city building : Innovation + Job News

This month, TD Green Streets — a flagship program of non-profit Tree Canada — kicks off for TD Green Streets 2016. Until November 30, Green Streets is looking for proposals for innovative projects aimed at growing or caring for urban forests.

Green Streets is the only national grant program in Canada focused on urban forestry, and since 1994 it has awarded funding to almost 500 Canadian municipalities across the country. This year, 12 recipients will receive $25,000 in grant funding. The initiative is driven by the fact that caring for and fostering urban forestry is more difficult than most people think, according to Tree Canada president Michael Rosen.

“Some people think they just grow out of the sidewalk or they’re just there, but it requires a lot of maintenance, planning and work,” said Rosen. “So we’re looking for projects that are going to establish and maintain these trees, and have them grow into an old age.”

The need for a program dedicated to fostering urban forestry also stems from the fact that most Canadians live in highly-populated urban centres.“About 82 per cent of Canadians are now living in cities and towns that are basically urban in character,” said Rosen. “And what we’re finding is that municipalities are making more of an effort to ensure that trees are part of the infrastructure of cities.”

Funded projects in the past include a creative way of capturing and using water runoff in "Silva cells," filtering it through soil to clean it in underground units, and then providing water for the trees above in Mississauga’s Central Parkway Rain Garden. “Trees are important wherever they are. Even when they’re far away from urban centres, they’re still performing a wonderful environmental function,” said Rosen. “But trees in urban areas are that much closer to people, and they’re that much more significant to humans.”






 

While most Canadians were enjoying Canada Day off, Professor Shauna Brail, a senior lecturer at the University of Toronto's Geography and Planning department, was preparing to start her new role as a special advisor to UofT President Meric Gentler. 

She and John Brodhead, the executive director of Evergreen CityWorks, were appointed in June to advise President Gentler on city-building. Part of their mandate is to help better facilitate the sharing of city-building knowledge between different researchers at University of Toronto and with other communities in Toronto. 

"We have strengths in so many fields at UofT—architecture, engineering, geography and planning—and we’re starting to really understand the impact that all of these fields play on the way our cities develop and the way decisions are made," says Professor Brail. "If we can work together even better collectively, then we can have an even greater impact on the result and possible outcomes both for creating new policy, thinking about new problems in different ways, developing innovative ideas and further promoting student learning." 

Professor Brail and her colleagues will look at how issues like economic development and urban land use affect prosperity and economic inequality in cities. 

As for how the university will measure the success of the initiative, Professor Brail is honest enough to admit that she's not sure yet. 

"I do think the answer is a bit tricky, and I don’t know that I have a fully fleshed out answer, but I hope to do soon," she says. But, she has high hopes for what can come from these new advisory roles. 

"If as a result of these roles we can help to share data in a more effective way, and if we can better leverage our own research funding to better support communities,  policy development that help make life better for many people better within the city, then that’s a real strength and something that we can specifically point to," she says. 

At the very least, Professor Brail sees this an opportunity to become even more involved in the community she's been engaged in throughout her career. 

"Academics typically have had the luxury of retreating back into academia when people disagree with their finding," she says. "Even though that’s a luxury, it’s probably something we should not take advantage of; in fact, it’s something we need to rally against."

Despite the occasional horror story, there’s a lot to like about services like Airbnb. People that own a house or apartment can make a bit of money by renting out their home when they’re not using it, and those renting can save a bit of money by forgoing an expensive hotel. So it’s no surprise that a variety of other Airbnb-like services have started to pop up.

Case in point: last week, SpaceFinder Toronto, a service that styles itself as the Airbnb for Toronto artists, officially launched in Toronto after a several month long trial period.   

The concept is simple: like homeowners on Airbnb, individuals and groups that own space that can be used for the creative arts can use SpaceFinder’s website to rent their space out to people in need of that space.

At launch, the platform has 375 spaces artists can rent.

According to Kate Nankervis, the co-artistic director of Hub14, an artist-run dance studio near Bathurst and Queen, "SpaceFinder has increased our rentals by 25 per cent in only a couple months and connected us with new renters from various artistic disciplines.” She says the platform also has an intuitive administrative backend that has helped her team cut down on the amount of time they need to spend managing the space.

