Calgary, AB,
20
March
2018
|
12:10
America/Denver

City of Calgary seeking input on Calgary’s Smart Cities Challenge

As the next step in Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge, The City of Calgary is looking to the public for innovative solutions to support economic diversity and job creation while improving connectivity in affordable housing. From March 19 to April 2, citizens can share ways to use data and connected technology to address the challenge. Solutions can be shared at innovation.calgary.ca.

“In February, we asked citizens to submit challenges in our community that can be solved using innovation, data and connected technology,” said Monique Nesset, who is leading The City’s application to the Smart Cities Challenge. “The public shared thought-provoking and diverse challenges in areas such as accessibility, community and neighbourhood awareness, data sharing and infrastructure investment.”

Calgary’s Smart City community team, which includes representatives from civic partners, academia, social agencies and The City, considered the submissions along with community research and data previously gathered. Based on all the input, the team provided suggestions and the following challenge statement was developed:

After one of the worst economic downturns, Calgary will revolutionize to become Canada’s most resilient, inclusive and accessible community by increasing economic diversification to support our innovation ecosystem and partnering to integrate smart city technologies and data into affordable housing initiatives – creating more jobs and opportunities for all.

“We are encouraging citizens to read the challenge statement and submit bold, ambitious ideas that will help our Smart City team identify how we can solve this challenge,” said Nesset. “This is a wonderful opportunity to help shape Calgary as a smart, resilient and prosperous city.”

This challenge has been chosen as a priority within our community and will be the focus of Calgary’s Smart Cities Challenge submission. All submissions are due April 24, 2018.

Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge encourages municipalities to take risks and submit bold ideas for an opportunity to win up to $50 million towards solving a local issue using a smart city approach. A smart city is one that uses data and connected technology to improve services and positively impact people in the community.

To learn more about the challenge or to get involved, visit calgary.ca/smartcity.

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