Healthier cities and towns : some "best practices" for Canadian municipalities

Abstract

The Healthy Cities project is a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative through which municipal governments and citizens can collaborate to devise and implement strategies for improving quality of life. In Canada, a project known as the "Canadian Healthy Communities Project" has similar objectives; it has been used to strengthen the economic and social wellbeing of many municipalities in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Cities and towns of other jurisdictions have had variable success. This work is intended as a resource for non-Quebec Canadian municipal governments that have not established Healthy Cities projects as such, but which may want to develop initiatives based on principles consistent with WHO's Healthy Cities. It is a "companion" to L'Obsession du citoyen, vade mecum pour villes et villages ou if fait bon vivre, written by Roger Lachance and Martine Morisset and published in 1995 by the Reseau quebecois de villes et villages en sante. That guide also is a resource, specifically for municipalities within Quebec which do not have Villes et villages en sante (Healthy Cities) projects, but which may want to develop initiatives based on the principles central to the movement. The Lachance and Morisset book is a rich source of ideas: The authors identify sound management philosophies and practices of municipal government; they describe some initiatives which relate directly to the healthy cities concept and others which relate indirectly, which save money or in other ways free the administration to realize "healthy city like" initiatives within their municipalities.