GEIC Conference Offers Solutions for Toronto

The first annual Global Engineering Innovation Challenge questions and suggests solutions to Toronto’s infrastructure problems

By Ani Hajderaj, Staff Writer

The Global Engineering Innovation Challenge (GEIC) took place last month at Victoria College in the University of Toronto Saint George campus. It was the inaugural event of what will be an annual initiative that encourages engineers to think outside the box and come up with practical solutions for everyday problems. Leading professionals and thinkers shared their views on Toronto’s public transit system, how engineering intersects with business and politics, and how the need for increased funding addresses population density problems.

Toronto always encounters issues with public transit; whether they’re infrequent busses, constant repairs, slow service or implementing new ideas. Public transit was a hot topic at this first edition of GEIC, and urban planner professor Paul J. Bedford had a lot to say about public transit and the way politicians are approaching the topic.

“All you can do as a planner is provide people with choices and options,” Bedford said. “People need to understand when they make certain choices they also come with consequences. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t expect to live in the suburbs, have no transit, expect no road congestion and have somebody build a subway to your door. It’s not realistic.”

Bedford believes that urban areas should intensify and use existing services to their fullest potential. He also believes those who work in downtown Toronto should move closer instead of commuting from out of town every day, thereby cutting traffic congestion.

“If you’re prepared to move to Coburg, a small town, you will have to endure that two hours or more of commute time every day and not have a life as we know it,” Bedford commented.

Bedford suggests that one way public transit in Toronto can generate more funding is by introducing small taxes on various transit services. He proposes raising the parking fare by $1, adding 1 percent to the regional sales tax, and having operational grants from the government. He estimates that his suggestions, if implemented, could raise about $1 billion of revenue.

“Scarborough wants more transit, no question about it and they should have better transit,” Bedform remarks. “You just can’t have the same land use development expectations then expect transit to come to you without intensifying and having more density to make transit viable.”

Due to increasing population density throughout Toronto, Bedford believes transit will become much more necessary. “Scarborough is a huge place. The only thing you can do is plan the land use policy to concentrate development on the Eglinton cross-town and other key areas where there is transit, or proposed transit systems. Place more development on the main streets and that over time will make it more viable to have decent transit,” he explains.

Bedford is frustrated with politicians who don’t invest in public transit as much as they should. For example, the streetcars in downtown Toronto carry more people than all of Go Transit combined, yet Mayor Rob Ford says he wants to remove streetcar service.

“The government has to educate people a hell of a lot better about their real costs and the real choices. People don’t have all the information they need to make intelligent decisions,” Bedford says. “Many politicians promise unrealistic things like you can get a subway for free.”

One of the main organizers of the GEIC symposium, Joseph Yang, is a volunteer for Engineers Without Borders, and he wants to focus the GEIC conferences on solving problems that directly affect society.

“We started this program thinking about what kind of interesting things we can talk about. Things like urbanization in Toronto, climate change and energy, are these problems being solved by engineering professionals? We thought about it and we concluded they are not,” Yang explains. “We need to put more emphasis on solving these problems and that’s how the entire event came together.”

Yang feels that it’s necessary to get engineers more involved with politicians, business professionals and marketers to really come together and provide practical solutions to common problems. “The end goal is to work with these people to come up with solutions and we have done a typical marketing campaign with social media such as Facebook,” he says.

A common theme raised throughout the inaugural GEIC event was the lack of funding for Toronto’s transit system through investments from bankers and other finance professionals.

Of all the teams that presented, team number 21 won the challenge with their proposal for a public referendum on new taxes to finance an infrastructure bank. This idea also aims to supplement traditional funding levels and present a new and innovative solution that could appeal to all stakeholders.

Lindsay Roxon and Howard Tam comprise team number 21, and both benefit from a background in engineering as well as finance, which contributed to their successful presentation. “We looked at Venture Deli. They assist with start-ups; their financial plan, marketing plan and stuff like that, so we asked people there for some feedback and advice,” Howard explains.

The team members spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas individually and then came together to determine their best solutions with advice from Venture Deli and investment bankers. (Venture Deli is rebranding to Purpose Capital.)

“My portion was infrastructure bonds and eventually sort of blend development as well. It started when I was working at Venture Deli. Some of the consultants there helped me work out those ideas and we consulted with them after we came up with the whole system,” says Roxon.

It all comes down to persuading politicians to look at the new ideas and really consider them when planning public transit for Toronto. The city will only become denser, and we will need to come up with creative solutions to accommodate population growth. Organizing conferences like GEIC and bringing diverse thinkers together is a start to getting these initiatives off the ground.

As Bedford claims, “Politicians must bite the bullet and do what needs to be done.”

Image provided by: geic.ca

Curated: Ani Hajderaj is a journalism student involved in the electronic music scene in Toronto. He enjoys writing about music, technology, business and the general city life. Please follow him on twitter @AniHajderaj.