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City seeks Smart Cities prize to proceed with river safety project

Application to $10 million fund includes enhanced LED lighting, Smart Poles, public safety command centre and upgraded Eye on the Street.
Smart Cities Challenge
The first of two public open houses on Thunder Bay and Fort William First Nation's Smart Cities Challenge application was held at city hall on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY – The city is eyeing a $10 million federal government fund to help cover the cost of state-of-the-art solutions to protect Indigenous youth and others that frequent identified high-risk waterway areas.

The city, together with Fort William First Nation and with involvement from the Thunder Bay Police Service, Tbaytel and Thunder Bay Hydro, will be submitting an application to Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge, which encourages municipalities and First Nations communities across the country to improve the lives of residents through innovation, data and connected technology.

“Reeling from the tragic deaths of Indigenous youth, Thunder Bay in partnership with Fort William First Nation will transform itself through reconciliation and investments in smart infrastructure and public safety technology – becoming a city where all residents feel safe and connected to each other and their celebrated lands and waters,” the city's challenge statement reads.

Karen Lewis, the city’s director of corporate strategic services, said the proposal would take the next steps identified by the river safety audit that was recommended by the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of seven Indigenous youth.

“We’ve done the things we can do relatively quickly, things like improving lighting, removing graffiti, those kinds of things,” Lewis said on Tuesday at the first of two public open houses to be held at city hall this week.

“What this project would allow us to do is to do a much more comprehensive camera, video surveillance program that would allow us to respond more quickly and track activity along the rivers and watercourses in a way that we can’t with existing resources,” Lewis said.

The city’s proposal would enhance LED lighting along multi-use access trails and installing Smart Poles, which can be used to improve mobile network connectivity, along high-risk waterways and recreation pathways. Other components include a new city public safety command centre with advanced video surveillance and analytics with technology upgrades to the existing Eye on the Street program.

At least eight Indigenous youth have been found dead in Thunder Bay watercourses since 2000, with three of those last year. Nishnawbe Aski Nation deputy grand chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum has been among those who have implored council to implement a video surveillance camera system along the waterways.

The issue has been raised by city leadership with senior levels of government, specifically addressing the need for provincial help at lobbying opportunities at last summer’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference and the Ontario Good Roads Association meetings earlier this year. The city has also examined available federal envelopes.

“We have been investigating opportunities for funding and we weren’t able to find something suitable,” Lewis said. “So when this came along it seemed like a perfect fit. We have a challenge. They’re looking for challenges and we have one that we need assistance with. This seemed like a perfect fit for us for this project.”

The city would also look at new technology to support Indigenous youth to remain connected to their home communities, such as through web-based real-time video communication.

“We believe we have a compelling case,” city general manager of infrastructure and operations Kerri Marshall said. “We see there’s a very deep need to make improvements in terms of public safety with a specific focus on Indigenous youth.”

Communities accepted on the shortlist this summer will be granted $250,000 towards submitting a more detailed, final proposal. The winners are expected to be announced in spring 2019.

The second open house will be held on Wednesday at city hall, running from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.



About the Author: Matt Vis

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