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Smart City
A smart city is an interconnected community that leverages the smart use of technology to benefit its citizens, businesses and service organizations for economic growth, social benefits, and environmental sustainability. Through the innovative use of technology and data, Coquitlam works to create safe public spaces and improve how our community:
- Moves around
- Lives and plays
- Works and learns
- Participates in society
- Interacts with nature
Coquitlam Initiatives
Some examples of how Coquitlam uses technology to enhance community life and City services:
- CoquitlamConnect mobile app
- Council Meeting webcasts and online agendas and minutes
- Digital Community Information Hub - touch-screen access to tourism, city and wayfinding information
- Digital platform to automate and streamline development application review and processing; awarded a Tech Trailblazer Award
- eServices for online payments, renewals, program registration and permit application
- Free Wi-Fi in City parks and civic facilities, including City Hall, Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex and City Centre Aquatic Complex
- GPS fleet management system on City service vehicles
- LED street lights
- Let’s Talk Coquitlam online engagement portal and Viewpoint online community survey panel
- MyCoquitlam - secure web portal access to City accounts such as utilities, property taxes and dog licences
- Online building inspection booking tool and mobile building inspections
- Open Data Portal - free access to City data through maps, tables, charts and images
- Project Greenlight partnerships to seek innovative technology-based solutions to local environmental challenges and accelerate tech-based approaches to service delivery
- Public safety cameras
- Qthe Map-Web interactive City map to find zoning information, area plans, parks, City facilities, utility data and property information
- Solar-powered mobile device charging station in Spirit Square
- State-of-the-art QNet fibre optic network
- Traffic management systems
- Virtual Reality for planning future development, allowing City staff, Council and the public to take realistic walk-throughs of proposed developments and how they fit into the neighbourhood and with each other. View the Virtual Reality Planning demo video.
Coquitlam has been named one of the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2023 by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). The Smart21 Communities are chosen by ICF based on quantitative and qualitative data in six key areas: connect, sustain, include, engage, innovate and work.
Smart communities demonstrate innovation in using technology and data to create safe public spaces and improve how their citizens move around, live and play, work and learn, participate in society, and interact with nature.
Coquitlam is the only community in B.C and one of only six Canadian municipalities to be named a Smart21 Community in 2023. Coquitlam was previously recognized by the ICF in 2021.
Keys Areas of Work
Smart21 cities have applied the ICF principles to build inclusive economic prosperity, social health and cultural richness, which together make a community strong and resilient.
Coquitlam’s efforts to be a ‘smart’ community focus on technology solutions that increase community awareness of City programs and services, improve resident experiences, transform outdated processes and foster civic engagement.
Some of the specific initiatives highlighted in Coquitlam’s Smart21 submission include:
- QNet as a way of enabling high speed, low cost broadband coverage in high-density housing and commercial operations.
- A Digital Strategy that fosters innovation and collaboration, while guiding how the City chooses and uses technology to improve business functions.
- A Community Engagement Framework, Viewpoint public engagement panel and Let’s Talk Coquitlam engagement portal that look to the principles of inclusion and accessibility to facilitate community engagement on City issues, plans and services.
- Coquitlam’s Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability initiatives which reflect the City’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change to maintain sustainable service delivery to the community.
- Participation in Project Greenlight to partner on innovative technology-based solutions to local environmental challenges and accelerate tech-based approaches to service delivery.
Adopted in February 2018, Coquitlam’s Technology Road Map (PDF) is a high-level strategic document that guides how the City chooses and uses technology to improve its business functions, operational efficiency and services to the community in the coming years.
Initiatives are grouped under six technology-enabling strategies that reflect the City’s operations, Strategic Plan and Business Plan priorities:
- Improve citizen services and customer experience
- Develop smart transportation solutions
- Maintain public safety and security
- Improve operational efficiency and productivity
- Empower staff to be better at what they do
- Migrate towards a "smart city" (a city that collects and uses electronic data to be more efficient and effective)
Development of the Technology Roadmap included extensive research, a close look at staff technology use and needs, a community survey and input from the Youth Council.