Airdrie’s Smart Cities Challenge team has submitted its final proposal and video to Infrastructure Canada as of March 4 – now, residents must wait to find out whether the City’s “innovative technical solution” will win the $10-million prize. “No other municipality, region or province in Canada has attempted to navigate the complex issues around health,” said Leona Esau, intergovernmental liaison with the City. “The conversation usually focuses on health care, such as finding and accessing services. Airdrie’s Smart Cities Challenge proposal, along with the Airdrie & Area Health Co-operative's (AAHC) other initiatives...is going to change the status quo in our country.” Announced in November 2017, the Smart Cities Challenge encouraged all municipalities, local or regional governments and indigenous communities across the country to identify an outcome that improves the lives of residents through the innovative use of technology. City administration teamed up with AAHC to submit an application, according to Esau, based on Airdrie’s effort to become the healthiest community in Canada. In June 2018, this application was selected as one of 10 finalists for one of the competition’s two prizes of $10 million. “In August of 2018, Airdrie’s Smart Cities Challenge team was assembled, with members from both the City of Airdrie and AAHC,” Esau said. “Work began in earnest on Airdrie’s comprehensive proposal to prove out our community’s challenge statement.” According to the report presented to council at a regular meeting March 18, this statement declares the City’s intent to become Canada’s healthiest community by engaging all residents to create a culture of wellness – improving social, economic, physical and health-care environments, with the ultimate goal of increasing healthy life expectancy by at least three years. “When we think about health, a lot of us think it’s the time we spend with our physicians and our doctors and when we’re sick,” said Dave Jackson, Chief Technical Officer with AAHC. “But the Canadian Medical Association, I think it was in 2015, they did a study, and the time we spend with our health-care providers is about 25 per cent of our health. The other 75 per cent is up to us.” With the $10-million prize, according to the City’s proposal, Airdrie would develop HealthSmart technology that will meet the needs of residents and give them easy access to healthy choices – but that is also sustainable and scalable, Jackson said, which means it could be delivered to smaller and more remote communities, as well as urban centres. “We’re going to do it in Airdrie, we’re going to show how it can be done and the value that can be provided, and then we’ll be able to replicate that to other communities and they can look to Airdrie as a leader and as a guide,” he said. Airdrie will be featured in a “finalist spotlight” by the federal government April 10, during a 20-day campaign where each finalist’s proposal will be showcased on a national scale. Between April 25 and May 1, questions will be received from the jury which the team can respond to “in brief,” Esau said, to help it come to a decision. The winners of the two $10-million prizes will be announced May 14, during a finalist showcase in Ottawa. To see a video with more information about the proposal, visit youtube.com/thecityofairdrie
