This is the second part of our year-end look-ahead for Canada's local governments. We start with remembering that the economy (in all of its robust and problematic elements) remains the #1 issue for municipalities, as we identified yesterday. Today we explore several other important challenges that lie ahead for our Mayors, Councillors, senior administration and municipal staff:

• Climate Change is still going to be one of the biggest problems facing both urban and rural communities. If Canada is to have any success in reaching, or even coming near to achieving our stated international commitments in reducing green house gases, much of the battle will occur on the streets of our cities and the farms in rural areas. From how we design buildings to zone neighbourhoods to planting trees in urban settings to using electric buses and so much more, cities and towns have immense responsibilities in the climate change battle.
  
  One major Canadian builder has two succinct pieces of advice for homeowners wanting to make the climate better—buy a heat pump and improve your windows. Cities and the private sector must work together.
   
• Housing/Affordable Housing remains a huge challenge—and opportunity—for our cities. The negative social implications of homelessness have been well documented. The difficulty of young families trying to buy their first home—especially in metro markets—is also clearly understood. The lack of rental accommodation is an issue in most cities.
  
  The risk of interest rates (and therefore mortgage rates) going up in 2022 is very real. The cost of raw materials for housing has been increasing. Local governments are going to have to navigate carefully and use whatever federal and provincial grants become available to stimulate investments in the housing market.
   
• Infrastructure remains a problem for our towns and cities. Canada's municipal infrastructure deficit remains in the tens of billions of dollars. There is certainly a growing understanding that infrastructure doesn't just mean 'pipes and pavement'—it also means hi-speed internet, broadband, affordable electricity that is reliable and eco-friendly, investments in the creative elements that make a city appealing to bright young talent, charging stations for Electric Vehicles, and so much more.
   
• COVID. Sigh. Everybody is tired of this damn thing; everybody is frustrated. However, as the Omicron variant sweeps across the globe it is obvious we are far from done. Encouraging news is how many Canadians have gotten the jab, and a growing number are triple-vaxxed. On the one hand the scientific marvels of the discovery and distribution of the vaccine has been breath-taking; on the other hand, I'd just like to hit a bar some night without a mask and have some beer and wings.
  
  There is a growing restlessness about the restrictions. The federal government's abject failure on travel quarantines and how returning travellers were handled is an embarrassment, as Canada's Auditor-General revealed last week. However, cities and towns will once again have to fight this fight in their own communities and with their local Medical Officers of Health. And at the same time, local governments must try to keep the community's spirits high.
   
• Financing Municipalities. We have to get municipalities off of their dependence on the property tax and transition them to get a share of consumption taxes like Sales and Income. Senior governments in Canada MUST recognize this fundamental need so that municipalities can prosper in the future.
   

Municipal elected officials and the entire administration of our towns and cities should be immensely proud of what they have accomplished in the past two years, under stunningly difficult circumstances. Surely the COVID end is in sight—we're just not sure what day, and whether it will be reduced to an annoyance like an annual flu shot.

In the meantime, this Christmas season is a well-deserved break for municipal leaders and staff. Enjoy it. And have a very Happy New Year and a great 2022.