Update on Akwesasne Smart Cities Challenge

By Mahlon Smoke

On June 4, 2018, The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne announced that they were named as one of 5 finalists in the Smart Cities Challenge by Infrastructure Canada. The purpose of this challenge was to develop a proposal to submit to Infrastructure Canada, the main goal focusing on community issues and how to develop a way to improve upon the lives of said community members. With this announcement, MCA was awarded $250,000 to finalize their ideas and put them into action for the benefit of the community.

As of right now the plans are in the beginning stages of implementation that will go into finalization and a chance at $5,000,000 to put these plans into full implementation within the community. These plans include a focus on Diabetes prevention and introducing certain technologies that can improve health, diabetes awareness and prevention. What this plan also includes is Community participation and input so that members of the MCA government can work better to give the community members what they need.

According to one of the collaborators, Keith LeClaire, “We are taking the lead in this as Diabetes is the largest health factor in Aboriginal communities all across Canada,” hence their focus on it when preparing for the proposal for the challenge.

His group’s collaboration with MCA project and research helped shape the final product by providing statistics and a big picture approach for them. This while the MCA group continued and developed the project even further, such as plans to introduce more natural foods and fresh vegetables for families, monitoring community members response, as well as attempting to introduce the use of smart cars into the community.

The final product is expected to show progress by March, when it is due for the Smart Cities finals. If MCA is the successful candidate, all their plans will receive the $5,000,000 to go further with these plans. But MCA needs community input in order to define how successful these new programs will be. To read the full proposal submitted to Smart Cities Challenge go to http://www.akwesasne.ca/smartakwesasne.