May 2018

The Open Smart Cities Guide is the end result of Open Smart Cities in Canada, a year long collaborative research project led by OpenNorth and funded by Natural Resources Canada's GeoConnections program. This guide provides a first ever definition for an Open Smart City and is intended as a starter kit for city stakeholders and decision makers. They expect that this living document will grow as they receive more input and learn about additional people, projects, practices and resources that contribute to Open Smart Cities.



Check out OpenNorth's Current Projects Page for more information about Open Smart Cities in Canada and descriptions of its outputs. Direct links to project outputs are provided below:

• Open Smart Cities in Canada: Assessment Report
• Open Smart Cities in Canada: Executive Summary of Environmental Scan and Case Studies
• Open Smart Cities FAQ
• Webinars 1, 2, and 3 (link available soon).
  
   

Photo by Krissana Porto on Unsplash

Clearing the Air: How carbon pricing helps Canada fight climate change is a new report by Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission.

Carbon pricing in Canada has gained prominence in the last few months. Despite growing support for carbon pricing in new polling, and consensus amongst economists that carbon pricing is the least-costly way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the public debate is heating up. Debate around policy is necessary and healthy. But too often, the public conversation around carbon pricing seems to be based on misunderstanding rather than evidence.

To clear the air, the Ecofiscal Commission has put together a primer on how carbon pricing works. The report unpacks the evidence. It shows how putting a price on carbon in British Columbia, California and the United Kingdom has reduced emissions while maintaining prosperous economies. It explains how carbon pricing changes the behaviour of citizens and businesses over time by giving them flexibility and choice. And it presents new polling data showing the broad support in Canada for action on climate and carbon pricing in particular.

The Commission recommends that governments should continue to move forward with increasingly stringent carbon pricing policies. They should evaluate the performance of these policies over time and make adjustments as required. And they should endeavour to better communicate the realities of carbon pricing to help all Canadians understand the basics of why carbon pricing works [excerpt from Clearing the Air: How carbon pricing helps Canada fight climate change report Press Release].

Download the report. View the digital essay.