smartcitiesapplication

City of Oshawa - Smart Cities Challenge Application Section I: Applicant information Question 1: Please provide the following information on your community.

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Name of community: City of Oshawa Province/Territory: Ontario Population: 159,458 (2016) Indigenous community: No

Question 2: Please select a prize category.

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$10 million (population under 500,000 residents)

Section II: Preliminary proposal Problem Definition Question 3: Please define your Challenge Statement in a single sentence that guides your preliminary proposal. It should describe the outcome (or outcomes) you hope to achieve.

Vulnerable residents in Oshawa’s low-income priority neighbourhoods will be empowered through a community designed digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership to acquire and use technology to access resources and services, and increase their economic and social participation and potential thereby improving the neighbourhood Wellbeing Index faster than the overall City.

Question 4: Please describe the outcome (or outcomes) your proposal seeks to achieve by elaborating on your Challenge Statement.

“My kids can’t do school homework because they have to go to the Library and hope they have will have the time, if there is a computer available” (Lakeview resident, March Workshop)

“Doing job searches when you are looking for work, you have to wait for a spot and you are limited on time as well. If you do not have access at home it limits your options and consumes time” (Lakeview resident, March Workshop) The goal of the proposed project is to enhance economic and social equality across the City, beginning with a specific vulnerable low income neighbourhood. Improving digital access in the district will enable full community engagement. Neighbourhood residents, stakeholders and the City will create a trusted digital platform that applies best-practices using artificial technology. The platform will be co-designed so as to engender trust, close the ‘digital divide’ and immediately support disadvantaged groups such as youth and aboriginals, to get the services they need to fully participate in the economy.

Objectives: To achieve this goal the project will focus on the following: •

Piloting the project in the Lakeview Neighbourhood, a vulnerable low-income area, which would serve as a scalable model and be applied to other areas of the City and Region.

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Empowering community resident and leaders to finalize the design of the project, ensure its uptake and its direct relevance to their lives.

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Increasing the digital access of residents in the Lakeview Neighbourhood by establishing a target level of digital internet services for the neighbourhood.

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Improving resident’s access to digital technologies at affordable and sustainable prices.

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Ensuring residents have the skills and digital literacy to benefit from digital technologies in their lives.

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Establishing a digital platform, driven by artificial intelligence, that puts the economic and social needs of residents first and sources the public and private services they need to improve their economic and social potential.

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Advancing the digital strategies and capabilities of the participating agencies and partners to allow them to expand their reach into the community and provide better services to the residents.

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Designing the project so that additional applications relevant to the community (education, employment, health, social inclusion, public safety) can be incorporated on an ongoing basis.

Identifying the Community Challenge

This section describes the baseline data and evidence with respect to Oshawa’s current state and how the evaluation process led to the chosen Challenge Statement and the associated desired outcomes.

Oshawa has a rich history with respect to leading economic prosperity in Canada. At the turn of the twentieth century, Colonel Sam McLaughlin transformed the family’s carriage works company into what was to become General Motors Canada. This led to decades of economic growth that made Oshawa, Ontario and Canada a manufacturing powerhouse, a centre for innovation, and a magnet for well skilled and paid workers.

The theme of economic leadership continues to this day. Today’s auto manufacturer is becoming a mobility company reliant as much on software development, sensors, data collection and processing, as it is on advances in manufacturing techniques. For example, GM Canada is positioning itself as a technology company that employs nearly the same number of engineers and software developers as it does assembly workers At the same time Oshawa has always been a caring city. While the path to prosperity is uneven, it has been tempered by personal efforts and community actions. During the Depression, Colonel Sam offered GM employees work on renovation projects rather than laying them off. He and his estate also made significant contributions to civic causes including the McLaughlin Branch of the Library, McLaughlin Planetarium, The McMichael Gallery Collection and Oshawa’s Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Shared prosperity has also been a central theme of the local labour movement.

North Oshawa is characterized by growing prosperity and the successful transformation into a knowledge/digital based economy. This is evident in the increased average education level, rising household income and high labour force participation. Oshawa has experienced a decade of significant economic advancement: •

The healthcare sector is now the City’s largest employer (16%), having grown by 45% over the decade.

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The education sector grew by 39% and is now as big as the manufacturing sector, both representing 10% of employment.

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2017 established a building permit record of $614 million, capping five years of record growth.

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Oshawa had the highest GDP growth in Canada in 2017 (4.1%) according to the Conference Board of Canada.

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The overall Oshawa CMA unemployment rate (4.5%) is at its lowest point in nearly twenty years.

However, Oshawa’s priority neighbourhoods have not fared as well. Oshawa is the largest city in Durham Region. Within the Region, seven vulnerable low income/priority neigbourhoods have been identified. Five of these priority neigbourhoods are located within Oshawa. The priority neighbourhoods, compared to North Oshawa, have: •

More individuals that have not completed high school.

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A higher percentage of the population with aboriginal ancestry, who have unique cultural, social, and health needs

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A higher proportion of vulnerable recent immigrants, such as single mothers, refugees, or those with limited English language abilities

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More vulnerable seniors who are more likely to live alone, have precarious housing, or face social isolation

The Lakeview Neighbourhood is one example and is the largest priority neighbourhood in Oshawa, with 17,800 residents. It is characterized by household incomes well below the city average, nearly double the unemployment rate, lower levels of education and higher incidents of health issues associated with a low income neighbourhood.

Lakeview Neighbourhood has the 2nd lowest ranking amongst Oshawa’s priority neighbourhoods with 55% of children not ready for school (Region=29%). Also, the child poverty rate in the Lakeview Neighbourhood is 38%, compared to 20% in Oshawa, and 13% in Durham Region.

