“We’re in it to win it.”

And with those words, the City of Brampton officially entered the Government of Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge on Wednesday (Feb. 14). The winning community is eligible for $50 million.

“We are really in a tremendous position to win, given the great ground work done through a number of community engagement initiatives,” said Joe Pittari, Brampton’s commissioner of corporate services. “We will be entering to win the prize of up to $50 million.”

The Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge asks municipalities to find ways to improve their city through innovation.

Challenge submissions are due on April 24. An independent jury will select finalists by the summer. Finalists will receive a $250,000 grant to develop their final proposal, which is to be submitted during winter 2018-19. Winners will be announced in spring 2019.

Pittari told councillors on Wednesday that Brampton has already made progress on engaging the community on potential ideas.

This past fall, the city undertook an unprecedented public engagement program, engaging over 11,000 residents and achieving 420,000 corporate impressions through social media.

Pittari also pointed to some current smart initiatives undertaken by the city that could bolster its chances of success, including the Brampton GeoHub, an award-winning open data platform that makes it easier for people to access public information, along with computer-aided dispatching (CAD) and automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems on Brampton Transit buses. In addition, the city has introduced bylaw enforcement mobile inspections, which enable quicker response times for enforcement officers and allow them to update service requests with notes and photographs from their smartphones while in the field. This allows for more inspections per day.

The Smart Cities Challenge is a competition that encourages communities to adopt a smart city approach to improve the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology.

“This competition, like the Amazon H2Q bid, is another exciting opportunity for our city to become a leader in innovation and excellence. Over the last year, we have undertaken unprecedented public engagement — this has helped us better understand and improve the lives of our residents,” Mayor Linda Jeffrey said.