Toronto mayoral candidates promise support for city’s new media sector

Three of the candidates for the mayor’s chair in Toronto recently spoke with Canadian NEW MEDIA about their platforms as they relate to digital media. Candidate John Tory tried hard, but was unable to schedule an interview in time for this piece. Candidate Barbara Hall’s office did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. CNM: How familiar are you with multimedia or interactive digital media as a sector, as an issue? TJ: I do know it’s an issue and I do know it’s important, and I think, at the end of the day, what I want to see is the city use it to its advantage. CNM: How can that be done? TJ: Well, the city is really about as unplugged as you can get. We have a very antiquated Internet and intranet service at the city. We don’t do our procurements, we don’t do our bidding, we don’t do our job searches - we don’t do anything, really, from a multimedia and digital perspective. We talk about accessibility and we talk about making city hall more accessible, but at the end of the day, your industry would be one of the industries that would allow us to do that, allow us to bridge that in an affordable way. We don’t. CNM: And it’s an affordable alternative to doing things more traditionally? TJ: Absolutely. I’m a real proponent of a number of things. I’m a proponent of introducing a smart card with the transit system. You spend $9 million and guess what? You don’t need the collection, change, tokens, tickets and everything else. You just go to the convenience store and pay $10 or $20 and you’ve got a pass that you just wave and in you go. And, we know that when you introduce a system like that, within no time at all it pays itself back - within a year and a half. I’m a real proponent of us introducing direct billing and direct draws from bank accounts. Why do you need to write cheques when you can get a statement and the city can tell you certain things about what’s been paid and how it’s been paid? We know that even though you can pay your taxes that way, you can’t pay your water and sewage bill that way. Quite frankly, your water, sewage, gas, hydro and tax bill should all come on one piece of paper. These are all things in the digital and marketing/communications area where people have the ideas. They have the demonstrated ability to do, and we seem to be too slow. CNM: Is slow good? All you have to do is say ‘gun registry’ to them, and people become concerned about over-automating or trying to implement automated solutions. TJ: I’m going to say something that hopefully the person who hears this will understand. In my humble opinion, and I’m the only one in this race who’s saying it, you can talk all you want, you can come up with as many ideas as you want - you must have someone who will implement them. Even the mayor of Toronto cannot do it on their own. There are 21 staff who run this city, and those are commissioners and leaders in departments who run this city. They are not capable, willing or able to implement the type of agenda that you and I are talking about. So, I have made it a platform that I will clean house, and most of those people will be going, and new people with new ideas, new out-of-the-box thinking are going to be coming in, and this place is going to move. You know, the more I talk to people and the more I explain this, the more people understand that I’m right. CNM: I’d like to switch gears for a second. The Toronto interactive digital media community faces a funding crisis. Is there anything the city can do to help? TJ: Well, you know, I guess there’s a couple of things. One is that a lot of the people who are in your business aren’t able to do business with the city. I think that rather than talk to me about whether the city would subsidize or provide funding for certain things, the first thing I’d say is that the city should make sure that it shares some of its $6.4-billion budget with the people who live and work in the city. The second thing I’d say is that there are unfortunately too many areas in this city where Internet service and direct access is really poor. Where my office is right now, the system is extremely slow because they don’t have the cables updated. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of places in the city where that’s happening. I know there are a lot of makers of digital consoles and makers of consumer electronic devices and related hardware and software in this city, yet we don’t seem to understand that. We haven’t seemed to really appreciate that there’s a lot of stuff that we need that’s right here. I would like to see us create an incubator - to create an area or a place where we really showcase it. The city’s got opportunities to do that. In fact, the city’s got the opportunity to use new and existing buildings to showcase new and growing industry. CNM: One of the things Toronto producers are bemoaning is that they don’t have a Toronto voice anymore. The province hasn’t seemed to be able to get anything together. How can the mayor do it? TJ: Well, first of all, not every new and innovative idea works. And we shouldn’t let that dismay us from doing it again. We learn from