In 2018, an Oshawa Low Income Needs Assessment Survey was conducted by a Lakeview Neighbourhood resident organization called Direct Intervention Reaching Everyone (DIRE). Low income renters in the Lakeview Neighbourhood were contacted and surveyed. Results included: •

60.6% do not feel confident that they will ever escape poverty

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81.8% do not feel that they are thriving living in the City of Oshawa

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63.6% rated their day-to-day stress level as “very stressed” or “extremely stressed”

Oshawa is on a path to see the overall prosperity across the community continue to grow. However, unless action is taken, the rapid pace of the growing digital economy and its requirements for a highly-skilled talent pool threatens to make the economic and social divides worse.

The community, stakeholders and the City have identified Social and Economic Inequality as the greatest challenge facing Oshawa and Durham Region and believe that Lakeview should be the first neighbourhood to be engaged.

The Evidence For the Smart Cities Challenge, the City of Oshawa implemented an extensive consultation process to undertake an evidence based approach to assessing the needs of the community, possible challenge areas and deciding on a priority issue. The following summarizes the approach and findings. Supporting documents can be viewed on the City’s website. The following activities were conducted: •

Commissioned the Oshawa Needs Assessment Study, which analyzed and summarized existing community focused studies conducted over the last five years

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Conducted a Community Needs Survey (online and paper surveys)

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Held a series of community stakeholder roundtables and workshops

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Commissioned an Intelligent Communities Forum Report Card

• Participated in the CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) Broadband Speed Test Study •

Registered to become ISO 37120 certified with World Council on City Data (WCCD) in 2018

The City, in partnership with the Durham Workforce Authority, commissioned the Oshawa Needs Assessment Study, which looked at over 110 existing reports that examined and analyzed Oshawa’s community needs from a number of different perspectives. All of the studies were data driven and had been completed over the last few years. The study’s methodology looked at the overlap between research reports, public policy strategies and statistical analysis, and ranked each issue with respect to its importance.

The study ranked issues into tiers of importance and identified social and economic inequality as Oshawa’s primary community issue. Issues were ranked by their frequency and impact on the community thereby establishing a hierarchy of community needs.

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Tier One: Social and Economic Inequality

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Tier Two: Population Change, Transit/Transportation, Housing Quality/Affordably, Economic Change

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Tier Three: Health & Safety, Access to Services, Community Engagement

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Tier Four: Environment, Community Planning

Through the City of Oshawa’s online public engagement tool, Connect Oshawa, we conducted a community needs survey that received one of the highest returns of all surveys done to date with 454 valid responses. The survey has a 95% confidence interval within a 5% margin of error. The City of Oshawa’s online survey webpage had 2,200 visitors.

The primary survey question asked was: “Where do you think digital technology should be used to improve livability in Oshawa?” The top three responses were: •

Transportation and Mobility

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Access to Community Services and Activities

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Public Safety and Security.

Topics with the lowest response rates were access to good job opportunities, active and healthy lifestyles, clean and healthy environment and creating cultural places and spaces.

Since December 2017, ten stakeholder roundtables were held. Over fifty stakeholders were involved including residents groups, educational institutions, social service agencies, the library, public utility and the private sector. Phase one roundtables facilitated conversation around community needs and take-aways from the research conducted. Phase two roundtables reviewed possible challenge statement topics, and concluded that economic and social inequality was the primary community issue.

Subsequent sessions identified initiatives that would have a meaningful impact on the challenge topic. Finally, two community-based workshops were facilitated by our partner Philips Lighting Canada, with the goal of defining and designing the core elements of our Smart Cities Challenge project.

In 2015, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) selected Oshawa as one of its Top 21 Smart Communities from around the world. Subsequently, the City had ICF prepare a report card that provided insight into how Oshawa ranked among the contenders, and highlighted areas of improvement. The Intelligent Community Forum’s Awards program is based on a set of intelligent community indicators. While the City scored above average in most areas, we received a low score for “digital equality.” Oshawa’s score of 59% severely lagged behind the Smart21 Communities average at 71% and the topranked Smart21 community score of 88%. ICF noted that Oshawa scored low on digital equality because our programs did not focus on the following: identifying populations of digitally excluded, improving their access to broadband technologies and motivating them to learn new skills.

In 2017-2018, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) approached Oshawa with respect to participating in a pilot project involving a limited number of Canadian municipalities. The pilot allowed residents and businesses in the community to test their

internet speed for free, using a program developed by the CIRA. The test confirmed that on average the speeds reported in the Lakeview Neighbourhood are lower than the city as a whole and well below CRTC stated broadband targets for Canadians. The Lakeview Neighbourhood is underserved, with broadband speeds ranging from as low as 6.2 mbps, which misses CRTC’s target of 50 mbps download speeds. The City’s stakeholder roundtables identified affordability as one of the major factors affecting resident’s ability to use the internet to its full potential.

The Need for a Smart Cities Approach Oshawa is focused on improving the ability of Lakeview Neighbourhood residents’ to acquire and use technology, to access resources that have the potential to assist vulnerable populations to increase their social and economic participation. One of the primary rationales for applying a Smart City approach to this vulnerable, low income neighbourhood, is to bridge the digital divide that continues to impede the economic potential of these areas and their residents. A Smart Cities approach is a viable strategy for putting the needs of local residents first and using digital tools and processes to allow them to find the resources and solutions that fit their particular situations. Achieving the City’s desired outcomes will be crucial to ensuring that low income residents do not fall further behind as the digital economy rapidly evolves.

Strategy for Measuring Outcomes The research that went into identifying Oshawa’s challenge statement will also be used to help measure the success of the initiative and refine its subsequent rollout to other low income neigbourhoods, within Oshawa, Ontario and Canada.

A primary goal of this challenge will be to address social and economic inequality in the community. Oshawa has committed to participate in the World Council on City Data (WCCD) initiative on an on-going basis. We are currently collecting data to submit for WCCD certification. This will allow us to benchmark Oshawa internationally, monitor progress against a number of measures, and ultimately improve our corporate planning processes. WCCD quality of life measures relevant to the Smart Cities Challenge include economic factors, education, housing/shelter, transportation and safety, to name a few. The City will use the WCCD process to establish an Oshawa-specific Wellbeing Index combining a number of economic and social factors. The City will also collect disaggregated neighbourhood data to enable the City to track specific neighbourhoods as well as the city at large to assess progress over time.

