Coverage in the Toronto Star/ Challenge of transforming cities

Staff memo

We are delighted with the recognition the City of Guelph and our community partners , businesses and volunteers have received from Don Tapscott.

As you may know, last spring Don Tapscott wrote an article in the Toronto Star asking cities to meet 7 key challenges. In reviewing the article, I saw that Guelph has been doing great work in all 7 areas for the last several years. In fact, most of our Corporate Strategic Plan aligned to his insights.

So, beginning in the early summer months both myself and Barbara S have been reaching out to Don and his circle of colleagues to have him take a good look at our work here. We also asked the Mayor’s Office to reach out to him.

Seems that we were the only City to take this initiative and it has resulted in today’s article. Very exciting recognition for the great work of all involved.

This is the outcome of a great team effort and an example of the recognition our Corporation should expect now that we are building our relationships with intergovernmental agencies and documenting our work through public affairs. For another example, we published an article in this months’ Municipal World on “Transforming Local Government” and participated on an international panel at the “CityAge” – the Innovative City conference earlier this month in Waterloo. There, we highlighted our Open Government / Open Data work.

We hope to have more excellent coverage for our great city in the months to come!

Please let me know if you require any further information.

Below is the electronic article. We expect it will be published tomorrow in the Insight section.

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/toronto2014election/2014/10/17/as_toronto_dithers_guelph_sets_sights_on_21st_century.html