Including culture in sustainability: an assessment of Canada’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plans

Abstract

In Canada, a federally legislated requirement to develop Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSPs) based on a four-pillar model of sustainability provides a good example of a procedural and substantive policy effort to encourage local governments to integrate all pillars of sustainability into their long-term planning. It also provides an opportunity to explore the conceptual and governance challenges that cities and communities face in implementing this four-pillar framework for long-term community planning. Focusing on the linguistic framing of the cultural dimension of this sustainability framework, this paper explores the conceptual relationships between culture, nature and development, as well the governance issues they pose. Then, it assesses the pragmatic integration of culture in ICSP guides and in actual ICSPs developed by cities and communities across Canada. It concludes with an overall analysis of the current status of these efforts and the key conceptual and governance challenges that are evident.