Two key measures that will be included in the Wellbeing Index will be household income and unemployment rates. Using Statistics Canada data, the median after tax household income in the Lakeview Neighbourhood is $44,600/year. This is 26% lower than the City median of $56,000 and 64% lower than the Region of Durham. In addition, all of Oshawa’s five priority neighbourhoods are below both the City’s and Region’s income

medians. One target of Oshawa’s Smart Cities Challenge will be to increase median after tax household income in the community to the City’s median over the next decade.

The unemployment rate in the Lakeview community was 14% compared to the City average of 11% in 2011. The City of Oshawa’s Smart Cities Challenge target will be to reduce the unemployment rates in the priority neighbourhoods to align with the city’s average over the next decade.

A number of our objectives focus on closing the digital divide in Oshawa’s low income neighbourhoods by improving access to technology and digital services. While we have some preliminary data on availability and usage in the community, the project’s implementation process will include establishing a community baseline, based on a full community survey and continuation of the CIRA internet speed and quality monitoring project. This will allow us to develop a community standard for access and monitor progress toward its achievement, with the goal of ensuring every household in the low income neighbourhoods has a base level of internet access. Related to this would be the expansion of city-provided public WiFi service, and the provision of public hotspots within high-density residential areas and buildings in high risk communities.

A key element of our project is establishing a digital platform, driven by artificial intelligence, that will allow residents to get the services they need to improve their economic and social potential. Utilization of the platform will be a key measure of success along with an increase in the number of digital services cases handled by agencies involved in the area.

Question 5: Please describe how your community residents have shaped your Challenge Statement.

Describe your plans for continuing to engage and involve them in your final proposal going forward.

The objective of Oshawa’s Smart Cities Challenge communications strategy was to reach a wide, diverse and engaged audience to create a challenge statement and project that reflects the true needs of the community and to develop an impactful solution.

The City of Oshawa was successful in capturing the true voice of the community throughout the process. The Challenge Statement was shaped through a series of effective consultation and engagement activities over a five-month period with the residents of Oshawa, community stakeholders and private sector partners. The participants used the input and local intelligence received to consider and discuss a wide range of issues, establish community priorities, develop and choose a Challenge Statement, and design the proposed project.

Community Engagement Principles The City of Oshawa’s Guiding Principles of Community Engagement were used

throughout the Smart Cities Challenge outreach. Our engagement was effective because it was: •

Respectful: all voices matter.

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Transparent: this process was open, objective, easy to understand, and accessible.

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Accountable: the communities’ role was defined, and the feedback provided was central to final decisions. We let the community know we plan to sustain community engagement through the development and implementation of the process.

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Inclusive: everyone was welcomed and encouraged to participate.

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Timely: we aimed to get the community involved as soon as possible so that residents had the opportunity to learn about initiatives, and to provide their opinions.

To maximize the voice of the community, a wide array of mediums were leveraged throughout the campaign to encourage participation, feedback and direct involvement.

For example, online/print advertising, social media, digital/in-person community engagement, promotions/contests, media relations/PR and third-party consultations were used as part of an integrated and branded campaign effort to maximize awareness and engagement of the community. Resident response rate to the Smart Cities Challenge produced the one of the highest rankings for a City community engagement exercise! How the City of Oshawa engaged a broad cross-section of residents and stakeholders with respect directing the Smart Cities application is described below.

Public Consultations, Committees and Meetings Smart Cities Stakeholder Meetings: Bi-weekly meetings were organized with major community stakeholders to form a collaborative vision and evaluate primary and secondary research on community needs. All meetings were open to the public and held in accessible facilities. Participants provided diverse views and represented a cross-section of the community. Participants included leaders from resident’s groups, the Region of Durham, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Durham College, Trent University Durham GTA, Lakeridge Health, Feed the Need, Oshawa Public Libraries, CAREA Community Health Centre, The United Way, John Howard Society, social services agencies, Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation, both school boards, Oshawa Senior Centres, and private sector partners.

A Smart Cities Open House was held at City Hall, an accessible facility, on February 1, 2018. Story boards were set-up which organized information related to the Challenge along with a formal presentation to the attending residents. Residents were encouraged to complete both online and paper surveys at the open house and participate in openended discussions around smart cities solutions.

Smart Cities Project Design Workshops: Residents in the Lakeview community, as well as community members, business owners and other stakeholders were invited to participate in the project design phase of the challenge. The workshops were held in the Lakeview community at an accessible City-owned recreation facility on March 26. To encourage resident turnout, two sessions were organized - morning and evening sessions. Both sessions were facilitated by our private sector partner, Philips Lighting.

The sessions were attended by a variety of community stakeholders and residents. The evening session attracted primarily families coming directly from the Lakeview neighbourhood. The City provided pizza/beverages and a colouring station for children.

The session provided invaluable information on what it would take to make a project succeed in their neighbourhood.

Survey - Shaping the Smart Cities Challenge Together The primary digital platform used to engage our community was Connect Oshawa, the City’s website. Connect Oshawa is an accessible, online engagement tool that improves conversations with the community. This tool allows residents such as seniors, students, etc., who were unable to attend the Smart Cities Challenge in-person meetings, with the opportunity to provide input on projects and initiatives.

One way of providing input was by completing Oshawa’s Smart Cities Challenge Survey. Information on this webpage was provided in an accessible format. By communicating and promoting the challenge, Oshawa attracted over 2,200 visitors to the Smart Cities online survey with over 450 submissions. The data collected covered a diverse age range with at least 29 representatives from each age category (18 – 24, 25 – 34, 35 – 44, 45 -54 & 65+). Paper surveys were physically accessible at City Hall, senior centres, libraries, and recreation centres. Survey respondents represented all postal code areas throughout the city. The vast majority of respondents felt the survey represented a good opportunity for community engagement while indicating strong knowledge of the challenge based on materials provided in our engagement platform.

