Saskatchewan Health Authority

• The 15-minute city is all about accessibility, time efficiency and expanding options for everyone, not just the most well-off.
• Achieving this goal, and designing healthier spaces, begins with a comprehensive understanding of how urban environments impact our health and well-being — along with a realistic look at the current barriers to healthier urban design.

Designing better spaces

• Neighbourhoods with accessible public and community spaces and social events have been shown to improve mental health, increase happiness, and offer a sense of belonging and community.
• At the same time, readily accessible grocery stores, community gardens and farmers’ markets have been shown to enhance mental, social and physical health.
• This is where urban planning comes in as municipal policy-makers develop and implement policies, which can alter the structure, use and regulations of public spaces in cities.

Day-to-day challenges

• While the importance of physical and mental health was widely acknowledged, a glaring gap exists in the recognition of the social dimension of health.
• Administrative roadblocks, such as a lack of co-ordination between, and within, provincial and municipal governments, can prevent access to crucial data needed for policy making.
• Meanwhile, technical barriers — including the use of jargon and overly-technical language by the academic community — can interfere with the accessibility of academic literature.

• This lack of co-ordination among different branches and divisions within a municipality can result in missed opportunities for collaboration.
• Differences in the use of terminology can exacerbate the problem, causing confusion and impeding cross-sectoral work.
• Conflicts between the objectives of various divisions, such as those between active transportation planners and traffic engineers, underscore the challenges posed by siloed governance.
• 4 – Political ideologies get in the way Beyond bureaucratic challenges, differing political ideologies present a formidable barrier.

Overcoming these barriers

• The journey towards creating healthier and more equitable cities is riddled with challenges.
• From a lack of shared understanding, to inaccessible evidence, fragmented governance and legal limitations of municipalities and differing political ideologies, the barriers are multifaceted.

• Akram Mahani holds funding from SHRF (Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation) and CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research).
• Nazeem Muhajarine receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.