By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Council lends support to Smart Cities Challenge application

Apr 18, 2018 | 1:12 PM

LETHBRIDGE – In just a few days, Lethbridge will be submitting its Smart Cities “Challenge Statement” to Infrastructure Canada in the hopes of being one of the finalists for one of two $10 million prizes.

There are four prizes in total, one for $50 million, two $10 million, and one $5 million prize.

The goal is to encourage communities to improve the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology. The competition is open to any city in the country, of any size and includes municipalities and indigenous communities.

City of Lethbridge General Manager of Information Technology, Trevor Butler, says there were three challenge statements initially. One was ultimately chosen after feedback from the public.

“That challenge statement itself is focusing on Lethbridge being the small city destination of choice to start on a new business, focusing on the retention of our graduates and in fact, doubling the post-secondary retention of our graduates, and looking for those businesses and business ideas that are trying to do things a little different in our community.”

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The proposal is due April 24th. But if the challenge statement does not advance, there will be other opportunities according to Butler, to refine the application and try again.

“There will be a second and a third intake, but there aren’t any details as far as when those intakes might come. But we do know that if we aren’t successful, we will be receiving feedback as far as our application and our challenge statements, and we’ll have the ability to improve that and also look at everybody else’s challenge statements.”

Five finalists will receive $250,000 to go towards developing their proposals. Winners will be announced in the Spring of 2019.

Council voted unanimously on Monday, April 16, to send a letter of support signed by Mayor Chris Spearman to accompany the application.

by Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Council lends support to Smart Cities Challenge application

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