The platform was developed and designed by Fractured Atlas, a New York City-based arts organization that says it aims to empower artists and art organizations by eliminating the practical barriers to artistic expression. Several local organizations, including ArtsBuild Ontario, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts and WorkInCulture with Fractured Atlas to bring the program to Toronto. Additionally, the Metcalf Foundation provided some initial capital to get the program off the ground in Toronto.  

According to a spokesperson from Fractured Atlas, SpaceFinder is set to launch in Hamilton later this year. They also mentioned that the organization is in talks with various arts organizations in Calgary to bring the platform there as well.

As Toronto's municipal election enters its final weeks, we're looking at each of the major mayoral candidates, and, specifically, at their economic development and job-creation platforms.

We've already looked at John Tory and Olivia Chow's respective platforms. This week: Ward 2 councillor Doug Ford, who stepped in to run for his brother at the last minute after the mayor announced he'd been diagnosed with cancer.

Doug Ford is so far running primarily on his brother's track record; he hasn't (yet) released a full platform or series of economic development initiatives, nor has he given any major speeches addressing economic issues.

In 2013, the City of Toronto under mayor Rob Ford passed an economic development strategy called Collaborating for Competitiveness. As we wrote at the time, that plan's focus is on fine-grained details that can streamline business operations, like reducing the time it takes the City to review development applications for employment uses.

Additional details are scant. Ford's campaign website emphasizes the importance of creating a business-friendly environment by keeping taxes low: "The Taxpayers First Plan will help make life a little easier for Toronto businesses and residents. By running a more efficient City Government, we will continue lowering the tax burden on the middle class, while creating jobs and stimulating economic development." Specifics of any job-creation or economic development plan have not been released to date.

Toronto's municipal election will be held on October 27, 2014.

Source: Doug Ford for Mayor
Writer: Hamutal Dotan

For many of us, the Science Centre is a nostalgic place, evoking memories of grade school field trips and old-fashioned dioramas. Now the Science Centre is partnering with Cisco to create an entirely new kind of experience—one that is digital,interactive, and much more modern. Billed as a "connected museum," the two organizations announced the partnership last week.

Citing the need for Canada to improve its economic competitiveness, in a joint statement Cisco and the Science Centre spoke of the importance of fostering a culture of scientific literacy and engagement. If you can spark interest in science and technology in young people early on, the theory goes, you're more likely to eventually cultivate a workforce that has the skill sets certain economic sectors require.

"Cisco’s vision to enable innovation, particularly in education, is closely aligned with our own, and is one of the reasons this is an excellent relationship,” Dr. Maurice Bitran, CEO of the Science Centre, explained. "We hope to offer our visitors unparalleled learning experiences that will inspire the next generation of innovators.”

As part of the collaboration, Cisco is also sponsoring its first museum-based fellowship. The goal of the Cisco Science Fellow for Innovative Learning Technologies is "to improve science engagement and literacy through the use of integrated technologies."

The Science Centre's Sabrina Greupner, manager of their Weston Family Innovation Centre, is the first person to receive the fellowship. "My goal is to bring together external collaborators with our researchers, programmers, teachers and science experts to create innovative learning experiences and encourage the sharing of best practices,” she explained.

Hopefully visitors to the Science Centre—both in person and using new digital platforms—will be able to make the most of those experiences soon: one key goal of the partnership is to have the Science Centre linked up with Cisco's new new Internet of Everything Innovation Centre, set to open in downtown Toronto in 2015.

Source: Ontario Science Centre
Writer: Hamutal Dotan

As Toronto's municipal election enters its final weeks, we're looking at each of the major mayoral candidates, and, specifically, at their economic development and job-creation platforms.

Last week we looked at John Tory’s approach to these issues. This week: Olivia Chow.
 

