NORTHERN DARK SKY Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTE AUGUST 9 - 10, 2018 1 © Emily Hon, 2016 2 THE PROPOSAL The City of Yellowknife is one of twenty finalists amongst 225 participating communities in the Smart Cities Challenge, a cross- Canada competition that encourages communities to adopt data- driven technology solutions to improve quality of life. Yellowknife’s proposal is created by the City of Yellowknife and Ecology North, in partnership with White Arkitekter AB (Sweden) and Northlands Utilities, is inspired by the “Dark Sky” movement to reduce light pollution in urban areas. The proposal centres around «the lamp post as a beacon for sustainability». It reduces light pollution with smart sensors-equipped street lights, while also aiming to go much further. Through this proposal, the City of Yellowknife is making the street light a symbol of social, economic, and environmental sustainability by allowing modifications and modular additions to its structure to enhance its functionality, and engaging the conversation on urban retrofit and sustainable transitions. This could include anything from air quality sensors to electric vehicle charging stations. Just like a smartphone, the smart street light is able to accept myriad apps and modular add-ons that will have different functions throughout the city. As one of the finalists for the Smart Cities Challenge $5M prize, the project partners have received $250k to pilot some of the proposal technologies and to prepare a final proposal. The City’s first step was to turn to the community to better understand their needs, values and aspirations. Thus, a two-day charrette, run by Ecology North and White Arkitekter AB, was held on August 9th and 10th in 2018, it brought together representatives from a wide range of community groups and stakeholders to answer the question: « How can the street light become a beacon for sustainability? » In this sense, the purpose of the charrette was to ensure that the needs of the community were met in the proposal put forward by the City of Yellowknife to Infrastructure Canada. Its other primary goal was to probe the concerns, values and aspirations of the people of Yellowknife when it comes to using technology to improve quality of life; thereby strengthening the sense of belonging of the individuals involved, and encouraging their engagement in future decision-making. This document summarizes the activities and discussions that took place during the charrette, and the resulting trends and conclusions. 3 Mark Heyck Rebecca Alty Mike Auger Chris Goit Mayor, Council Member Manager Network Administrator, City of Yellowknife City of Yellowknife Sustainability and Solid Waste, City of Yellowknife City of Yellowknife « I love how easy it’s to get around and how close nature is. » « I like all the opportunities that we have here : education, careers, arts, sports, anything you can think of. » Craig Scott William Gagnon Laura Bush Executive Director Green Buildings & Environmental Communications Specialist, Ecology North (staff) Advocacy Specialist Ecology North (staff) Ecology North (staff) « I like the walkability and density « I like the balance of small town ECOLOGY of the community. » « The empowered community. » and big city. » NORTH NORTHLAND UTILITIES Niels de Bruin Marie-France Stendahl Jason Newton Landscape Architect, Architect, Engineering Lead, White Arkitekter AB White Arkitekter AB Northland Utilities WHITE « It’s easy to get along with « I like the green mobility. » « I like the people and the sense of people. » ARKITEKTER community. » 4 AB Chris Vaughn Iman Kassam Harshen Manickum Holly Ferris Sustainability Projects Coordinator, Communications and Economic Senior Systems Analyst, Homelessness Specialist, City of Yellowknife Development Officer, City of Yellowknife City of Yellowknife City of Yellowknife «The sense of community.» «The many opportunities to learn, « I like the people. » experience and contribute to the « I love the community of CITY OF community.» Yellowknife that is very versatile and diverse. » YELLOWKNIFE Thevishka Kanishkan Antonin Boulanger Cartier Eric McNair-Landry Branda Le Lanscape Architecture Intern Architecture Intern, Polar Explorer, Youth Director, Ecology North (staff) Ecology North (staff) Pittarak Expeditions (board) Ecology North (board) « I like the proximity with nature. » « I really love the lake, its « I love the strong sense of connection to the Old Town and the community and the nature. » house boat community. » What do you like best about Yellowknife? PARTICIPANTS5 YELLOWKNIVES DENE FIRST NATION Elizabeth Liske Community Project Coordinator, Land and Environment Dep. Yellowknives Dene First Nation « I like the winters and all the winter activities. » ARCHITECTURE Bronwyn Rorke Stephen Fancott Alex Borowiecka