Here's what the Sault needs: Kara's gihumongous indoor beach!

This, according to Kara Flannigan, is what Sault Ste. Marie needs.

It's a mammoth indoor beach resort.

Flannigan, who ran for the Green Party in last year's provincial byelection in the Sault, wants one of these on our waterfront.

She proposed the idea today at a public input session aimed at developing the Sault's application for Infrastructure Canada's Smart Cities Challenge.

"Living in northern Ontario, our summers are so short," Flannigan said, responding to a request for suggestions on what Sault Ste. Marie could do if we won $10 million in federal infrastructure cash offered through the competition.

"If you Google 'Germany indoor beach' it's absolutely fabulous," she said.

Indeed. That Google search will take you to Berlin's Tropical Islands Resort, which opened in 2004 inside a converted Nazi airship hangar.

The massive theme park "is so huge the Statue of Liberty would fit inside standing up, the Eiffel Tower lying down, and five Brandenburg Gates lined up side by side," says the resort's website.

"With a surface area of 66,000 square metres it would cover nine (soccer) pitches and it features a special, 20,000-square-metre foil roof that lets sunlight through so guests can get a lovely tropical tan while they enjoy themselves inside."

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

"It's also a great place for an indoor fish farm...so you have food security."

And if you're doing all that, you might as well grow crickets and mealworms inside the structure, to be ground into protein powder, Flannigan added in a somewhat less appetizing suggestion.

City Council agreed last October to form a task force led by Mayor Provenzano to prepare an application to the federal Smart Cities Challenge.

The competition is aimed at empowering communities to address local issues using a smart cities approach incorporating data and connected technology.

Further input sessions will he held.

All of the ideas suggested will be evaluated and the city's application must be submitted by Apr. 24.

A $50 million prize is offered to one community in Canada, with two prizes of $10 million for communities under 500,000 residents.