City deep-sixes Kara Flannigan's indoor beach

Kara Flannigan's plan for a walloping big indoor beach on the Sault waterfront will not be part of the city's application to Infrastructure Canada's $75-million Smart Cities Challenge.

Flannigan, Green Party candidate in the June 7 Ontario election, introduced her beach proposal at a public meeting in February aimed at generating suggestions for what the Sault could do if we won $10 million in federal infrastructure cash offered to communities with fewer than 500,000 people.

Tom Vair, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for community development and enterprise services, has been scrambling this week with other city officials to get our application ready by next Tuesday's deadline.

Last night, Vair provided a summary of the city's bid to a poorly attended gathering at the civic centre.

He made absolutely no mention of Flannigan's year-round covered-beach idea.

Back in February, Flannigan argued that a huge waterfront structure could enhance local food security with an indoor fish farm and facilities to grow edible crickets and mealworms.

"Because it's warm, moist and high humidity, with bright lights, it works for seasonal affective disorder and mental health," Flannigan said then.

Last night, she tried several times to persuade Vair to reconsider her beach idea.

Flannigan mentioned last year's community adjustment committee report, which recommended focusing on four pillars: economic growth and diversity, social equity, cultural vitality and environmental sustainability.

"I think the beach hits on all of those things in the four pillars... and it gives something for young people to do all the time," she said.

Vair responded, pointing out that the whole point of the Smart Cities Challenge is to use data and connected technology to address a community challenge.

Flannigan's proposal wasn't about those things at all, but she nonetheless pressed Vair to mix in some data dollops and connected-tech crumbs to make her beach fit the bill.

"I think the beach is exciting and sexy. Tie some tech to it to get that money," she told Vair.

What the city will submit next Tuesday will instead be focused largely on retaining our youth and preparing them to compete in the new digital economy.

"Our goal is that this would create the most advanced platform for youth development in Canada and improve some of the troubling indicators that we see in Sault Ste. Marie," Vair said.

Those indicators include high rates of alcohol and drug abuse and a local teen pregnancy rate that's almost triple the provincial average, he told the four members of the public listening to his presentation.

The Sault's Smart Cities Challenge application is expected to include what Vair describes as "a suite of programs" geared to specific ages, from early years through to young professionals:

• a pilot on-demand transit service that uses technology to create custom routes for picking up and dropping off bus riders
• free municipal wireless access throughout the downtown core
• a new open-data platform providing increased access to municipal information (this was approved by City Council earlier this month)
• state-of-the-art broadband technology and youth-targeted programming at 'super hubs' in strategic locations throughout the city
• an app or apps that would provide useful information to youth, including real-time data on location of city buses and bus stops
• engaging youth in community development through compelling content and 'gamification'

"It's not that we're going to turn everyone into coders," Vair said. "But it is that we're going to provide tools and resources to youth in the community to learn new skills."

Flannigan was skeptical of the Smart Cities competition and its technology focus.

"I actually think that this might just be a way that they can comfortably hand Google $50 million for a 100-acre development for the smart city in Toronto," she said.

She said many of the technological proposals in the city's bid are likely to happen anyway.

"I see it as kind of redundant," Flannigan said, expressing doubt that the new hubs and other concepts would be of any interest to youth.

"They've already got school. They know how to do everything on their phone/ Why would they go to the hub," she said.

Finalists in the Smart Cities competition will be announced this summer.

If the Sault's application is short-listed, we'll receive $250,000 to finalize our bid for the $10 million prize, which will be awarded next summer.