Members of the community who participated in the Smart Cities Challenge survey were able to register for a draw for an Apple iPad. This drove further awareness and interest in the challenge.

Advertising - Online/Print Community residents were encouraged to participate in Oshawa’s Smart Cities Survey through widely circulated digital and print advertising. This advertising campaign succeeded in reaching residents throughout the city as a whole. Collectively, the Oshawa Express Newspaper, Oshawa This Week Newspaper, Retail Pages and Oshawa Chamber of Commerce print publications have a circulation of over 100,000.

All four publications were leveraged during two rounds of survey engagement. A dedicated landing page on the City’s website continues to provide current and updated information on the Smart Cities Challenge of which 34.5% of visitors to the site proceeded directly to the Connect Oshawa smart cities survey.

Social Media Social media for the Smart Cities Challenge campaign included messages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Advertisements were placed on Facebook and Twitter generating a combined reach of 21,500 users and playing a central role in directing traffic to online versions of Oshawa’s Smart Cities Survey. Over 40 standard and promoted messages across these channels garnered over 50,000 impressions.

Promotional Materials Promotional materials consisted of grassroots print and digital communications in high

traffic areas across the city to spread the news about Oshawa’s participation in the Challenge and to encourage resident input.

A combination of physical posters and digital promotions were circulated in the following: over a dozen community hubs including the Arts Resource Centre, recreation complexes, senior citizens centers, public libraries, City Hall and in apartments and businesses in the Lakeview neighbourhood. Promotions included the City’s e-newsletter recipients and Connect Oshawa subscribers totaling 1,569 in distribution.

Media Relations & Coverage Media Releases and Advisories were distributed: •

“City of Oshawa seeking community input for its Smart Cities Challenge Bid”, January 18, 2018

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“Smart Cities Challenge Open House”, January 26, 2018

Media coverage included: •

“City seeking community input for its Smart Cities Challenge Bid”, Municipal Information Network, January 19, 2018,

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“Oshawa wants your input for Smart Cities Challenge Bid”, DurhamRadioNews.com, January 22, 2018

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Riot Radio Interview (Durham College/University of Ontario Institute of Technology student radio0, January 31, 2018

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“Oshawa: a smart city?”, The Oshawa Express, 35,000 Circulation, February 7, 2018

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April 24, 2018, Oshawa the next city to Join Bell’s all-fibre broadband Network, Canada News Wire

Third Party Research & Consultation The City of Oshawa commissioned third party research with a goal of identifying the most significant issues and trends currently affecting the City of Oshawa, its residents, businesses and institutions, with a focus on those issues and trends that may be best addressed through a smart cities approach to planning and development. The outcomes of this project came in the form of a Needs Assessment Report that identified and developed five Opportunity Statements that could be taken forward to the residents to help support the further development of the City’s Challenge Statement. Part of the study included a data trends analysis, qualitative document review and community needs assessment.

Phase I of the community engagement aimed at gathering community views at the earliest stages of the project design and decision making. Phase II aimed at sustaining community engagement by seeking residents’ feedback and participation in narrowing down the challenge statement themes into more specific and actionable smart city

solutions. Going forward, the City will ensure community engagement is sustained through the development and implementation phases. Community engagement is built into the actual design of the final project and its implementation. For example, part of the project is to develop a co-design team, made up of Lakeview neighbourhood residents (youth, aboriginal, seniors, etc.), who will be financially compensated to work with the City and other stakeholders. Their mandate will be to directly engage the community to research needs, organize workshops and to ensure the digital technology needs of the community are fully expressed and included in the final design of the project. They will participate in defining the parameters, options and processes for the development of the project.

Preliminary Proposal Details Question 6: Please describe your preliminary proposal and its activities or projects.

This section describes Oshawa’s project proposal and related activities.

The City is proposing to establish a community designed Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership. The partnership would focus on improving residents’ ability in vulnerable low income neighbourhoods to acquire and use digital technology for finding and accessing services and educational resources to increase their economic and social participation and potential.

The City is building a Wellbeing Index, using World Council on City Data (WCCD) measures, Healthy Neighborhoods measures and a range of community level indicators. Better integration with the larger economy will improve the local quality of life within our priority neigbourhoods, as measured by the Index, at a rate faster than Oshawa as a whole and increase wellbeing in the priority neighbourhoods to meet provincial and national averages.

The City, stakeholders and residents participated in three project design workshops focused on identifying the project elements that would produce the greatest positive impact on the community. The factors discussed and incorporated in the project include: •

Starting in one vulnerable neighbourhood (Lakeview) as the pilot site with the intention of working with all five of Oshawa’s low-income neighbourhoods

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Increase vulnerable neighbourhood residents’ access to and use of digital technology

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Increasing the level of trust between residents and private and public service providers by empowering community residents to become champions and animators to co-design the project, ensure its uptake and direct relevance to their lives and be involved in the delivery of the project

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Establish a digital matching platform, driven by artificial intelligence, that puts the economic and social needs of residents first and then charts a path to resources that can assist them with respect to taking ownership of their own wellbeing.

The Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership, a coalition of residents, public and private stakeholders and the City, will organize and undertake the initial set of activities noted below.

Lakeview Priority Neighbourhood - The project will begin in the Lakeview community, south of Highway 401. It is one of the City’s five priority neighbourhoods and scores as having the highest need for wellbeing improvement. Geographically, it is separated from the rest of the City with Highway 401 and a rail corridor acting as major physical barriers.

Internet Access – It was recognized early in the discussion that broadband coverage and access to digital technology and the internet is very uneven within the Lakeview neighbourhood. Full participation by residents may require the use of multiple forms of digital equipment: • • •

a mobile device to connect to external information to establish and maintain contact with employers, schools and services a home computer for developing one’s own digital content such as resumes, homework, etc. routers to help create and maintain a wide range of internet connections dispersed throughout the community and at hubs such as the Library.

