Canada is once again in the running as the host country for the most intelligent community in the world.
The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) recently unveiled its newest nominees for the esteemed Smart21 Communities of 2016 list — and eight of those finalists are from Canada.
“We are very excited to name 11 new communities from North America, Europe and Asia to this year’s Smart21,” said ICF co-founder Robert Bell in a statement. “We streamlined our selection process this year, increasing the quantitative portion of the data-gathering and analysis, and that has created opportunities for more cities and counties to be included in consideration for this prestigious group of Smart21 Communities.”
After Toronto won this esteemed title back in 2014, Canada was the country with the highest number of finalists making the most intelligent communities shortlist again this year, with Taiwan coming in second with five communities. Two U.S. communities hailed from south of the border, another two from Australia made the cut, and Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden all had a single town appear in the top 21.
The full list of Canadian cities that made the list include:
- Hamilton, ON
- Lambton County, ON
- Lethbridge, Alta.
- Montreal, Que.
- Oshawa, ON
- Ottawa, ON
- Surrey, B.C.
- Winnipeg, Manitoba
To continue to compete for the distinction of Most Intelligent Community, the nominees will need to serve up some detailed data around this year’s theme “From Revolution to Renaissance,” which focuses on how Intelligent Communities plan their future at a time when the economy, the environment and the patterns of urban and rural life are changing dramatically. Based on these criteria, the finalists will be assessed and the ICF will announce its Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year in February 2016.
Toronto was named to the top of the New York think tank’s list back in 2014, and and played host to the ICF 2015 Summit this past June as this year’s winner was announced. The 2016 winner will be crowned at the Smart21 Communities of the Year event in June 2016 in Columbus, Ohio.