Canada’s urban vitality lies in its own hands.

Nation, not Sidewalk Labs, should key urban vitality

Canada has a rich history of innovation, but in the next few decades, powerful technological forces will transform the global economy. Large multinational companies have jumped out to a head start in the race to succeed, and Canada runs the risk of falling behind. At stake is nothing less than our prosperity and economic well-being. The Financial Post set out explore what is needed for businesses to flourish and grow. You can find all of our coverage here.

Canada may aspire to be an “innovation nation.” In fact, we don’t have a choice. If we want to share in the industries of the future, and afford an aging society, we must seize opportunities wherever they may arise to accumulate domestic expertise, commercialize our own skills and technologies and scale up local companies.

Our own urban growth is one critical opportunity. Worldwide, more than a billion people will move into cities in the next 10 to 15 years. Their arrival in already crowded metropolises will present huge challenges, from housing and transportation to water and sanitation. As the Mckinsey Global Institute argued in a recent report, “making great cities is the critical infrastructure challenge of this century.” But the global shift to cities will also create new markets, “and not only for technology firms.”

While much urban growth will be in China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and other emerging economies, Canada has the potential to become a global centre for smart city development.

Ontario government projections estimate that the Greater Toronto Area alone will grow by 2.8 million people by 2041. This will bring a wide range of infrastructure and public service demands that the city is uniquely positioned to meet. The GTA hosts a long list of digital companies, a highly rated skills base and leading universities. It also has specialists in public-private partnerships and large asset management firms including major pension funds. It is a centre for urban planning, architecture, engineering, property development and construction firms.

The small town of Stratford, with a population of about 32,000, has in fact already shown that with aligned political and community leadership, Ontario has many of the skills needed to build and develop a smart city.

But if all of this makes the GTA an ideal test bed, or incubator, for large-scale urban development, it is also why Sidewalk Labs must be replaced by a Canadian-led consortium.

Three levels of government have already committed $1.25 billion in flood protection infrastructure to enable the development of the Port Lands. What they have not done is enable Canadian companies to drive that development — or to benefit long-term from the planning skills, technological expertise or intellectual property that will grow with Toronto’s waterfront.

This is where leadership is essential. If we want to be an innovation nation, we have to be more than a branch plant. We have to build Canadian companies with the scale and scope to participate in the global economy.

Sidewalk Labs, part of the Alphabet/google corporate empire, may see the Port Lands as part of the learning curve in becoming a major player in 21st-century urbanization. But what it learns in Toronto will reside elsewhere — at the company’s headquarters in New York. The Canadian interest is surely to build a Canadian advantage, not to play second fiddle to a foreign enterprise.

The Port Lands is the largest undeveloped piece of land in a North American city. Although it will be up to Doug Ford’s government at Queen’s Park and Toronto Mayor John Tory to align themselves with a Canadian solution, it is not too late to take charge and become the “brain” of this oncein-a-generation innovation opportunity.