• On the vexed subject of youth unemployment (which is at roughly 20 per cent) and in keeping with her overall positioning as someone who wants to maintain government's role in decision-making, Chow wants to leverage the City's power as a major purchaser of goods and services by requiring "that companies with big city contracts hire and train young people," and also hiring youth for municipal after-school recreation and tree-planting programs. Her platform estimates that these initiatives will create "5,000 new apprenticeships and jobs for young people over four years."
• When it comes to small business, Chow wants to extend small business tax cuts that are currently slated to expire in 2015, and extend them to 2020. She also pointed out, at a Board of Trade speech earlier this year, that many small businesses are run by immigrants. Taking cues from Vancouver, she wants to implement a "program that matches existing businesses with immigrant entrepreneurs. The new business gets help setting up and getting going. The existing business gets help and knowledge to help them export." Like Tory, Chow also plans to put many business licensing services online, to improve efficiency.
• Also in keeping with her progressive focus on services, Chow wants the municipal government to increase its funding to the arts sector, from $22.50 per capita to $25 per capita. She also wants to use $500,000 a year out of the money generated by Toronto's tax on billboards to create a music office, similar to the recently created film office. Though her platform does not specific what the economic spin-off effects would be, a City-commissioned report issued in 2011 estimated that for each dollar spent on the arts "cultural organizations were able to leverage a total of $17.75" in funding from other sources and earned revenue.
• Finally, when it comes to branding Toronto as a home for business, Chow, like Tory, wants to raise the city's profile by a new central organization—Global Toronto—to replace Invest Toronto, and integrate related services provided by other departments in the city. As its name suggests, the program would have an international focus and "will operate in global business languages including Chinese, French, Portuguese and Urdu with an outreach strategy to compete with cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles London and Sydney."

Toronto's election will be held on October 27, 2014.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Olivia Chow's election platform;  speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade (April 29, 2014)

As Toronto's municipal election enters its final weeks, we're looking at each of the major mayoral candidates, and, specifically, at their economic development and job-creation platforms. First up: John Tory.

Tory's platform in general focuses on streamlining services to businesses, and improving Toronto's branding and status internationally.

"Can you imagine how much better off we would be if we could trade in even a small fraction of the recent attention we received on the world stage, trade that for a few articles touting Toronto as a great place do business," he said at a recent speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

He promises to act as an ambassador for the city, which he believes is key in building confidence among potential investors.

A few items in particular that he hopes to focus on if elected:
 

• Develop a new business hub in Toronto, modeled on London's Canary Wharf. It would be located in the East Don Lands, and require "a reorientation of the Gardiner’s eastern section and new transit connections in this area." The proposal calls for 15 million square feet of development (a mix of commercial and residential), and Tory believes it could lead to the creation of 70,000 jobs if populated at full capacity.
• Focusing on the development of Scarborough, and specifically of opportunities along the planned Scarborough subway route, "by temporarily lowering property taxes for 10 years in order to encourage businesses to locate along the transit corridor." Though details are scant, he calls this an "innovation hub" and promises to work with City staff to streamline zoning and application requests along that corridor.
• Streamlining business services in general. "As your mayor, I will create a single touchpoint for business permit applications and other business services sought by those seeking to invest in our city," Tory told the Board of Trade. "We want to find a way to say yes to people who want to invest in Toronto."
• Tory also wants to "clean up the jumble of organizations trying to attract business to Toronto. Invest Toronto, the City economic development department, and the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance...are all trying to do the same thing, but a little bit differently. But they have a common objective: bringing jobs to Toronto... I will unify and streamline the way these three organizations and others work, and this will mean a better outcome on jobs and lower costs."
• Helping combat youth unemployment (which currently stands at 20 per cent) by doubling the number of companies in the Partnership to Advance Youth Employment, by expanding that program to small- and medium-sized businesses.

Toronto's election will be held on October 27, 2014.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: John Tory election platform speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade (September 18, 2014)

In the fall of 2013, the provincial government unveiled a plan to start issuing green bonds: bonds that are in some way tied to projects that help achieve environmental goals.

"Participating in the green bond market will provide an opportunity for Ontario to broaden its investor base and raise additional funding in this rapidly growing sector of the bond market," a government primer on the project says. "In addition, green bonds raise awareness of climate and environmental challenges and allow investors to support green initiatives."

Soon after, an advisory panel was created to help in the selection fo elgible projects, which in general fall into one of the following categories: clean transportation; energy efficiency and conservation; clean energy and technology; forestry, agriculture and land management; and climate adaptation and resilience.

