City of Toronto wants to hear your smart city ideas
By Newinhomes on Jan 11, 2018
The City of Toronto, in partnership with the Toronto Public Library, is gathering ideas from the public for the federal Smart Cities Challenge.
The government of Canada’s Smart City Challenge launched late last year and will be accepting applications until April 24, 2018.
The goal of the Challenge is to encourage municipalities, local government, and Indigenous communities to come up with a proposal for how data and smart technology can improve life for residents.
“The City has done a lot of work to leverage data and technology to help improve the quality of life in Toronto,” says Mayor John Tory. “The Smart Cities Challenge provides us with an incredible opportunity to help make Toronto a smarter city. We want the public to share their ideas for how we can solve big challenges and improve Toronto for everyone.”
There is a grand prize of up to $50 million to support the planning and development of the project. There are also two prizes of up to $10 million and one prize of up to $5 million. The City of Toronto is striving to receive any one of these!
There is a short survey you can take here to help give the City some ideas. Hard copies of the survey are also available at Toronto Public Library branches. If you want to submit a more detailed proposal, you have that option too! All submissions to the City are due February 2nd, so they have time to put together their application.
“Smart city initiatives can improve all aspects of livability and opportunity in a city,” says Michael Kolm, the City’s Chief Transformation Officer. “We’re committed to improving public services – now and in the future – and the Smart Cities Challenge will help to inspire new smart approaches to make a difference in Toronto.”
The finalists will be announced this summer and the winners will be unveiled in spring 2019.
Toronto has many smart city initiatives in the works including a recent partnership with Waze to track traffic data, the smart traffic signal pilot to keep Toronto moving, and Waterfront Toronto is working with Alphabet company, Sidewalk Labs, to build a smart neighbourhood on the city’s waterfront.
We can’t wait to see what Toronto submits for the Smart Cities Challenge!
