$50M richer? Region to learn fate of Smart Cities bid Tuesday

The Region of Waterloo will learn on Tuesday whether it will win $50 million as part of the federal government's Smart Cities Challenge.

The announcement is scheduled to take place at 4 p.m. in Ottawa.

The region is one of five finalists in the $50 million category. The competition will grant the money to a community to use data and technology to improve the lives of the people living there.

Waterloo region's pitch centres around the use of technology to improve the lives of young people and children.

Regional Chair Karen Redman will be in Ottawa for the announcement. She says loves the pitch Waterloo region put together because of its focus on youth.

"People thought we would do autonomous vehicles or something because they always think Waterloo region, high tech. And what we're doing is using high tech as an interface with the rest of the community to make our community the best community in Canada with benchmarks that can be measured in partnership with UNICEF Canada," she said.

If the region doesn't win the $50 million, they've still created more than 40 solutions and those have been driven by young people, she said. 

"We know that there's momentum and that people feel empowered and that young people feel like their voices are being heard," she said.

The announcement will also be live streamed at The Tannery building in Kitchener.

That event gets underway at 3 p.m.

Guelph and Wellington seeks $10M prize

Guelph and Wellington county's joint application is also among 10 finalist communities competing for one of two $10 million prizes.

Their application is to create Canada's first circular food economy and it's already received a lot of attention. The city and county have been invited to take part in an international circular food economy study and were invited to also present at the Global Food Summit in Germany.