A few days ago, the government announced the first project that would receive a green bond issue: the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, currently under construction in Toronto—that issue may be up to $500 million.

“Ontario is taking a major step forward in planning for a greener, more sustainable future and is the only province in Canada to release a certified green bonds program" finance minister Charles Sousa said when announcing the green bond issue. "People are looking for new and innovative ways to invest in a secure and socially responsible manner. Ontario’s Green Bonds will help us to invest in transit, create jobs and raise capital at competitive rates.”

Few additional details were immediately available, though the government does hope to make this first issue of bonds available early next year.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Finance

It’s a vicious cycle familiar to many young people trying to enter the workforce: you can’t get experience without a job, and you can’t get a job without experience. Hoping to help Toronto’s youth—who face about 20 per cent unemployment rates—is a suite of new projects being launched by CivicAction, in conjunction with several private sector partners. Together, the initiative is called Escalator.

The first element of Escalator, explains CivicAction’s CEO Sevaun Palvetzian, is a mentoring piece. Of the 83,000 young people in the GTA who don’t have jobs, many struggle with a lack of networks and role models that can help open that vital door to a first shot at employment. Escalator will aim to provide a centralized, organized way to access mentoring opportunities in the region, while also recruiting employers who can serve as mentors and linking community agencies with mentors more effectively.

The second pice is a collaboration with LinkedIn. “For many years the way people found jobs was by knocking on doors and walking into stores, “ Palvetzian points out. But now, “there's a new 21st century way of finding work.”

CivicAction is the recipient of a $10,000 grant from LinkedIn, and will also have access to some staff resources. The goal of this part of the project is to enable small- and medium-sized businesses post entry level jobs, as well as internship and apprenticeship opportunities, on the job platform for free, while simultaneously training youth in how to use that platform.

The third element of Escalator is another partnership, with technology services company NPower. “One third of the tech jobs in North America are in this region,” Palvetzian says, but often companies can’t find the trained, skilled workers that they need to keep growing. This part of the initiative will take youth from at-risk neighbourhoods and bring them to employer-led, employer-driven training. Ryerson is donating space to facilitate the project, which will include 15 weeks training by employers, followed by seven-week long internships. (Among the private sector partners that have signed on to participate are Cisco, TD Bank, and RBC.)

Palvetzian frames Escalator as a way of trying to fill in gaps in our current system. “A lot of current programs currently exist to help young people to do things like build resumes,” she points out—how to proceed once they’ve done that is often less clear.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Sevaun Palvetzian, CEO, CivicAction

Though there's a growing appreciation that Toronto and the surrounding regions are fast becoming a major hub for tech and digital innovation, just how sizable we've become in those sectors isn't always apparent. A new study highlights the significance of southern Ontario in particular, as "one of the most concentrated centres of technology leadership and growth in the world."

Conducted by tech sector analysts The Branham Group, the report identifies what it calls "Ontario’s own Digital Corridor: a concentrated cluster of innovative technology firms across the York Region, GTA, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Hamilton areas." In that corridor, the report finds, are "176,000 skilled professionals working in the technology sector, generating an average of $387,000 in revenue per employee."

The report is in part an attempt to not just identify the strength of the Toronto-Hamilton corridor in the tech sector, but to highlight one major shortcoming: our lack of effective marketing to celebrate this concentration of talent when compared to, for instance, Silicon Valley.

Our corridor "has everything offered by its U.S. counterpart: talented entrepreneurs, innovative companies, supportive governments, major post-secondary institutions (at least 12) and a track record of success." The report coins the term "Digital Corridor" as an attempt to begin to rectify that situation, developing a local analogue to the Silicon Valley branding that made that part of northern California so famous.

Comparing the two regions, the report notes some interesting differences: per capita income and overall population is higher here, but revenue per employee and total revenue generated are higher there. One potential explanation for this raised in the report: Canada tends to spend less on research and development than our neighbours to the south.

