City’s Smart Cities Challenge survey seeks public input on how it can use technology and data to improve the city

February 15, 2018 - Hamilton, ON – The City of Hamilton has launched a short Smart Cities Challenge survey to gather innovative ideas from residents on how it could use technology and data to improve our city and make the lives of residents better.

Infrastructure Canada launched a $50 million Smart Cities Challenge program and the City is participating. The Smart Cities Challenge is a pan-Canadian competition open to communities of all sizes, including municipalities, regional governments and Indigenous communities (First Nations, Métis and Inuit). It encourages communities to adopt a smart cities approach to improving the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology. The ideas submitted via the survey will inform the City’s proposal to the federal government. Ultimately the City wants to know, if it had $50 million, where does the community think it should focus its efforts from a smart city perspective.

Municipal governments around the world are focusing on using technology to improve quality of life for residents, enable sustainability, better deliver services and improve effectiveness. ‎Some of the ways they are doing this include enabling more online services and direct two-way communication between the community and their government, and using technology to improve the services themselves, such as using sensors to monitor performance real-time and using the data to make decisions.

The City is also working with partners including McMaster University, Mohawk College, Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare, and the Chamber of Commerce, on the Challenge.

The survey opens today and runs until Friday, March 9, 2018.