Affordability, both with respect to getting equipment (e.g. cellphones, tablets) and data plans, is the biggest issue hindering residents’ ability to establish and maintain their digital signature within the community. Necessities such as shelter and food take priority and entrench the existing digital divide.

Trust – There is a history of well-intentioned projects undertaken in the Lakeview Neighbourhood to help alleviate poverty and improve community wellbeing that fell short of their objectives. Residents in the community have identified a common theme – a lack of trust. Programs are seen as being created from the top-down. Past programs have not necessarily reflected individual or family circumstances, are difficult to find and understand (relying on passive websites and portals), can be rigid with little flexibility, and may have limited reach into the community. This is particularly true with youth and indigenous populations.

The strongest message from our smart cities consultation is the need to work together with residents in a different manner. This is captured in the desire to have a digital partnership between the City, residents and stakeholders with respect to co-designing the ultimate form of the project and their continuing involvement in its delivery.

The identified starting point is to use peer-to-peer relationships and trusted partners in the community including the Library and grassroots agencies. The community believes

that residents are more likely to trust and engage with each other. This creates a unique opportunity to empower local champions to jointly lead the development of the Partnership, ensure its relevance, impact and make it more sustainable by strengthening the network of relationships in the neighbourhood.

Application of Technology – When discussing the priority issue of economic and social inequality, a long list of possible technology projects were identified including the need to improve mobility to improve travel to social and community services, provide better information on housing availability, and address the ongoing need for education and skills development. Currently, progress on many of these topics is already happening outside of the Smart Cities Challenge and it was felt that related applications will be incorporated by the Partnership once they were ready.

With respect to having the most immediate impact on the community’s wellbeing, the greatest frustration of both the residents and service providers is the structural disconnect where residents cannot identify, prioritize, or find the services they need and the agencies cannot fully engage with the people that may need their assistance most.

Applying advances in digital technology will be key toward eliminating this disconnect.

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will allow us to disrupt the traditional service provision paradigm. Existing service portals are passive and provide static information on community resources. They tend to be hard to use, provide no focused direction, are complicated and not being used by either residents or service providers.

AI turns the paradigm on its head. Starting with a resident’s digital profile with respect to where they are in their life and their needs, AI can be used to clarify the resident’s needs, ask about priorities, help craft a go-forward plan and then direct them to the most relevant resource. Trust, will be the most critical success factor in gathering the mass of data needed. On the back-end, service providers will need to move forward with their digital services strategies, reposition themselves for the AI world, and ideally improve the reach and impact of their services as they receive rich information about issues facing the community.

Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership Proposal A high level summary of the project and its activities are outlined below.

The goal is to establish a community-designed Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership in the Lakeview neighbourhood to improve residents’ ability to acquire and use technology for finding and accessing services and resources to increase their economic and social participation and potential. Activities include: •

Improving Internet Access • Improve Core Broadband Coverage • Bulk Purchase Of Digital Equipment • Bulk Purchase of Data For Internet Connectivity

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Empowering Community Co-Design • Establishing a Core Group of Community Animators o Needs assessment o Project/Application design o Training opportunities o Citizens Help Desk

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Developing Technology Applications • Artificial Intelligence Needs/Services Matching Platform • Service Providers Digital Strategies • Community Focused Applications

These activities are further described below.

Internet Access While standard telecommunications infrastructure exists in the Lakeview Neighbourhood, there is an opportunity to use Oshawa Public Utility Corporation’s ninety-five kilometer fibre broadband backbone to improve the core broadband coverage in the area. Discussions are underway with respect to working with the private sector partners (Bell, Telmax, FlashFibr) to provide fibre to the home, local institutions and public nodes throughout the community.

Low income residents are not the target clientele for internet equipment and service providers. A purchasing club organized and run by the Partnership would bridge this market failure, address affordability issues and create a more sustainable foundation for narrowing the digital divide. An important objective will be establishing a target level of digital service for the neighbourhood.

The Partnership would arrange for the bulk purchase of digital equipment such as mobile devices, home computers and routers for residents and a dispersed network of WiFi hot spots. Options for increasing the coverage and reliability of the WiFi network are being assessed and may involve a combination of technologies such as significantly increasing the number of WiFi hot spots the Library lends to families (moving from 10 units to 1,000), establishing a public mesh network, installing digital kiosks at prime public locations in the neighbourhood.

The Partnership would also arrange for the bulk purchase of data plans to allow all residents to establish a digital footprint and fully access a new community designed AI matching platform, existing services and improve their ability to communicate with resource providers.

Community Co-Design The first step would be to establish a core group of community champions/animators as a social enterprise. The peer-to-peer nature of the endeavor would push the project out into the community and directly engage the end-users in its final project design. The direct approach would be in sharp contrast to previous efforts that relied on a professional's best estimates of community issues, passive consultation on

programs/projects, and unproductive marketing efforts to drive program uptake. The mandate of the group would be to: •

Refine the assessment of the community’s digital needs

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Engage residents in the design and delivery of the program

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Participate in the administration of the program

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Identify digital literacy needs and create opportunities for residents to receive relevant training

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Explore the formation of Citizens Help Desk as a local job creation/training opportunity for disadvantaged youth. The service would provide technology support services as well as identifying and integrating a suite of applications for residents use

Application of Technology Developing a “Find My Way Artificial Intelligence Matching Platform” will turn existing community services portals up-side down. Oshawa is fortunate to be able to draw upon the resources of UOIT and Durham College’s new AI Hub. The AI Hub is one of the world’s first centers focusing on the application of AI to small/medium enterprises and non-profits. Starting with a resident’s profile, the AI platform will allow a person to articulate their needs and then help chart their own path forward with respect to resolving employment, financial and social services issues.

