City of Ottawa/ Infrastructure Canada:

1. City of Ottawa/ Infrastructure Canada: Knowledge-Building, Outreach and Awareness Research Program Examining the Social Elements of Public Infrastructure : Impacts on Competitiveness and Implications for Governance

2. Outline of presentation • Research project • Research questions and theoretical framework • Case studies: Calgary and Ottawa • Break • Toronto case studies • Key findings • Data and measurement • Implications for policy and governance

3. A three year research program • Funded by Infrastructure Canada • Coordinated by City of Ottawa Housing Branch • Goals: • Reframe traditional view of infrastructure and its role in local economy and city competitiveness • Expand knowledge and engagement

4. What do we mean by competitiveness • = economic development • How do cities compete? • How does infrastructure contribute to competitiveness? • Does social infrastructure contribute to competitiveness, and if so, how? • What implications does an evolving scope and role for infrastructure have for governance?

6. Selecting Cities/Cases • What is each City’s strategy and the intent of the investment? • What was the context? • Have the effects been measured – are they measureable? • What are the implications of new infrastructure strategies for governance? Key Issues for Case Studies

7. Case Studies Affordable Housing Strategy, Calgary Rural Broadband Initiative, Ottawa Sheppard Avenue Subway, Toronto St. Lawrence Neighborhood, Toronto MaRS Centre, Toronto

8. Calgary Affordable Housing Aggregate investment $160m/6 yrs Concurrent with ED Strategy Context – excessive growth – affordable housing needed to sustain growth Employment, GDP data – inconclusive evidence re direct effect But – important in managing externality of growth In place infra, physical capital, indirect effects

9. Expansion of rural broadband across the City of Ottawa

10. What was the investment? P3: $750K City, $10.4 M private investment Funding went primarily towards building transmission towers Supportive of human capital, local and external network infrastructure

11. How it came about New political dynamic: 2001 amalgamation Well developed economic rationale: The City of Ottawa’s 20/20 Economic Plan, Broadband Plan (2003) Mobilisation of rural residents (Rural Summit)

12. Intent of Broadband investment Expand the City's innovation economy; Attract knowledge-based workers to the City; Improve quality of life through access to online health care, education, government and commercial services; Reduce daily commuter traffic; Bridge the "digital divide" between urban and rural Ottawa Foster economic development outside the urban core.  *Broadband Plan, 2003

13. Electronic Survey 17.7% response rate 29% business owners

14. Key findings of survey 1. 75% of business owning respondents stated that access to high-speed Internet has improved their business sales and profitability while 63% noted that access to high-speed has helped reduce their business expenses. 2. 15% of rural business owners stated that without access to high-speed, they would relocate to other areas. 3. 20% of non-business owning respondents would not be able to continue working for their current employer if they did not have the capacity to telecommute.

15. Broadband: key findings • Multiple factors led to the success of this investment Political Economic rationale Resident mobilisation Governance model Type of investment Geography

16. Break

17. Sheppard Avenue Subway • Investment of 933.9 million, 2002 • “Straddled” the inception of a competitiveness strategy • Example of intended internal network infra • Truncated from major system investment • Has not appreciably contributed to competitive business growth in North York Centre or elsewhere • Good data availability

19. St Lawrence Neighbourhood • Aggregate investment $46million/10 yrs • Predates formal competitiveness strategy • New n’hood, brownfield area next to CBD • Removed externality (derelict land use) • Catalyst for residential growth in downtown • Expanded CBD labour supply (low wage) • Data suggestive but inconclusive • In place infra, physical capital, indirect effects

20. MaRS Centre • Investment from Province/GOC, with City facilitation • Directly in line with competitiveness strategy • Combines in-place capture of knowledge and innovation with network functions, directly supporting external business • Anecdotally appears to be well situated to contribute to the Discovery District • Very little data

21. Insights from the case studies? • Increasing awareness and explicit strategy on competitiveness – at least in rhetoric • Cases often pre-date a formal competitiveness strategy – but still contribute • More recent cases (Broadband, Mars) more directly follow from competitiveness strategy • Seldom are there mechanisms to measure impact ex poste • Importance of infrastructure investment on human capital effects

22. Measuring Competitiveness Effects in Case Studies? • Some useful data elements available and were applied (e.g. Sheppard – transit data; Broadband electronic survey; Calgary and St L employment data). • More frequently, data was not available at appropriate scale, or frequency to explicitly measure impact of discrete investments (causality) • Conceptual model helps identify which data would be useful – for future collection and monitoring outcomes

23. Policy Implications • Importance of specific goals and strategies • Indirect effects (managing externalities) • Relative importance of scale and targeting • Importance of physical/functional connection • Importance of systems (aggregate impacts) • Human and physical capital and the meaning of “infrastructure” (re social elements of public infrastructure)

24. Implications for Governance • Preoccupation with apriori justification for project but limited attention to ex poste measurement of impacts • Strengthen linkages between strategic goals and investment decisions • Importance of capital budget process • Multiple government conditionality can undermine (no fed/prov policy/strategy for city competitiveness

25. Research Team • Russell Mawby, City Ottawa/Places Group, (as of November 2008) • David Hay, CPRN/Information Partnership Inc. (as of October 2007) • Steve Pomeroy, Focus Consulting Inc, and University of Ottawa • John Burrett, Capacity Strategic Networks Inc • Leonore Evans, Carleton University • Duncan Maclennan, University of Ottawa (through 2006)