As councillors and school board trustees strive to create environmentally and socially sustainable communities, the robustness of local democracies is being threated from several
angles.

This handbook contains information on some of the most urgent challenges being faced in 2007. Such challenges include:

• the Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA);
• shifts in the authority and powers of school boards; to
• the pressure to engage in public-private partnerships;
• consistent under-funding of school boards and public education.

Written by researchers and experts, these articles detail disturbing trends in British Columbia that slowly chip away at the power of local governments.

The Columbia Institute Centre for Civic Governance presents the first volume in a thoughtful series on emerging governance issues for councils and school boards.

To order a copy of this publication, click here [1] to download the order form or email publications@columbiainstitute.ca [2] for more information.