City of Toronto holding public consultations while catching up with digital policy

As Toronto moves toward using more digital technologies to improve day-to-day operations, the City is looking to develop guidelines for how it all comes together.

The City is holding its second of three public consultation sessions on Monday to help gather feedback on its digital infrastructure plan. The purpose of the plan is to develop and consolidate policy to help the city plan and navigate new tech.

Recently, the blend of tech and city-building has come under intense scrutiny regarding plans to build a futuristic neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront.

Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs wants to build a “neighbourhood of tomorrow” on a plot of land on Queens Quay. While intriguing for many, the ideas surrounding data collection there have been concerning for others.

This latest City of Toronto plan would help regulate digital issues across the municipality while also looking at how private companies like Sidewalk Labs operate.

“Some of our policies to date are based on a different time when the world wasn’t so digital,” said Lawrence Eta, the City of Toronto’s chief technology officer.

2:42 Rise of smart cities sparks privacy concerns

He said the policy needs be created to address technology as it’s being developed.

Eta said public consultation is essential because it involves both policy and privacy concerns, “as opposed to developing the program in isolation whereby the public doesn’t have the opportunity to make input into the future that’s going to affect them.”

While it will address immediate concerns, Coun. Brad Bradford said the consolidated approach will be better for the city.

Industry may be offering new and more efficient technology which the city can use, he said, but policies and regulations have been lagging.

“There’s been so many things that have come forward over the past couple of years that we’ve had to do it in more of a piecemeal approach,” said Bradford.

“That’s never a good way to make policy.”

Staff are expected to present a report on public feedback at the executive committee in January. The final plan is expected to be ready by late 2021.