Digital Public Infrastructure for Canada’s Cities

Digital and cultural transformation has always been difficult in the public sector. But today, technology is presenting new risks to the institutional health and democratic wellness of our cities. 

The Waterfront Toronto/Sidewalk Labs Quayside project revealed that most fundamental issue when doing this work is: who will build, set the rules and ultimately govern the underlying technology architecture. This digital infrastructure will eventually become the operating system for our cities, and it’s where we will embed the answers to big societal questions around data governance, privacy, value capture, and more. These are issues which affect all municipalities but which none can solve alone.

We don’t know right now if this critical digital infrastructure will be publicly or privately controlled. Outside of Quayside's 12 acres in downtown Toronto, there’s no organization with the mandate, funding or coalition working to build digital public infrastructure for cities across Canada.  

This webinar will walk through these issues, and provide a look into the Open City Network’s early collaborative efforts towards a national system of digital public infrastructure for our municipalities.

Speaker: Andy Best, Executive Director, Open City Network

Andy Best is the Executive Director of the Open City Network, a not for profit working to protect democratic institutions and modernize cities at scale by building shared digital public infrastructure for Canadian cities. 
Prior to the OCN, Andy consulted with cities to help embed improvement and innovation into their culture and operations. Andy also led the innovation and open government files at the City of Guelph, including:
- designing the Civic Accelerator, Canada’s first startup accelerator inside of a local City Hall
- launching the Improvement Network, a coordinated suite of innovation programs and tools to help drive modernization and results;
- implementing Canada’s first municipal Open Government Action Plan.

Dad to two, husband to one, Andy sits on the board of the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington, Canada’s largest CMHA chapter. 

Webinar Pricing:
- IPAC members: $10
- Non-members: $30
- Group registration: $100

Please note: 
- IPAC members need to log in to their account to complete registration. 
- Non-members need to create an account before completing the registration.
- Webinar link will be provided the day before the session.
- A recording of the webinar will be circulated to registrants.