Some high-tech projects are coming to communities in Bruce County this year.
The Port Elgin based Nuclear Innovation Institute’s Municipal Innovation Council says it has used about $500,000 in external funding to run a few new projects.
They focus on beach water safety, flood mapping, local information technology collaboration, mental health in the workplace and Reconciliation.
The Municipal Innovation Council is made up of Bruce County’s eight municipalities and is part of the NII’s Centre for Municipal Innovation. Director Becky Smith recently shared an update with local municipalities about the projects. She notes the Centre for Municipal Innovation’s goal is to collaborate and find solutions to improve municipal services for residents, visitors and businesses. That includes looking for ways to be more efficient and save on costs.
One key project is the Smart Beaches project at Station Beach in Kincardine which will measure wave action on Lake Huron and help people determine if it’s safe to use the water. It’s being done in partnership with the University of Windsor. The MIC says It’s the first project of it’s kind in North America.
Another project is a high-tech flood mapping system called Mapping Our Future. The aim is to replace old, outdated maps and help communities prepare for fluctuations in water levels and shoreline erosion, as well as help municipal decision makers determine risk areas and come up with mitigation strategies for them.
The data will be collected using aerial imagery in partnership with Ecopia AI, and images from a large mapping project called the South West Ontario Orthoimagery Project (SWOOP).
It will be shared with Bruce County municipalities, local conservation authorities and Indigenous communities. The mapping system can be used for municipal planning and engineering, pavement and stormwater management, ecosytem mapping and forest cover analysis as well.
The Municipal Innovation Council says using this new mapping technology will save years of manual in-house geographic information system work. The funding for this project came from the federal government’s Natural Disaster Mitigation Program.
The MIC’s release says Mayor Luke Charbonneau voiced his enthusiasm for the Mapping Our Future project at a recent meeting, saying, “The mapping project is critical and will directly benefit property owners across the municipalities in Bruce County.”
Meanwhile, Smith says the eight communities in the council also participated in a review of Joint IT Business opportunities. It looked to improve digital maturity, find cost savings, and modernize digital services for residents over the next five years.
The MIC has also recently partnered up with the Grey Bruce Local Immigration Partnership to offer workshops on building more welcoming communities. Over 150 municipal staff from Grey and Bruce counties took part in the workshops.
Smith says, “These professional development opportunities give municipal employees the chance to broaden their knowledge and discuss how we can build more welcoming and inclusive communities within our rural region.”
She says, training opportunities focusing on mental health in the workplace for municipal staff and elected officials will be taking place this year. There will also be a focus on sharing knowledge on local Indigenous history to advance reconciliation efforts.