Architect, Senior Architect Landscape Architect, Department of Infrastructure, NWT Association of Landscape Government of the Northwest « Oh! I like living near Great Slave Architecture Territories Lake. » « I like my little neighbourhood that « I love the people of Yellowknife. » is part of the large neighbourhood that is Yellowknife. » Linda Todd Program Coordinator, Arctic Energy Alliance ARCTIC « I like living beside Great Slave ENERGY Lake: it’s wonderful. » ALLIANCE 6 TOURISM Daniel Gagnon Astrid Gagnon Cathie Bolstad Tourist from Quebec, CA Tourist from Quebec, CA Chief Executive Officer, Researcher, Verificator, Northwest Territories Tourism Hydro-Quebec Government of Canada « I love that I live 6 minutes from « There is no traffic. » « I like the proximity with the my job, 30 seconds from my kayak water. » on the bay at home. » JOURNALISM Christopher Clarke Grégoire Blais-Dufour Facility Planner, Reporter, Health & Social Services Journal l’Aquilon GNWT « There is opportunity for progress « My land and my family. » and capacity-building around sustainability and green initiatives. » GNWT INFRA What do you like best about Yellowknife? PARTICIPANTS7 8 CHARETTE PROCESS DAY 1 INTRODUCTION Charrette opening by Mark Heyck, Mayor, City of Yellowknife & Elizabeth Liske, Yellowknives Dene First Nation WARM UP Yellowknife Quiz ! -- Icebreaking activity. Framing ACTIVITY 1 the problem Love and hate on map. Identifying the good and the bad about Yellowknife. * All participants were organically divided into 5 teams. ACTIVITY 2 The United Nations Sustainable Goals and targets Brainstorming ACTIVITY 3 The lamp post as a beacon for sustainability. * All participants were again Building upon identified goals and targets from activity 2. organically divided into 5 teams. ACTIVITY 4 Summarizing DAY 2 REVIEW The lamp post as a beacon for sustainability BRAINSTORMING Summarizing. Technical review, project timeline, planning, internal processes, etc. 9 WORKSHOP DAY 1 The City of Yellowknife, Ecology North, White Arkitekter AB, and Northlands Utilities were well-represented on the first day of the charrette, with at least one representative per organization. More importantly, the first day welcomed many Yellowknifers from a diverse range of groups, including but not limited to the tourism industry, academia, architects, landscape architects, and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. The day officially began when Mark Heyck, Mayor of the City of Yellowknife, cordially shared his vision of a thriving community and how the Extraordinary Yellowknife-Northern Dark Sky City project fit in with his aspirations for development. Afterwards, each workshop participant was invited, in turn, to introduce themselves and share with the others a short answer to the question «What do you like best about Yellowknife? Once the presentations had been made, the day’s program began: in turn, the different partner members took turns to draw up, first, what the Smart Cities Challenge consisted of, and then summarized the proposal as it was submitted to Infrastructure Canada, the respective competitors’ proposals, and the objectives and expectations of this workshop day. Afterwards, all were distributed organically in 5 balanced groups in order to start the different activities planned in the program. The Community Design Charrette was developed to encourage sharing and open discussion through interactive activities: while they initially sought to identify participants’ perceptions of Yellowknife and the concept of sustainability in general, they gradually led them to express themselves on how the project could wean them off in the specific context of intelligent public lighting. 10 11 WARM UP : Yellowknife Quiz ! Starting the charrette with an icebreaker quiz about Yellowknife was fun and informative. It reminded participants of some of the geographical features of Yellowknife, such as rainfall and water quality. The answers surprised more than one! 1. HOW MANY KM THERE IS BETWEEN YELLOWKNIFE AND THE NORTH POLE? 2. IS THE POPULATION OF YELLOWKNIFE IN OVER OR UNDER 20,000? 3. WHEN YELLOWKNIFE BECAME THE CAPITAL OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, BEFORE 1940 OR AFTER 1960? 4. WHAT ARE THE OTHER LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN YELLOWKNIFE EXCEPT ENGLISH? FRENCH, FILIPINO, VIETNAMESE, GERMAN, DENE, DOGRIB AND INUKTITUT. 5. WHAT IS THE PERCENT OF THE POPULATION OVER 65? ONLY 3.6% (695 PEOPLE IN TOTAL). 6. HOW MANY ARE THERE WHICH GIVE BRIGHT SUNSHINE IN DECEMBER? 7. WHEN THE YELLOWKNIFE SETTLEMENT IS CONSIDERED TO HAVE BEEN FOUNDED? 8. WHAT IS THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IN JANUARY AND JULY? AROUND −26 °C (−15 °F) AND 17 °C (63 °F) IN JULY 12 1. HOW MANY KM THERE IS BETWEEN YELLOWKNIFE AND THE NORTH POLE? 3,062