UTTRI associated faculty Professor Matti Siemiatycki comments in “Smart cities will be cleaner, accessible, even more democratic, proponents say. But governments adopting new tech must contend with risks, too,” published in the Toronto Star, January 4, 2020.
The article by John Lorinc is the first in the Toronto Star’s 2019-2020 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy series on the politics and governance of smart city technology.
“There’s billions of dollars flowing into this space,” says University of Toronto urban geographer Matti Siemiatycki, a Canada Research chair in infrastructure and finance. “This activity is happening in a small number of cities and Toronto is one of them.” The GTA, he adds, can become a leader in how cities leverage data and technology to support broad social goals, like sustainability and inclusion, while making municipal operations far more efficient and responsive.