Summary of the evaluation of the Smart Cities Challenge and Smart Cities Community Support Program (SCC)

What we evaluated

• Under the Impact Canada Initiative, the Government of Canada committed to spending $300 million over 11 years to create Smart Cities Challenge. Led by Infrastructure Canada (INFC), the Smart Cities Challenge was developed to provide funding to address complex economic, environmental and social problems across communities in Canada.
• The program has two streams:
  • Stream One: The Smart Cities Challenge stream provides prize incentives, via a challenge-based funding model, to communities of all sizes to improve the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology.
  • Stream Two: The Smart Cities Community Support Program stream provides support measures to communities aimed at increasing their capacity to adopt smart cities approaches.

Why it is important

• The evaluation was conducted to meet the legislative requirements of the Financial Administration Act that requires an assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of all grant and contribution programs with annual expenditures of $ 5 million or more once every five years.
• The evaluation was also conducted in alignment with the 2016 Treasury Board Policy on Results and assessed the relevance and effectiveness of the program design, progress towards achievement of the immediate outcomes and inclusion of the Gender-Based Analysis Plus considerations.
• The evaluation covered the timeframe of April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2022.

How we proceeded

• The evaluation used multiple lines of evidence to gather information in support of the findings. This included a review of program documents, literature review, program data, and key informant interviews.

What we found

The evaluation found that:

• The SCC was relevant and met the needs of Canadian communities.
• The SCC addressed eligibility barriers, promoted transparency and trust, facilitated involvement of diverse communities, and included the unique perspective of Indigenous peoples.
• The SCC design approaches were effective in achieving intended program objectives; however, some aspects of the delivery and implementation of the program posed challenges for applicants.

Our conclusions

• The evaluation concluded that, the SCC design and delivery were responsive to the needs of Canadian communities, including those with diverse populations.

Our recommendations

• The Program Management should develop a clear way to share lessons learned internally at INFC and explore collaboration options with Impact Canada to communicate lessons learned with federal and other Canadian institutions to help improve the design and implementation of challenge- and outcomes-based programs.