The territory, city and Yukonstruct Makerspace Society will soon be working together on a project that could eventually bring millions of dollars to the community to help solve a local issue.

At its meeting last Monday, council unanimously voted in favour of having city staff collaborate with the territorial government and Yukonstruct to prep a “challenge statement” for the Smart Cities Challenge.

The challenge was launched in November 2017 by Infrastructure Canada as a competition to improve public service delivery at the community level through innovation, data and technology.

“In the first step of the competition, municipalities, local or regional governments, and Indigenous communities are encouraged to engage with their local residents to identify a local issue and prepare a Challenge Statement that proposes an innovative solution,” it was noted in a report to council.

After the April 24 deadline for submissions, a jury will select the finalists, who will each receive $250,000 to develop a proposal that could be fully implemented. It’s expected a list of finalists will be announced in the summer.

A deadline for the winter of 2019 would be established for final proposal submissions on a “fully-implementable proposal”.

Four prizes would then be awarded to winners. Those are:

• one prize of up to $50 million that would be open to all communities regardless of population;

• two prizes of up to $10 million open to all communities with a population under 500,000; and

• one prize of up to $5 million open to all communities with a population of 30,000.

Winners would have up to five years to implement their projects through contribution agreements with Infrastructure Canada.

“The territory is proposing to support the city’s participation in the first step of the competition by funding the statement preparation costs and providing staff support,” it was noted.

“Under the proposed framework, YG would enter into a contribution agreement with Yukonstruct Makerspace Society, a local start-up and innovation hub, who would then lead the application process for the city with the support of a technical advisory group,” it was noted.

It goes on to state that as one of the capital cities in the territories, the city is in a good position to take advantage of the Challenge with support from the Yukon government.

“Whitehorse is a creative city, and has more community resources available than a typical community of its size,” the report reads.

“Whitehorse is eligible to apply in any of the three prize categories.”

It then cites five benefits that could come from taking part in the challenge, including:

• working with local innovators toward solutions on community issues, including priorities council has already identified;

• strengthening city partnerships with a range of stakeholders;

• boosting local innovation, development opportunities and stimulating economic development;

• receiving nationwide publicity and increasing the city’s profile as an “innovation hub”; and

• building the city’s data and technological capacity.

Councillors Jocelyn Curteanu and Samson Hartland were vocal in their support of the effort.

Curteanu, however, acknowledged she had initially been hesitant about the project because of the city’s limited capacity.

This initiative, however, is an opportunity for the city to partner with the territorial government and Yukonstruct in a good collaboration.

“Let’s see how this goes,” Curteanu said.

Hartland echoed Curteanu’s comment.

He pointed out the challenge presents an opportunity to work on a number of issues that fall under council’s strategic plan such as urban planning, parking and more.

“I’m fairly excited to see what this is going to produce for us,” he said.

With council giving the go-ahead for the project, work will now begin on community and stakeholder engagement, expected to take until early March.

A proposal on the challenge statement will then come forward to council for a vote in April before the application is submitted.