In an interview with John Ruffolo, CEO of OMERS Ventures that is included as part of the report, Ruffalo says: "Your data is concerning and supports other research indicating that Canada’s track record in R&D spend trails other nations around the world. We have to reverse this and make sure R&D spend is a key priority. It is a central strategy for viability of our industry and in individual companies."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: The Branham Report (Issue 2)

Toronto-based start-up Flybits—with the help of several private sector partners, the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and Ryerson Futures—hopes to revolutionize the way that mobile technology integrates into our daily lives and into the texture of our cities.

They’ve created a platform that helps bring a huge variety of data and apps together into a seamless experience, and they’ve just closed a major round of Series A financing that will enable them to double their 16-staff complement within a year.

When people talk about the kind of apps they wish they had, says Flybits CEO and founder Hossein Rahnama, they often describe tools that are context-sensitive and responsive: in an ideal world, for instance, your alarm clock would not only know your schedule but also know if your boss was running late, and know when to wake you up to accommodate both of those facts. Flybits has created a platform that aims, eventually, to do just that: it’s a context-aware platform that integrates information from a wide variety of sources and apps, and customizes the information it provides to an individual user based on his or her needs.

We’ve heard about apps like these before: the fridge that emails you a grocery list based on what’s left inside, for instance. “If you want to develop these applications,” says Rahnama, “you typically need to go to an app developer…who builds a very monolithic, non-scalable application.”

What distinguishes Flybits is that it aims to build a platform that is flexible and user-driver, rather than developer-driven: one where, he goes on, “rather than enabling engineers to build apps we enable people to build apps for their own experiences; you own that experience, you built it for yourself.”

To make this all more concrete, says Rahnama, imagine a Toronto app for Pan-Am visitors. It would start as your airport assistant (understanding your itinerary), and as you took the Union-Pearson Express it would become your transit assistant; then once you arrived at Union it would serve as your navigator—one continuous experience that eliminates the need to switch from app to app, and which could deliver all the information in whatever language you (as a traveller to Toronto) find most useful.

So far Flybits’ focus has been focusing on serving corporate clients, to allow the start-up to monetize and grow. (Among those clients are the City of Ottawa, GO Transit, and the provincial ministry of transportation.) They plan to open a free, public-facing consumer platform sometime in 2015.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Hossein Rahnama, CEO and founder, Flybits

Recently Ryerson University announced that its Digital Media Zone (DMZ) had signed a "friendship agreement" with one of Europe's largest technology accelerators, Level39. Based in London, England's Canary Wharf, Level39 has a particular focus on the financial, retail, and future cities sectors. The agreement will allow members of each institution access the other's facilities, spaces, and networks.

Ryerson has been in talks with Level39 for "five or six months," says Hossein Rahnama, director of research and innovation for the DMZ, "and it was a natural decision to form a partnership with them." Level39 has been around for two years now, says Rahnama by way of introduction, and is owned by the Canary Wharf Group. They "are hoping to transform part of the city into a global technology hub," he goes on. "Our goal is to enhance our collaboration with the UK, enhance mobility."

London has done a "great job" in developing the sectors in question, and the partnership is key for expanding the opportunities the DMZ can offer its members. It's one of several partnerships Ryerson hopes to develop in Europe over the coming years.

"International expansion has been part of our agenda since the beginning," Rahnama says—crucial for helping DMZ members find new opportunities for growth by giving them access to new markets, as well as exposure to best practices.

"A lot of our startups in Toronto are looking at addressing the financial vertical," Rahnama explains, so this allows Ryerson to offer that community to allow for scaling in Europe, without a lot of startup costs.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Hossein Rahnama, director of research and innovation, Ryerson University DMZ

This past weekend, Cisco Canada and the City of Toronto unveiled the Pan Am Games Countdown Clock, an innovative way to try and build momentum for the games as we head into the final round of preparations.

Located at Nathan Phillips Square, the clock—5.5 metres tall, 7.3 tonnes, and using five kilometres' worth of fibre optic cable—includes a range of internet-enabled functions that will be enhanced in the coming months.

In addition to counting down to the Games, the clock contains an interactive kiosk (it's wheelchair accessible—the screen adjusts height with the touch of a button) that will let you learn about the 51 sports included in the Pan Am Games, and about participating countries. If you're interested in volunteering you can learn more about options for that, too.

