BRAMPTON, ON – With a focus on boldness and innovation, the City of Brampton is set to enter the Government of Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge.

Open to all Canadian municipalities, local or regional governments and Indigenous communities (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis), the Smart Cities Challenge is a competition that encourages communities to adopt a smart cities approach to improve the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology.

Finalists will receive support to develop their Smart Cities proposals. Winning communities will be awarded prize money based on population size to help implement them. If selected the winner, Brampton could be eligible for up to $50 million.

A smart cities approach means achieving meaningful outcomes for residents through the use of data and connected technology. The City of Brampton actively follows this approach while working to build a future ready city, with a continued focus on thinking big to fuel the community’s vibrancy.  Some current smart cities initiatives include:

• The Brampton GeoHub, an award-winning open data platform and collaborative technology that makes it easier for people to access public information. The GeoHub features initiative-driven tools that help increase transparency and foster innovation.
• By-law Enforcement mobile inspections, enabling quicker response times for Enforcement officers. Enforcement officers have an app linked with their service request application, which allows them to update service requests with notes and photographs from their smartphones while in the field. This allows for more inspections per day.
• Computer-Aided Dispatching (CAD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems on Brampton Transit buses. This real-time technology provides customers with a reliable, informative and convenient public transit system with real-time next bus information available online and by email, text and phone. Transit Signal Priority technology is also equipped on buses, which allows a bus to lengthen a green signal or shorten a red signal at certain intersections, resulting in enhanced schedule reliability.   

Integral to winning the Smart Cities Challenge is understanding residents’ current issues through public engagement. This past fall, the City undertook an unprecedented public engagement program, engaging over 11,000 residents and achieving 420,000 corporate impressions through social media. This fulsome public engagement program is also complemented by the 2016 Youth Engagement Survey, 2017 Citizen Engagement Survey and other recent demographic statistics. The outputs from these data sources will be built upon in partnership with the community to develop a challenge statement.

In developing its Smart Cities Challenge proposal, the City will continue to actively engage residents to determine how best we can make an impact on the people who call Brampton home. Stay tuned for opportunities to get involved.

Challenge submissions are due April 24, 2018. An independent Jury will select finalists by Summer 2018. Finalists will receive a $250,000 grant to develop their final proposal, which is to be submitted Winter 2018-19. Winners will be announced Spring 2019.

Quotes:
​“This competition, like the Amazon H2Q bid, is another exciting opportunity for our city to become a leader in innovation and excellence. Over the last year, we have undertaken unprecedented public engagement—this has helped us better understand and improve the lives of our residents.”
- Mayor Linda Jeffrey
 

“The City of Brampton is thinking bigger. We are committed to innovation, inclusivity and boldness in all that we do. Staff welcome the opportunity to demonstrate this by taking part in the Smart Cities Challenge, and look forward to continuing to build upon the extensive community engagement efforts we have undertaken over the last year to improve the lives of residents through the use of data and connected technology.”
- Harry Schlange, Chief Administrative Officer

​Brampton is thinking bigger. We are a future ready organization with a sharp focus. We know our community’s growth, youth and diversity set us apart. We sit at the centre of Canada’s innovation super corridor, encouraging investment and growing our global success. We are building vibrant urban centres that ignite opportunity and instill pride in the people who live and work here. We are moving Brampton forward to be a connected city that is innovative, inclusive and bold. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Learn more at www.brampton.ca.