Creating Municipal Partnerships for Vibrant Communities
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s in many places across the country, British Columbia’s municipalities are facing challenges, including managing the decline of the natural resource sector, developing sustainable solutions to homelessness, addressing the impacts of climate change, and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, many municipalities are overextended, and the tools needed to implement innovative solutions require capital and resources they might not have at their immediate disposal. That’s where Mitacs comes in. CONNECTING MUNICIPALITIES WITH INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS Mitacs, a national non-profit with a commitment to Canadian innovation, connects municipalities with the talent, funding and expertise they need to address urgent and important issues. Through Mitacs’s innovation internship programs, municipalities of all sizes are matched with post-secondary researchers with specialized skills to help them drive innovation and build sustainable futures. Mitacs interns – ranging from college students to postdoctoral fellows – can help develop solutions on a broad range of issues that affect municipalities such as infrastructure renewal, including roads and waterways, sector specific development planning, supply chains, pandemic recovery, and much more. Since expanding eligibility to include municipal governments in the 2020-21 fiscal year, Mitacs has supported projects from over 50 municipalities across Canada, including the cities of Kamloops, West Kelowna and Vancouver. Having partnered with post-secondary institutions nationwide and with a clear understanding of the challenges municipalities face, Mitacs provides the right expertise to meet the unique needs and priorities of each municipality as they look for innovative solutions to pressing problems.
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INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS IN ACTION Investigating Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Transit The City of West Kelowna, like with many smaller municipalities, has experienced challenges in offering affordable, accessible and sustainable public transportation to its residents. Quickly becoming one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada, West Kelowna was lacking key resources that would allow the municipality to gain a better understanding of the travel behaviours of its residents as well as make informed decisions on issues related to transit. With an increasing population of over 32,000 residents, West Kelowna was unprepared for the rate of growth and the effect it would have on the local transportation system. By partnering with Mitacs, West Kelowna was able to benefit from the support of a personalized research team and develop research-based transportation strategies according to the goals and desires of its residents. Mitacs matched the City of West Kelowna with key researchers from the University of British Columbia to create a complete travel analysis of the municipality, including exploring the demand for alternative modes of transit, analyzing environmental impacts of current models, and developing a transportation plan that would ensure equitable access and reduced vehicular emissions. A “Right to Food” With an estimated 45 percent of all produced fruits and vegetables going to waste annually in Canada, about 25 percent of the residential garbage in the City of Vancouver was coming from uneaten or spoiled food. Not only was this creating an enormous financial impact on the municipality, it was also presenting important environmental concerns. With the amount of methane generated by decomposing food in landfills, Vancouver
