Wednesday 15 June 2016

Friday 10 June 2016

Canada should base infrastructure spree on standardized statistics, experts say

Toronto experts have advice for the Trudeau government on how to aim an unprecedented $125 billion over 10 years on infrastructure.

Locally developed, internationally accredited statistics can tell Ottawa, the provinces and cities how to squeeze the most benefit from spending on transit and more, say World Council on City Data (WCCD) representatives.

And the federal government risks missing massive opportunities and investing in the wrong resources if it ignores the driverless car revolution just around the corner, says technology expert David Ticoll who, like the WCCD’s Patricia McCarney, spoke Thursday to a smart cities conference.

U of T-based McCarney led a wildly successful effort, now involving 260 cities, to standardize urban data and introduce an international measuring system so cities can be accurately rated and compared on everything from transit to housing to emergency response times and air quality. Read the full feature in the Toronto Star here.