Over time new features will be added in, such as two-way video that will allow visitors to the clock to communicate with Pan Am athletes in their home towns, enabling communication between those of us hosting here and those who will be coming into Toronto for the Games.

Jeff Seifert, Cisco's chief technology officer, explains in a video about the clock that what makes it different are these added features, which are meant to create as engaging an experience as possible for users. The clock took six months to develop, and a team of 40 people was involved in its creation.

The 2015 Pan Am Games will take place from July 10–26, and the Parapan American Games will run from August 7–15.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Cisco Canada

In a city like Toronto—one which prides itself, defines itself—in terms of its diverse population, what does diversity actually mean, and how deep does it actually run?

"We have one of, if not the most, diverse cities on the planet," says Sevaun Palvetzian, CEO of CivicAction, the non-partisan community engagement organization. But that diversity doesn't necessarily extend to all sectors, and to all levels of leadership. True diversity, she says, would mean that leadership "looks like the city that we are."

That's why CivicAction (in collaboration with the Maytree Foundation) created a program called DiverseCity Fellows six years ago. It's a leadership training program for up-and-coming civic leaders that includes 100 hours of programming over the course of a year. Right now, CivicAction is recruiting for its next cohort of DiverseCity fellows.

Previous fellows reflect diversity of sector, diversity of gender, diversity of age (ranging from 27 to 56), and three-quarters have identified as visible minorities—"an important reason we run this program," Palvetzian says.

The program isn't meant to be a cure-all: for all that we do identify as a diverse city, we have a long way to go on many fronts before that is truly reflected everywhere. Leadership capacity is just one piece of a much larger puzzle, she goes on to say.

"Leadership development can target our challenges," especially by developing capacity in younger generations, and by serving as role models.

What they are looking for most in an applicant is someone who is "passionate and results-oriented, someone who has a clear understanding of what they want to do"—a project in the pipeline, and some mentors already who can help them achieve their goals.

The DiverseCity program is designed to help those people, with 5-15 years of experience already, take their ideas and give them the skills, networks, and other resources to realize those ideas, to "pack these folks with experience and access" that can help them champion a real project.

Applicants are being accepted until July 8, 2014.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Sevaun Palvetzian, CEO, CivicAction

Photo: CivicAction

More than a decade ago, the Toronto City Summit Alliance (now CivicAction) and the Maytree Foundation conducted some community outreach, asking what the most compelling issues facing Toronto were—including which issues were being neglected and required more attention.

One key issue that came up in that survey: integrating immigrants effectively into the city's labour market. And so those consultations led to the creation of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC).

This week, the organization is celebrating its 10th anniversary at an awards ceremony that will also honour individuals and organizations for their leadership in this sector.

When that initial survey was conducted, community groups said that while there were many immigrant settlement organizations, "there weren't a lot of organizations that were focused on this issue of opportunities for skilled immigrant labour," says TRIEC's executive director, Margaret Eaton.

And the resources that were being devoted to the issue were scattered. "Mentoring had been done in different organizations," she goes on, but once the new organization was formed "they came together under that umbrella," allowing for a better distribution of talent and increased scale of activity. The core of TRIEC'S activities is a one-to-one mentorship program that currently has 1,300 pairings; Eaton says that those who go through the program see an average increase in earnings of 62 per cent.

Reflecting on the past decade, Eaton says that "one of the big things we've seen is that some things have stayed very much the same: skilled immigrant unemployment is still double what it is for university-education Toronto-born population. if anything, it has gotten worse through the recession."

When asked why she said that, one key factor is that "the economy has changed so much. we're now seeing secondary migration—[people] coming to Toronto first, then moving elsewhere in Ontario or out west," where there are more plentiful job opportunities.

On the positive side, there is now an Ontario commission looking at regulated professions to try to make their requirements much more transparent to the applicants, easing the process for new immigrants who want to transfer their credentials from elsewhere so they can pursue their professions here.

As part of its 10-year anniversary, TRIEC is also looking to the future, and expanding its strategic objectives. "One of those," says Eaton, "is employer culture—looking at the glass ceiling that immigrants experience."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Margaret Eaton, executive director, TRIEC