Kelly Gillis (Deputy Minister, Infrastructure Canada) joins Michael Ledgett (Dentons Canada LLP) to discuss the role of Infrastructure Canada in the Smart City space. Kelly and Michael discuss the need to be inclusive of communities of all sizes, the Federal Government’s approach to community engagement, and optimizing private sector innovation and engagement.

As the administrator and implementer of a vast number of programs and services, municipalities are the keepers of large amounts of their constituents’ personal information. Chantal Bernier (Dentons Canada LLP) discusses the privacy lessons learned from Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs’ experience with the Quayside project in Toronto. What strategies are there to address the legal and political issues arising from the digital solutions inherent to a Smart City?

Without widespread and accessible network connectivity, there can be no Smart City. Shawn Slack (Director, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, City of Mississauga) and Paul Cowling (Senior Vice-President, General Counsel & Regulatory Affairs, Shaw Communications Inc.) join Monica Song (Dentons Canada LLP) to discuss the challenges and opportunities that 5G networks present to municipalities. How do municipalities integrate 5G infrastructure into their urban design, and how carriers ensure that local concerns are addressed?

What makes a community ‘smart’? How do planners, developers, and municipalities leverage smart technologies to plan for and create communities based on principles of healthy, sustainable development? Agnes Koc (Manager, Marketing and Communications, Dorsay Development Corporation) and Mary Ellen Bench (Dentons Canada LLP) discuss Veraine, the smart, healthy and sustainable community planned in Northeast Pickering.

Cities have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis. Online shopping and teleworking are now the norm, and digital infrastructure is more important than ever. The pandemic has highlighted the massive equity challenge faced in our Cities and across the country. From a socio-economic standpoint, what does the future hold for Cities? Chris Murray (City Manager, City of Toronto) joins Michael Ledgett (Dentons Canada LLP) to discuss the City of Toronto’s strategies for building a renewed Toronto out of the pandemic.

As zero emissions and autonomous vehicle technology becomes increasingly commonplace, how can transit agencies and governments use these technologies to move more people via low carbon, smart modes of transportation? Where does Canada fall among early adopters of these technologies? Josipa Petrunic (CEO, Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium) joins Michael Ledgett (Dentons Canada LLP) to discuss the challenges with smart vehicle deployment and transit electrification, and leading examples from around the world to learn from.

Drones offer the ability to go where people aren’t, and do things that people can’t. This gives rise to countless opportunities to increase connectivity and modernize infrastructure in urban environments. Bashir Kahn (Founder and CEO, AirMatrix) joins Kathryn McCulloch (Dentons Canada LLP) to discuss some of these use cases, as well as the regulatory and technological challenges to driving drones forward in Canada.

IoT, collaboration, and co-development are central to Smart City technologies. Panagiota Dafniotis (Dentons Canada LLP) provides an overview of Smart City issues from an intellectual property perspective, including which aspects of a Smart City would attract intellectual property protection, and how those protections could impact the development of Smart City technologies.

The Smart Cities space moves fast. Intelligent infrastructure is becoming essential. Data is helping to innovate in the Smart Cities space, but also gives rise to new legal issues which need to be handled with care. Jody Becker (Chief Strategy Officer & EVP Infrastructure Services & Technology) joins Kirsten Thompson (Dentons Canada LLP) to discuss developments in the Smart Cities space, issues regarding data transparency and ownership of data, cross-border transfers of information, and futureproofing future projects.