EDMONTON – Edmonton will soon follow in the footsteps of other major Canadian cities with a 311 smartphone app.
“We see this as an opportunity to provide another avenue for people to submit concerns or issues that are going on within the city,” said Councillor Andrew Knack.
People can use the new app to report concerns such as potholes, Knack said. They can take a picture, report it and track what is done to fix it.
“You run into people who get frustrated with a pothole but have never taken the time to report it. Now, if you have an app on your smartphone, you might be more likely to do so.”
App reports will be managed like emails to the city’s current 311 help centre, said Rob Klatchuk, with the City of Edmonton.
The 311 call center takes approximately 2.2 million phone calls per year. With the implementation of the app, the hope is that some of those numbers can be better directed.
“We need to continue to provide new options to citizens because we’re continuing to engage in entirely different ways,” said Knack.
The city has been working on the app for the past six weeks in collaboration with Calgary to learn from their system.
The app should be out within the next month.
With files from Tom Vernon, Global News
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