It is anticipated that this will be the start of digital neigbourhoods that will be able to address a wider range of local issues. In Canada we see the emergence of ‘subjective well-being’ as a credible metric of our quality of life. Wellbeing Indexes, along with an array of hard metrics (traffic, air quality, etc.) capture the quality of service delivery and quality of life in a city.

Perhaps even more valuable is to capture this information at the neighborhood level.

Starting with the neighborhood level, and then scaling up to the city, region, provincial and eventually national level, people can easily follow the impact of their efforts. This initiative can offer the world the first true measure of ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’ from the neighborhood scale in real-time and in a consistent format (third-party audited).

Support service providers are starved for robust and timely information as they address community needs, develop programs, and seek better delivery mechanisms. The data produced will allow them to proceed with implementing their digital service strategies and ideally improve the quality and level of service provided. The project will also be their first experience working with AI systems and exploring the power of the technology and a host of issues that will emerge (privacy for example). This experience will give them a unique perspective on the use of technology and position them to help educate their peer networks across Ontario and Canada.

Finally, a number of our public and private sector partners are working on, or considering, the development of applications to better communicate, improve their operations or tackle a problem in a new way. One of the Partnership’s deliverables will be to identify opportunities for the development and distribution of community focused

applications (mobility, safety, health, etc.) that residents are interested in and prepared to use. For example, the City’s Teaching City Partnership just completed a hack-a-thon that proposed an app to provide residents with information about the quality and track record of rental accommodations and landlords.

Question 7: Please describe the ways in which your preliminary proposal supports your community’s medium and long-term goals, strategies, and plans.

Strategic Alignment Oshawa’s project complements our efforts to achieve a number of strategic priorities, contained in the (see attachments): •

Oshawa Strategic Plan

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Oshawa Diversity and Inclusion Plan

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Building on Health in Priority Neighbourhoods - Durham Region.

The Oshawa Strategic Plan presents a vision of a city that is prosperous, collaborative, vibrant and inclusive. Social Equity is one of the Plan’s five strategic goals and will require city programs to further respond to the growing needs of a diverse community.

Oshawa’s approved Diversity and Inclusion Plan recognizes patterns of unfair treatment and systemic discrimination. The Plan provides a comprehensive response to imbalances in the community including accessibility, economic status, gender, geographic location, indigenous ancestry, and age. Further, the Plan highlights the positive dimensions of diversity.

Equal and inclusive communities are not only fair but more successful along a range of economic and social coordinates. Labour force needs will demand increased participation by marginalized populations to help fill workforce gaps. Diverse communities tend to be more resilient to rapid technological change relying on a broader repository of knowledge and expertise.

Durham Region’s Building on Health in Priority Neighbourhoods strategy notes that partnerships and collaboration will be the driving force for change. A number of strategies are being pursued to improve the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, including: •

Advocating for adequate income for residents

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Enhancing support for children and youth

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Incorporating community voices to determine priorities.

Smart Cities Alignment

Oshawa’s project proposal is highly aligned with the City’s and stakeholder’s smart city visions for the community and would complement and advance initiatives that are underway. Under a variety of banners such as the Smart 21 or Teaching City, efforts todate focused on projects resulting in tangible benefits. Examples include: The Seniors Centre’s use of tablets to fight dementia, the Library’s hotspot check-out program and the use of road sensors to monitor and plan snow clearing operations. The Smart Cities Challenge process has allowed the city to forge linkages between discrete activities and lay the foundation for a collaborative comprehensive strategy.

Another example is the Durham District School Board’s (DDSB) recent report Leveraging Digital in the DDSB (attached). The report notes that equal access to technology will be a factor in supporting all students. Their stated goal is to facilitate deep learning by leveraging the digital world to accelerate student achievement, engagement and connections.

The DDSB has rolled out Chromebooks for all its grade 10 students and is looking to further expand the program by: •

Providing sets of Chromebooks in grade 2-6 classes

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Working with partners to promote access to connectivity throughout the community

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Piloting the use of WiFi devices – students can take home hotspots to access the internet

Oshawa’s Smart City proposal is ambitious, relative to current or previous initiatives as it brings all the critical success factors together, including: •

A high level of cooperation and willingness to coordinate activities between stakeholders

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Direct engagement of residents in the most vulnerable communities

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A focus on providing direct and tangible benefits to Oshawa’s priority neighbourhoods.

Question 8: Please describe your community’s readiness and ability to successfully implement your proposal.

The City of Oshawa has strong track record of implementing large scale multistakeholder projects. As a midsized city of 167,000, Oshawa represents an ideal testing ground for scalable smart city projects. The city has been able to both maintain closeknit relationships and engagement with community stakeholders, and at the same time remain nimble enough to implement significant projects in an urban setting. A number of relevant and recent examples are noted below.

Oshawa’s Experience with Complex Projects

Teaching City initiative - Oshawa has embraced the need for continuous improvement and innovation as a way of overcoming its challenges and the needs of the community.

The City, along with educational partners, is formally collaborating to make Oshawa a Teaching City focused on innovative solutions to urban issues, experiential learning, applied research and innovative teaching partnerships.

The City established a formal partnership with UOIT, Durham College, Trent University Durham, the Canadian Urban Institute and the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto. As this initiative moves forward, the City will also pursue involvement of the private sector and not-for-profit organizations.

Together the partners are exploring and pursuing the following objectives: •

Identifying and developing initiatives focused on creating practical, scalable and sustainable solutions to urban issues

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Developing and potentially commercializing technologies and techniques

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Developing and coordinating joint experiential learning opportunities, applied research, and innovative educational activities

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Contributing to seminars, workshops and academic initiatives that drive the business goals of the City

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Sharing access to facilities, equipment, systems, information and data

To date, the Teaching City partnership has undertaken, or is undertaking a number of joint projects including: •

The creation of the City’s Diversity and Inclusion Plan

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Researching the ecology and water quality of storm water ponds in order to inform future design and maintenance of these ponds

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Combining air quality and traffic monitoring sensors to examine ways of improving the pedestrian experience in the Downtown

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Hosted a multi-stakeholder hackathon focused on a public policy challenge around improving residential rental housing in Oshawa.

