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The Peter J. Marshall Innovation Award Jury presented its highest award to three municipalities at the 125th Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.
The Regional Municipality of York was honoured for its automated transit facility inspection program; the Town of Midland for its project: Leveraging AI for Enhanced Risk Assessments for Water and Wastewater Infrastructure; and City of Peterborough for its Modular Bridge Housing Community project.
The P.J. Marshall Award is an annual competitive process to acknowledge municipalities who have had creativity and success in implementing new, innovative ways of serving the public. It is sponsored by AMO, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks & Treasurers of Ontario, the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships, the Municipal Finance Officers’ Association, and the Ontario Municipal Administrators’ Association.
Regional Municipality of York
York Region’s transit system helps move more than 80,000 commuters across a system spanning 1,700 square kilometres. York Region manages 6,050 bus stops that offer transit shelters, benches, bike racks, and garbage and recycling receptacles.
Each York Region Transit’s (YRT) bus stops require routine inspections and maintenance – a process that takes significant staff time. In 2023, YRT invested in CITYROVER, an artificial intelligence (AI) program that helps streamline and simplify the tedious process of inspecting each individual bus stop.
Now selected buses in YRT’s fleet are equipped with a smart camera set up to scan and monitor shelters as the bus stops along its route. Using AI, the camera captures and analyzes images for issues like maintenance and structural problems. Then it compiles an inspection report and uploads the data to a cloud server.
This approach has drastically improved York Region’s ability to keep bus shelters in good repair for transit riders. By equipping buses that are already travelling around York Region with technology to assess and analyze data, staff are alerted to incidents and issues in real time and take care of problems proactively.
The project is improving service and saving money. York Region estimates it would cost about $3.8 million annually in staff time for routine inspections, and tens of millions of dollars to install camera systems at all stops. With this technology in place, York Region staff are responsible for frequent inspection of two per cent of stops, while CITYROVER AI technology takes care of the rest.
The eight cameras currently in operation provide monthly coverage of approximately 3,210 stops, based on scheduled bus routes.
“On behalf of York Region and York Regional Council, we proudly accept the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s P.J. Marshall Award for York Region Transit’s Automated System-Wide Transit Facility Inspection Project,” said York Region CEO and chairperson Wayne Emmerson. “This innovative technology uses real-time data and artificial intelligence to enhance amenities, efficiently address concerns and improve service for our 21 million annual transit riders. York Region remains committed to providing cost effective, quality transit services that connect people, jobs and communities today and every day.”
With more than two hundred linear kilometres of infrastructure, Midland’s water and wastewater system requires ongoing maintenance and oversight to prevent breaks and blockages. As part of a risk and life cycle management framework, process improvement assesses likelihood of pipe failure, including associated costs.
Previous challenges to developing a framework that also considered the many factors contributing to likelihood of pipe failure presented an opportunity for the Town to seek out advanced technologies to improve this process.
Working with CANN Forecast, a Montreal-based start-up specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), Town staff uploaded extensive data, including failure history and current work orders on existing water infrastructure. This included data collected through acoustical monitoring, an efficient method of detecting blockages and problems in underground water and wastewater infrastructure. CANN Forecast’s AI technology produced a new model for identifying the most at-risk sections of Midland’s water and wastewater network and determining the likelihood of failure. This new model will also better predict social and economic factors that could impact the cost of failure.
This technology allows Midland to manage its underground water infrastructure with unprecedented accuracy, mitigating the risk of critical failures, improving infrastructure lifespan, and enhancing overall service delivery.
“We are truly honoured to be selected for the Peter J. Marshall Innovation Award this year at AMO. By leveraging AI technology to predict the likelihood of pipe failure, we can develop an efficient life-cycle management strategy for our water and wastewater assets,” said Midland CAO Rhona Bunn. “Our water services staff continue to impress us with their dedication to advancing our service delivery through innovative approaches and improved technologies, enhancing the quality of services in our town.”
City of Peterborough
The transitional housing project was spearheaded by the City in May 2023 to address a long-term encampment in downtown Peterborough. In just six months, the City built 50 modular homes, shared washroom facilities, and a central service hub, thanks to funding through the provincial Homelessness Prevention Program.
Engagement with encampment residents was key to the project’s success. Community outreach workers gathered input from 75 people who lived in the encampment to ensure the modular home community would fit their needs. Considerations included everything from site design and location to security, operations and pet policies.
The Peterborough Modular Bridge Housing Community was built at the original encampment site. During construction residents were moved to a vacant parking lot across the street to the City’s first temporary sanctioned encampment.
By November of 2023, the first residents moved into their new modular homes. The community had a 98 per cent move-in rate for the first 50 people who were offered units. This is not typical for transitional housing programs, which normally see a 40 to 60 per cent move-in rate.
Within the first six months of operation, four people acquired jobs, one person moved into permanent housing, and there was a 90 per cent reduction in emergency service calls compared to when the site operated as an encampment. Staff have also reported significant improvements in the mental and physical health of the residents.
“I am incredibly proud that Peterborough’s transitional housing project has been recognized with the prestigious Peter J. Marshall 2024 Municipal Innovation Award. This award is a testament to our city’s commitment to addressing homelessness with compassion, creativity, and a focus on practical solutions. As a Council, we knew we had to move beyond the natural tendency to stop when faced with an overwhelmingly complex challenge like homelessness. We knew we had to pick a lane. We learned from the experiences of others and our professional staff delivered this project with urgency and expertise. |
