CITY OF MISSISSAUGA
The City of Mississauga has been investing in smart infrastructure for over two decades . Now it ’ s one of the ICF ’ s Top7 cities . Where does it go from here ?
The City of Mississauga ’ s Smart City Master Plan was endorsed in the summer of 2019 . Two years on , the City is in the Intelligent Community Forum ’ s Top7 communities and city leaders are eyeing the top spot . As Canada ’ s sixth largest city , it ’ s a lofty aim , but based on a long history of looking forward , it doesn ’ t seem far-fetched .
Mississauga started building out its fibre network more than 20 years ago , as well as putting all of its services online and employing the skills of nascent cloud technologies . That bedrock has stood it in good stead since , with ongoing consultations and developments adding to the City ’ s impressive portfolio of infrastructural technology ( it recently initiated a pilot of Public Safety Broadband Network LTE network for first responders , for instance , a pilot it hopes will roll out nationally ).
Strategic direction Shawn Slack is the City ’ s Chief Information Officer . He puts the City ’ s progressive nature down to having a firm strategic direction . “ Social and economic resilience is a key driver for smart cities right now ,” he says .
“ We had people coming to us to say they had lost contact with their family because the only option they had was in person ”
SHAWN SLACK CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER , CITY OF MISSISSAUGA
Given the events of the past 18 months , it ’ s no surprise that this is front and centre of the City ’ s aims . When Covid-19 hit , and communities faced stay-at-home orders , Mississauga was ready to adapt and refocus .
“ I can give you an example on both the social and the economic side ,” says Slack . “ On the social side , teachers and students had to go home and learn from home . There ’ s a segment of the population that does not have the technology , that does not have broadband in their homes . So we donated laptops to the school system and increased our laptop lending . Students could sign them out for a whole school term . We increased our hotspot lending and really worked with the school boards to focus on families in need . And we added 200 additional public locations that had Wi-Fi . We had people coming to us to say they had lost contact with their family because the only option they had was in person .
Rapid adoption “ On the economic side , we worked with our Economic Development Office to really engage with small business . There were programs like Digital Main Street that were put in place
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