Backgrounder : Smart Cities Challenge improving the lives of Canadians through innovation, data, and technology
Backgrounder
In November 2017, the Government of Canada challenged communities across the country to develop bold and ambitious ideas to improve the lives of their residents using data and connected technology.
Over 200 communities, large and small, from across Canada submitted their innovative ideas to the Smart Cities Challenge. An independent panel of 13 jury members evaluated these submissions based on the criteria set out in the Applicant Guide.
Twenty finalists have been selected to go on to the next step of the Challenge.
Each finalist community will receive a $250,000 grant to help develop its final proposal that outline all design, planning, privacy, data protection and project management components of their plans. The grant can be used for activities such as staffing, professional services, feasibility assessments, capacity building, pilot projects, community engagement and communications, data, and relevant training.
The Challenge Statements
As part of its application, each community was asked to engage with its residents to come up with a Challenge Statement that defines the outcomes it aims to achieve through its smart cities proposal.
Below are the Challenge Statements submitted by each finalist.
In the prize category of up to $5 million, open to all communities with populations under 30,000 people:
| Finalist | Challenge Statement |
Contact Information |
|---|---|---|
Biigtigong Nishnaabeg First Nation, Ontario |
By means of active, cross-generational, technology-empowered, real-world participation in the intergenerational transfer of traditional Nishnaabe knowledge through the medium of our language, and the bilingual delivery of modern K-12 STEM knowledge, our community will transform our youth into better-educated, more employable, better-grounded, and more holistically Nishnaabe people. |
Duncan Michano |
Bridgewater, Nova Scotia |
Our community will lift 20% of its residents out of energy poverty by 2028. |
David Mitchell Leon de Vreede |
Cree Nation of Eastmain, Quebec |
Improving community well-being. Our community will develop an affordable Net Zero Energy Housing Program, offering culturally appropriate designs, using smart technologies, innovative building techniques and alternative energy systems in order to address the housing shortage crisis, the poor-quality and costly construction of houses in Eastmain and Indigenous communities across Canada. |
Daniel Mark-Stewart Stanley Gilpin |
Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Quebec |
Decrease the rate of new cases of diabetes per year in Akwesasne to the Canadian average (0.5%; 5.9/1,000) by improving community wellness using traditional approaches encompassing holistic Indigenous practices, improved access to community services and health diagnostics. |
Ashley Tarbell |
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |
Yellowknife will experience a rise in our community’s social and environmental well-being by transforming the simple lamppost into a beacon for sustainability. |
Richard McIntosh |
In the prize category of up to $10 million, open to all communities with populations under 500,000 people (2 prizes available):
| Finalist | Challenge Statement |
Contact Information |
|---|---|---|
Airdrie and Area, Alberta |
Become Canada’s healthiest community, by engaging and securing the participation of all in the community to create a community healthy culture that improves social, economic, physical and health care environments and individual characteristics and behaviours, so that healthy life expectancy is increased by 3+ years over 5 years. |
Jill Iverson |
Communities of Nunavut, Nunavut |
Our communities will implement protective and preventative measures to reduce the risk of suicide in Nunavut, which is ten times the national average, and increase the amount and accessibility of peer support networks, educational resources and creative outlets that promote positive Mental Health to all Nunavummiut. |
Madeleine Redfern Brian Fleming |
Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec |
Our city will provide socially isolated seniors with confidence they can live more autonomously, secure in the knowledge that the city is looking out for their well-being. |
Darryl Levine |
Saint Mary's First Nation and Fredericton, New-Brunswick |
My city does not recognize me or connect me to what matters most; Fredericton will collaborate with First Nations to create an accessible, welcoming, supportive city for youth, newcomers, and an aging population, empowering everyone with a Personalized Inclusion Plan that connects people to create an exceptional quality of life. |
Wayne Knorr |
Greater Victoria, British Columbia |
Freedom to move. We will collaboratively create a multimodal transportation network that is convenient, green and affordable, which will boost South Islanders’ mobility wellbeing score by at least 20%. |
Emilie de Rosenroll |
Guelph and Wellington County, Ontario |
Guelph/Wellington will become Canada’s first technology-enabled Circular Food Economy, reimagining an inclusive food-secure ecosystem that increases access to affordable, nutritious food by 50%, where “waste” becomes a resource, 50 new circular businesses and collaborations are created, and circular economic revenues are increased by 50%: 50x50x50 by 2025. |
Cathy Kennedy |
Parkland, Brazeau, Lac Ste Anne and Yellowhead Counties, Alberta |
Our agricultural community will revitalize and grow through the connection of people to the land and food while attracting citizens to share in its prosperous, innovative and resilient way of life. |
Sara Mate |
Richmond, British Columbia |
Richmond, an island city with a rapidly growing and diverse population and home of nationally significant infrastructure and government services, requires resilient physical and virtual platforms that are integrated seamlessly across all levels of government to enhance quality of life in day-to-day activities and minimize community impacts from major disasters. |
Ted Townsend |
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan |
To be the city that breaks the cycle of Indigenous youth incarceration by creating a new cycle focused on building purpose, belonging, security and identity. |
Michelle Beveridge |
The Pas, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and Kelsey, Manitoba |
Our community will utilize LED Smart Farm technology to support local nutritious food growth and promote food security, create a smart phone distribution system and integrate wearable technology to achieve a 40% reduction in the number of imported vegetables and a 20% reduction in community diabetes rates by 2023. |
Stephanie Cook |
In the prize category of up to $50 million, open to all communities, regardless of population:
| Finalist | Challenge Statement |
Contact Information |
|---|---|---|
Edmonton, Alberta |
Edmonton will lead the transformation of Canadian healthcare using an unprecedented municipal approach by focusing on leveraging relationships, health data and innovative technologies to provide a personalized health connection and experience as unique as the health of every Edmontonian. |
Sean Clovechok |
Montreal, Quebec |
The Montreal community is shaping an efficient and dynamic neighbourhood life by innovating mobility and access to food. Through a co-creation and citizen participation process, the accessibility of services and the well-being of Montrealers are increasing significantly. |
Youssef Amane |
Quebec City, Quebec |
The social inequalities in health: Understanding and engaging differently. |
David O’Brien |
Region of Waterloo, Ontario |
We will become the benchmark community in Canada for child and youth wellbeing by using early intervention, youth engagement and a connected-community framework to create adaptive, data-driven programs and scalable learning technologies that improve early child development, mental health and high school graduation rates. |
Bryan Stortz |
Vancouver and Surrey, British Columbia |
Vancouver and Surrey will implement Canada’s first two collision-free multi-modal transportation corridors, leveraging autonomous vehicles and smart technologies to demonstrate the path to safer, healthier and more socially connected communities while reducing emissions, improving transportation efficiency and enhancing livability in the face of rapid growth and traffic congestion. #SmarterTogether |
Corporate Communications Sean Simpson |
Winners will be announced in spring 2019.
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