As communities across Canada work to become stronger and more connected with each other, leaders are implementing bold ideas that meet the moment. This is nation-building at the local level, and the School of Cities and Canadian Urban Institute want to hear about what’s working in your community. In 2025, our Local Solutions competition received over 120 inspiring made-in-community ideas from across Canada that had the potential to scale. This year, with support from RBC, we will put $10,000 toward Canada’s best place-building solutions: ideas that are already working to boost Canada’s competitiveness and quality of life.
Projects can address any aspect of your community, including:
Improving critical infrastructure and access to essential services
Incentivizing sustainable and inclusive growth
Making it easier for people and goods to move around your region
Prioritizing Canadian-made products, services, and supply chains
Fostering regional collaboration and building community partnerships
Training and equipping skilled workers
We welcome submissions by and about communities large and small, and from individuals or teams of planners, community organizers, policy thinkers, small business champions, data providers, urbanists, public servants, artists, activists and more. Solutions should be locally rooted and already showing success.
Tell us about what you’re doing by completing this short form by June 15, 2026. We’ll read every submission and profile the finalists as place-building success stories on our website and at Canada’s preeminent urban event, the Canadian Urban Institute’s State of Canada’s Cities Summit, held in Ottawa in the fall. The winning solutions will be eligible to receive a portion of the $10,000 grant made possible with support from RBC, invited to share their solutions in a national webinar, and awarded a place in one of the School of Cities’ collaborative professional development programs.
