In 2012 Communities of Tomorrow and the Canada West Foundation partnered on a project called Let’s TOC-with TOC representing “Transform Our Communities”. The objective of the project was to provide an online platform for the sharing of research, best practices, and thought leadership on the application of innovation to the construction and operation of municipal infrastructure. The core of the project was a weekly blog created by Canada West Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst Casey Vander Ploeg, which provided dialogue-starter thought pieces on alternatives and new ideas in infrastructure financing, service delivery, and smart new technologies in the infrastructure field. The website,www.letstoc.ca, also attracted blogs and comments from infrastructure professionals across Canada, from engineers to city managers, to mayors. The site also housed relevant research articles from a wide variety of sources.
The Let’s TOC project was designed to engender dialogue and heighten interest in the months leading up to the second National Infrastructure Summit in September of 2012. Casey Vander Ploeg and Communities of Tomorrow both made major presentations at the summit. The summit was seen as the end of the project, however there was a great deal of important and useful information gathered, and CT has decided to make that material available on a continuing basis on this website.
We want to see the dialogue continue, so please send your comments, suggestions, and comments to info@communitiesoftomorrow.ca, or Tweet us @communtomorrow.