studie

Local government reform

32 leave

Choice of randomisation time-point in non-inferiority studies of reduced treatment duration: experience from the SCOT study

No abstract available

Prognostic Indicators and Outcome Measures for Surgical Removal of Symptomatic Nonadvanced Cataract

This article is made available in accordance with the publisher's public repositories policy.Objectives To report changes in perceived visual functioning after surgery for symptomatic cataract with preoperative corrected distance visual acuity [CDVA] of 0.4 logMAR or better (Snellen equivalent, 20/50) and to investigate the relationship between any observed changes and preoperative physical characteristics and psychophysical consequences of the lens opacity and any changes in psychophysical findings after the procedure. Methods Eighty-five patients with cataract completed a validated questionnaire concerning functional vision satisfaction and a series of visual performance assessments before and 2 months after cataract surgery. The lens optical density and Lens Opacities Classification System III score of the cataract were recorded. Correlations between changes in the Rasch-analyzed questionnaire score and changes in visual performance after cataract surgery, as well as preoperative psychophysical measures, lens optical density, and Lens Opacities Classification System III score, were determined. Results The mean (SD) questionnaire score improved from 2.15 (0.36) to 1.54 (0.41) (P > .05 for both). Conclusion Psychophysical tests alternative to CDVA better represent improvements in self-reported visual functioning following removal of symptomatic nonadvanced cataract