The hackathon’s winning team developed a web-based portal/app that allows renters to find and rate potential dwellings. Teaching City partners and the Spark Centre are now reviewing the proposed solution to align it with City licensing practices and develop a potential commercial product.

Other examples of successful and complex smart city projects include:

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Oshawa Public Libraries WiFi Hot Spots - residents who do not have access to the internet at home can now check out a mobile hot spot from their local library, which provides them with unlimited internet access for a week. Currently, the program has a waiting list of over 100 families.

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Oshawa, Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation, Tabuchi, NEDO Partnership – this solar energy storage pilot project has provided 50 pilot homes with solar panels, inverters, lithium-ion batteries and data loggers. The smart and connected data allow homeowners to monitor usage in real time, shift energy demand and access backup power when needed.

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Oshawa Senior Citizens Centres Digital Inclusion Program - provides computer labs, cyber cafés and free internet at all facilities. Over 3,000 participants have benefitted from computer/tech courses focused on digital literacy. The adult day program uses iPads to assist patrons with early stage dementia.

•

Road Weather Information System (RWIS) – uses sensors implanted into the road asphalt. The system measures weather and road surface conditions and connects to data from weather stations. Staff are able to monitor weather, predict road conditions, deliver proactive treatment plans and improve service at a lower cost.

Oshawa’s Organizational Capacity Oshawa has the organizational structures and practices in place to ensure the success of our on-going and proposed Smart City initiatives. This is evidenced by the City’s adoption of a Continuous Improvement Framework, establishing a Director position in the City Manager’s Office to lead the City’s Teaching City initiative and other crossdepartmental initiatives, and the formation of a strong stakeholder’s coalition.

Continuous Improvement Framework – approved by council in 2017, the Framework establishes a management process whereby services/programs are constantly evaluated using a variety of approaches with the goal of creating a sustainable culture of innovation within the corporation. The purpose of the Framework is to: •

Identify, reduce and eliminate suboptimal processes or waste

•

Increase the value of the delivery process/output to the customer

•

Emphasis incremental, continuous steps

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Empower staff to find new ways of approaching complex problems, including the use of digital technology

A Director level position has been working to coordinate corporate wide innovation initiatives, engage line departments with respect to identifying and acting on opportunities to improve their operations, build partnerships with public and private external partners to leverage expertise and resources, and promote a culture of innovation and engagement within the Corporation and community. The Director currently oversees the Teaching City initiative and its operating budget and has been deeply involved in the Smart City Challenge.

Smart Cities Stakeholder’s Coalition – Oshawa’s submission to the Intelligent Community Forums 2015 Awards program created a lasting dividend. A coalition of community stakeholders was formed to discuss and coordinate our individual smart cities projects. The coalition had begun working on the development of a comprehensive smart cities strategy before the Challenge was announced. The group immediately joined the City in the preparation of the application. They have also expressed their desire and willingness to collaborate on the final project design and its delivery.

Potential Organizational Issues Oshawa is part of a two-tier municipal government model with service delivery divided between the City and the Regional government. This model is typical in Ontario and can be problematic when dealing with complex issues, such as economic and social inequality. For example, social services and transit is a Regional responsibility while the City looks after recreational, libraries and seniors’ centers. Fortunately, Oshawa and the Region have been working closely on issues related to the priority neighbourhoods for a number of years and have jointly supported projects such as establishing legal and tax clinics to assist low income residents. Additionally, the Region and other agencies have been intimately involved in the development of Challenge.

Question 9: Describe your plan for using the $250,000 grant, should you be selected as a finalist. Provide a high-level breakdown of spending categories and an accompanying rationale.

If Oshawa is selected as a Smart Cities Challenge finalist, we will immediately begin working on the final proposal. This will involve the tasks described below. The suggested funding allocation equals $245,000.

•

Establishing a community based co-design team

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Preparing an updated assessment of how technology is being accessed and used in Lakeview

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Finalizing the wellbeing index at the community level

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Undertaking local workshops to develop the final project design

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Creating a detailed project submission.

Community Based Co-Design Team – a small group (5) of residents, representative of the community (youth, aboriginal, seniors, etc.), will be recruited to assist with this phase and will be compensated for their time. The role of the team, working with the City and other stakeholders, will be to directly engage the community with respect to the localized research needed, organize workshops and ensure the digital needs of the community are fully expressed and included in the final project design. The residents

will also work with the City, educational and private sector partners to define the parameters, options and process for the development of the AI Matching Platform.

(Budget: $75,000) Lakeview Baseline Technology Assessment – Building upon our extensive consultations, a detailed survey of technology access and use in the Lakeview neighbourhood will be undertaken to establish a community base line. The co-design team will be instrumental in taking the survey out into the community, supplemented by pilot information kiosks. The City in partnership with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has an internet speed test in place. The test will be further promoted directly to Lakeview residents that currently have internet access to provide a statistically significant level of data. All of the above will be used to establish a community standard for access, allow us to assess options and costs for providing the required digital infrastructure and measuring the impact of closing the local digital divide. (Budget: $60,000).

Wellbeing Index – Building on the data being collected through the WCCD initiative, and working within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a wellbeing index at the community level will be finalized. This will be supplemented by local surveys to provide a finer level of detail. (Budget $20,000) Co Design Workshops – A series of project design workshops will be promoted and held to review the findings from the local research and guide the final project submission. (Budget $10,000) Smart Cities Challenge Final Submission – A contract project manager will be retained to help organize and deliver the tasks above. Their role will also focus on preparing the final submission. To prepare the submission, we will focus on creating: a final project concept and description, preparing a business plan and budget demonstrating the outcomes that will be achieved from the Smart Cities investment, as well as outlining a detailed implementation work plan, creating a sustainability strategy to show how we plan to scale the project to other priority neighbourhoods and maintain momentum over time, preparing an engagement and communications plan and demonstrating the formal participation of project partners. (Budget: $80,000)

Question 10: Describe the partners that are or will be involved in your proposal. Where partners are not yet determined, describe the process for selecting them.

