Wellington County and the City of Guelph are joining forces to enter a national competition with a chance to win a $10-million prize.
City officials attended the March 29 council meeting to outline a joint city/county proposal for the Smart Cities Challenge.
A federal government competition open to communities of all sizes (municipalities, regional governments and Indigenous communities), the challenge aims to improve lives through innovation, data and connected technology.
“The overall vision of this challenge is to provide a technical solution to solve a social problem,” explained Cathy Kennedy, Guelph’s manager of policy and intergovernmental relations.
Kennedy explained Guelph and Wellington are eligible to win one of two $10-million prizes and will be competing in the under 500,000 population category.
She noted the local group is working on a tight timeline, with an April 24 application deadline.
“This challenge is really unique in that it is bringing communities together both city-wide and regionally … to come up with problem(s) … that technology can help solve and the key objectives will be to realize outcomes for residents,” said Kennedy.
Barb Swartzentruber, executive director, innovation and intergovernmental services for Guelph, outlined the local project vision developed by a collaboration of city and county economic development and scocial services staff, local businesses and entrepreneurs, and University of Guelph representatives.
“It didn’t take us long to realize that the clear strengths that we have in both Guelph and Wellington County relate to food. Food in all its aspects. Food from the perspective of food security and sustainably, production, access and so on,” said Swartzentruber.
“We have a number of important food clusters here, not the least of which is the work that Wellington County does in supporting agriculture and the work that you’re doing such as your Taste Real campaign and the opportunity to partner with ‘Canada’s Food University’ as the University of Guelph is labeling themselves, as well as the tremendous work that our community agencies have done in the area of food security,” she added.
Swartzentruber said the project will focus on meeting challenges related to food security, food equality, waste and other aspects of the food chain by moving focus away from “what has been a very linear economic model … that take, make and dispose model, to more of a circular economy.”
Swartzentruber said the group asked “what would it look like if we moved away from that linear model,” toward a model that involved, making things, using things, but also “returning both the nutrients and the value back into being able to keep that cycle going?”
The resulting vision, said Swartzentruber, would be the “food community of the future,” resulting in a “re-imagined smart food system that recognizes equity and dignity for all.”
“When we think about Guelph and Wellington we have to think about it in terms of an ecosystem, an urban/rural food ecosystem and what can we continue to do to build those connections and build the linkages from producer to consumer in a very simple and close manner … and continue to develop a living lab of collaborations and partnerships that put the entrepreneurs and technology alongside the farmers, alongside the business, the community agencies that are struggling with some of our food-related challenges,” she stated.
Predicted outcomes for the project, said Swartzentruber, include:
– increased availability of, and access to, good, affordable, sustainable food;
– a culture of valuing waste as a resource; and
– a new series of opportunities for circular food economy businesses and jobs.
Guelph deputy CAO Scott Stewart told county council he feels the food and agriculture focus will give the local entry elements “that I don’t think anybody else in the country will be able to step up and compete with.”
Steward said the effort would let the rest of the world know, “Where do you go to solve your food problems? You come to Guelph and Wellington. And that’s a great message for the rest of the country and beyond.”
“I think this is very on-the-money,” said councillor Kelly Linton, noting food and agri-food sectors are areas that provide “a strategic advantage” to this region.
“I don’t think this will be top of mind for some of the other municipalities,” said Linton.
“Regardless of whether we win the award or not, this is something we should do anyway.”
Councillor George Bridge said, “This fits so well with what we’ve been doing with Guelph already, and the University of Guelph with our food cluster, and other things that we’ve been doing.”
Stewart said organizers are seeking resolutions of support from both Guelph and Wellington County councils.
Council referred the matter to the economic development committee for discussion and formulation of a resolution.
Competition timeline
Competition finalists will be announced this summer and each finalist will receive $250,000 to develop its final proposal.
Final proposals will be submitted during the winter of 2018-19 with the winners expected to be announced in the spring of 2019.
