By Charles Lefebvre

Federal government announces Smart Cities Challenge

Nov 23, 2017 | 1:55 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Federal Government has officially launched a program aimed at encouraging innovation in cities, though the Mayor of Medicine Hat says it’s too early to say if Medicine Hat will sign up for it.

Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi officially announcing the Smart Cities Challenge Thursday afternoon at the NAIT Campus in Calgary. The challenge will give communities across Canada the ability to apply for an opportunity to potentially receive millions of dollars for their communities.

“This challenge—the first of its kind in Canada—will encourage communities to innovate and take risks to improve people’s lives,” said Sohi in a news release. “Across the country, communities large and small are bursting with new ideas. The Smart Cities Challenge will help bring them to life, and find solutions that achieve real and positive outcomes for Canada’s middle class.”

The government says the winning proposals must be easy to replicate in other communities, must incorporate data and technology, and must establish measurable and achievable outcomes. Some ideas suggested on the challenge application guide includes creating an mobile app that provides information about space in shelters or creating an after-school program for at-risk youth that teaches them computer coding.

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Cities of all sizes are available to apply for the challenge. One prize of up to $50 million is available for all cities, regardless of size, while two prizes of up to $10 million is available for cities with populations under 500,000 people. A prize of up to $5 million is available for communities of 30,000 people and below.

All finalists will receive $250,000 to help develop their final proposal.

Mayor Ted Clugston is in Calgary for the Alberta Urban Municipalities Conference, and says the city will need to look into the challenge in further detail before deciding to proceed further.

He adds the city has had a spirit of innovations for the past several years, including natural gas buses, HATSmart and the Solar Thermal power plant.

“We’ve been fortunate because we own our own utilities, we’ve been able to do some of these things,” he said.

Clugston adds the money available would greatly benefit any city, including Medicine Hat.

“It’s a game changer,” he said. “That amount of money is material, and you can do things with it.”

The deadline for proposals is April 24, 2018. Finalists will be announced in Spring 2019, with the final winners being announced Summer 2019. All entries will be examined by an independent jury.

More information about the challenge can be found here.