A City That Fixes Things

Waterloo is a city shaped by engineering.

Engineering means taking a real problem, accepting real constraints and making something that works. It is not complaining that the constraints exist. It is not writing a report and calling the problem solved.

Why should our government work any differently?

I want Waterloo to become the best civic problem-solving city in Canada: a place where residents can see what City Hall is trying to fix, talented people can contribute and useful ideas can move from suggestion to test to everyday service.

This is not about turning Waterloo into Silicon Valley. It is not technology for technology’s sake. The test is simple: does somebody’s life get better?

Imagine photographing a pothole and having the location and report reach the right place without navigating a bureaucratic maze. Imagine choosing to tell a bus that you are almost at the stop, so the system can make a better decision than leaving you behind by seconds.

These are small examples. That is the point. A city becomes trustworthy when ordinary interactions tell you that somebody thought carefully about your time.

City Hall should publish a clear list of problems it is working on, the constraints around them and what a useful outcome would look like. Students, residents, researchers, community groups and businesses should be able to propose solutions to something real.

When a product works, the city should be willing to become a customer. A purchase tied to a real need is more valuable than another speech about supporting innovation.

We should create room for carefully scoped trials. Some experiments will fail. The answer is not to stop trying; it is to define the risk, protect the public, measure what happened and tell people honestly what we learned.

Technology must leave people with more agency, not less. Participation should be voluntary where possible. Data collection should be minimal and understandable. Residents should know what a tool does, what it stores and how to challenge a decision.

A cashier, firefighter, student, parent or small-business owner should feel in control of the tool—not disposable because of it.

And sometimes the best solution will not be software. It may be a clearer permit, a safer crossing, a bench in the right place, a better event schedule or one person finally taking responsibility for an obvious problem.

Many important services cross municipal boundaries or depend on the Region, the Province, universities and other institutions. A problem-solving city should make those responsibilities visible and organize the right people instead of using jurisdiction as an excuse to stop.

We should publish what we try, what it costs, whether it worked and what happens next. If something is useless, stop doing it. If it helps, improve it and make it normal.

That is the culture I recognize in Waterloo: see a problem, decide it matters and go fix it.

I want our city government to deserve that culture.