“We are pleased with the City’s plans to support the goal of empowering prosperity, ensuring that citizens of all backgrounds, incomes and abilities can access services and facilities through the Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership. We thank the City and all stakeholders involved in this partnership, and we are committed to working together on this journey, making a positive impact in the lives and daily experiences of our students and families who may be directly affected as local residents.” Durham District Catholic School Board

The City of Oshawa, in partnership with key stakeholders representing diverse types of organizations, embarked on the Smart Cities Challenge taking a three-phased approach: community engagement and consultation; project identification and selection; and, project plan development.

Below is a list of the partners that were involved in the Challenge contributing their valuable skills, expertise, resources and community connections. All partners listed participated in all phases of the Challenge. They have also indicated their willingness and interest in committing to seeing the project through to its completion.

Private Sector: • • • • • • • • • •

Bell General Motors of Canada Hatch Engineering JLL Microsoft Oshawa Clinic Pacific Controls Philips Lighting Telmax The Createch Group

Not-for-Profit Organizations: • • • • • • • •

CAREA Community Health Centre United Way Oshawa Chamber of Commerce Downtown Oshawa Business Improvement Association Durham Region Unemployed Help Centre Durham Workforce Authority Feed the Need John Howard Society

Public Utilities: •

Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation

Education: • • • • •

Durham District Catholic School Board Durham District School Board Durham College Trent University Durham GTA University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Entrepreneurship Support Services: •

Spark Centre

•

Business Advisory Centre Durham

Public Agencies: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

City of Oshawa – City Manager’s Office City of Oshawa – Corporate Communications City of Oshawa – IT Department City of Oshawa – Economic Development City of Oshawa – Engineering City of Oshawa – Service Oshawa City of Oshawa – Seniors Centres Oshawa Public Libraries Lakeridge Health Hospital Region of Durham – Economic Development Region of Durham – Health Department Region of Durham – Office of the CAO Region of Durham – Social Services Region of Durham – Social Housing Region of Durham – Strategic Partnerships

The existing stakeholders will form the core of the Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership and continue to be engaged the development of the final project. As part of the final design process, there will be the need to identify options for acquiring digital technology and services and for specifying the parameters and functionality of the AI matching platform. These needs will likely create opportunities for additional stakeholders and private companies to become involved. An open session for potential vendors will be held for them to showcase their solutions and for the Partnership coalition to learn about and consider possible technology options along with their benefits and limitations. The City’s purchasing staff will be engaged to advise on the process and requirements for establishing commercial relationships with technology vendors or service providers. Specific projects will be awarded based on the guidance of the co-design team and partnership and aligned with the City’s procurement policies.

Question 11 (confidential annex) Please provide, if and only if required, confidential third party information. Information provided in this section will be exempt from the requirement to be posted online.

N/A.

Section III: Other requirements Question 12: Provide a 200-word summary of your preliminary proposal.

The goal is to establish a community-designed Digital Prosperity and Wellbeing Partnership to enhance economic and social equality across the City, beginning in one of Oshawa’s vulnerable low-income neighbourhoods – Lakeview. The project will

improve residents’ ability to acquire and use technology for finding and accessing services and resources to increase their economic and social participation.

To achieve this, Oshawa plans to implement three overarching activities: improving internet access through improving broadband coverage and bulk purchasing of equipment and data plans, empowering community co-design through establishing a core group of community animators and developing technology applications such as an artificial intelligence service platform. The artificial intelligence platform will allow a person to articulate their needs and then help chart their own path forward with respect to resolving employment, financial and social services issues. In order to facilitate this and ensure that this is a scalable model for use in other vulnerable neighbourhoods across Canada, Oshawa is also building a Wellbeing Index, that will measure the integration of priority neighbourhoods with the larger economy and help to increase overall wellbeing to reach provincial and national averages.

Question 13: Provide a link to the online location where you will post the full version of your application. https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/smart-cities-challenge.asp

Question 14: In accordance with your governance structure, provide evidence of the commitment to your preliminary proposal from your community’s leadership. This can be a letter of support with signatures from your mayor(s), chief(s), or equivalent or a council resolution, a band council resolution, etc.

Submitted with original application.

Question 15: Please identify the point of contact for the application.

• • • •

Name: Kyle Benham Title and affiliation: Director, Economic Development Services, City of Oshawa Phone number: 905-436-3859 Email address: kbenham@oshawa.ca

Question 16: Read the Privacy Notification, Consent and Release form, and Communications Protocol and indicate your agreement.

Section IV: Survey questions Question 17: Please provide the following information about your organization.

•

•

2017 full-time equivalents (FTEs): o Number of total FTEs = 1475 o Percentage of total FTEs devoted to innovation = 5% 2017 operating and capital budgets: o Total operating budget = $173,040,936 o Percentage of total operating budget devoted to innovation = 8% o Total capital budget = $33,922,000 o Percentage of total capital budget devoted to innovation = 2%

Question 18: Please select the focus area of your preliminary proposal.

If your preliminary proposal seeks to achieve outcomes that span more than one area, you may choose up to two.

• •

Economic opportunity Empowerment and inclusion

Question 19: Select all the community system/service areas expected to be implicated in your preliminary proposal.

There is no limit to the number of community systems/service areas you may select.

• • • • • • •

Economic development Education and training Emergency services and enforcement Public health Recreation and parks Roads and transportation Social services

Question 20: Select all the technologies expected to be implicated in your preliminary proposal.

There is no limit to the number of technologies you may select.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Artificial intelligence (AI) Assistive technology Big data analytics Cloud computing Enterprise solutions Geospatial Health or Medical technology Internet of Things (IoT) Mobile applications Networks Open data platforms Payment platforms