Smart City Summit: Advancing global thought leadership

A Site with Transit Opportunities: Lakeview Village is a blank slate that offers opportunities for the integration of new transit infrastructure such as with the Lakeview Connecting Communities Master Plan and can serve as a testing ground for new transportation technologies such as autonomous vehicles and electric buses. Providing shuttle buses and integration with MiWay within the site delivers greater accessibility to transit for residents; this along with newly built trails and cycle pathways will encourage people to be less reliant on vehicles as the primary mode of transportation.

Flexibility in the Future: Establishing reduced parking requirements to be more flexible to the changing demand for cars is key to achieving targets and climate change goals; this flexibility within the City Planning process will support the advancement of future expansions and transit improvements. It is also important to consider who will manage local connectivity (role clarity) when the vision is complete

Investment Attracts Talent: Investment in infrastructure and new technologies such as a Living Lab will attract talent, industry and business to the Lakeview Innovation District from across the region and around the world, driving the local, regional and federal economy through the creation of jobs, local activity and new business brought to the City of Mississauga. Drawing on academia, industry, and government for implementation should be considered to support economic and social development.

Centre for Excellence: There is an opportunity to use the undeveloped lands at Lakeview Village to create a “100 km sandbox” that connects to the Kitchener-Waterloo-Toronto Corridor and draws top talent to a centre for education and innovation. Focusing on key industry sectors (i.e. Energy, Water, Waste) creates opportunities (locally, regionally, nationally) and fosters global attention and recognition to generate future investment and innovation anchors.

Collaborative Investment: Ensuring profitability for both government, partners and developers, improving quality of life for citizens and working towards a greener, cleaner environment are important features of Vacuum Waste; this technology provides an important opportunity to greatly reduce Mississauga’s carbon footprint and improve waste management processes. To ensure success and to close the funding gap, there must be collaboration, support and investment by various stakeholders; developing strong partnerships between all levels of government, consultants and developers – unified under a shared vision – is required to navigate through the implementation of these practices.

Model Development: Utilizing the Vacuum Waste Collection technology in new mixed-use community settings offers a unique opportunity to leverage data collection, provide incentives and educate end users to shift perceptions/behaviors/habits and ultimately deliver success for this new technology. The undeveloped lands of projects like Lakeview Village allow a new network to be constructed before a community is built; there is also the ability to create a “learned model” through monitoring, analyzing and results-driven data that can be used to replicate in future developments.

Appropriately managing risk is a critical element: Strategies can be employed to help try and align capital with development timing, but there is often still a gap between invested capital and the revenue that can be earned by the utility while maintaining affordable rates during the early stages of development (i.e. when the number of connected buildings is small).

New Ideas vs. Business As Usual: External funding for District Energy must play a key role in closing this gap. BAU will not be able to support and accomplish Mississauga’s Sustainability and Smart Cities goals; District Energy infrastructure at Lakeview Village is crucial to achieving City-wide low carbon or zero carbon targets.