Sidewalk Toronto Update

On December 8, 2018, Sidewalk Toronto held its fourth public roundtable covering details being considered for the Master Innovation and Development Plan, including a draft site plan of Quayside. Hundreds of residents, stakeholders and invited agencies provided feedback to presentations delivered at the all-day workshop in four different breakout sessions focused on: Quayside Site Plan & Transportation, Affordable Housing & Social Infrastructure, Digital Governance, and Sustainability.

The roundtable presentations, videos and recordings from December 8 are available for view on the Sidewalk Toronto website and YouTube channel. Earlier on November 23, Waterfront Toronto hosted the first in a series of Civic Lab seminars on public policy issues related to potential digital elements in the planning of Quayside. At this session, Waterfront Toronto was joined by leaders from government, subject matter experts, academics, and advocates to discuss digital governance. The discussion focused on three questions:

1. What issues would you like to see Waterfront Toronto consider as it reviews the digital proposals related to Quayside?

2. How do you think Waterfront Toronto can best determine what’s in the public interest when dealing with the opportunities and challenges that are associated with smart cities?

3. Do you have any other feedback or advice related to smart cities that you’d like to share?

Key discussion points were:

1. Long-term, sustainable data governance.

2. Individual and collective privacy.

3. Leveraging best practices and seeking their advice.

4. Enhancing democratic institutions and service delivery to all groups.

5. Broader education.

6. Develop a Digital Strategy grounded in first principles.

7. A more detailed, grounded, concrete discussion.

8. Connection between data and algorithms.

9. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

10. Feedback and advice about process.

Future Civic Labs will focus on topics such as intellectual property, data monetization, civic data trusts, digital justice, and other topics based on the feedback shared in Civic Lab 1. To read the entire summary report,  click here and read this blog post. You can also watch the fourth public roundtable including presentation and discussion regarding the draft site plan of Quayside on the Waterfront Toronto Facebook and YouTube pages. The next Civic Lab discussion will be in early 2019.