our mistakes, but we also make mistakes if we’re going to learn. So, I really think that the key here is how do you - we’ve had a film district, we’ve had a fashion district. We haven’t looked at a multimedia, digital district. And, I think that can be done. It can be created. There are opportunities for us to create it and to provide affordable space for people to showcase their goods. That’s number one. I’m not in a position right now to give you the exacts, but I’ll tell you we’ve got space right now down by the Toronto stock exchange that would be ideal to showcase it. The design exchange would be an excellent opportunity to showcase it. And, we can do that at a very affordable rate. It’s a question of whether this city’s serious about utilizing the talent that’s out there. There’s a lot of talent. And the way to do that is, first of all, share our work, and secondly, showcase it. CNM: What would you do to help the city build a showcase space? DM: Well, I’d build on what the city is already doing. My campaign promotes using existing city resources creatively. It encourages partnerships with the private- and non-profit sectors and I would use as an example the Liberty district. And, the Junction area in my own ward which in the revitalization of a very small neighbourhood keyed on access for new media. I also think the waterfront is critically important because in the redevelopment we have a huge opportunity to create space for innovative industries and building assets redeveloped. CNM: What kind of resources could the city bring to that besides, perhaps, lower rents etc.? DM: Well, the city can bring leadership. I’m on our telecommunications steering committee and we’re going to have an opportunity to really wire Toronto. We’ve sort of left it up to the private sector and what’s happened is Toronto is very connected with Calgary, but Parkdale’s not connected to Scarborough. And, I think the city, through its own telecommunications infrastructure, can build - in fact, I know - can build a network where there are points of access everywhere across the city by providing a network to all our libraries, for example, and to all city buildings. CNM: One of the things that the new media sector in Toronto has always complained about is a lack of an effective lobbying voice to make its concerns known on the city stage, the provincial stage and the federal stage. Is there anything you could do to help? DM: Well, we support some of the work that’s been done by CATA and Smart Toronto to create a tech action town hall so that we together develop a blue print for growth. I think that’s a very good idea. I think the mayor should be a leader in supporting growth issues and I’m also prepared to listen and learn - I don’t pretend I have all the answers. But, I think one of the failures of the city over the past six years is to take advantage of our size. We’re Canada’s sixth-largest government and I think we can be a real leader in innovation if we partner with the private sector and the non-profit sectors. CNM: How important is new media in your campaign? DM: Well, I think it’s critically important because Toronto has been a leader in media - in traditional publishing, in film, in radio and television. We need to be a leader in new media, as well. And, I think as mayor it’s incumbent to promote that. We know that if we want to be a modern city and have a modern, innovative economy, that the new media sector is inherently important and I think the city needs to support that in some places with support for research, for example, and other places by encouragement and promotion and in other places by actually using new media as well as traditional media in the work of the city. CNM: Companies continue to eye Montreal as a potential new home for their activities because of what’s on offer there. Do you feel the measures you’ve outlined could help stem some of that? DM: Yes I do. I think it’s very important - Montreal has been very smart, not just on these issues, but on tourism, on the way it works with cities across the world. Toronto hasn’t been. It’s been taking itself for granted. I think it’s time we’re proactive. CNM: Finally, the provincial and federal bureaucracies are very important for new media to get itself in front of. Is there anything you could do as mayor to help? DM: Absolutely. The mayor of Toronto is, in many ways, one of the most important and powerful voices in the country, and I think the mayor should be speaking up in the fight and making sure that Toronto’s new media community is on the agenda of the federal and provincial governments. CNM: What would you do to provide showcase space? JN: Well, we have some public space still available. We have the old city halls - the city of York, the city of Scarborough Town Centre. We have other city facilities and I’d like to work with the industry to do what I can as the mayor of the city. I really believe the city should be a pioneer in communication and, personally, I’ve embraced technology and I see the importance of it. I also see the lack of technological savvy at the City of Toronto, and it’s really shocking that they’re in the dark ages. CNM: That’s a common message I’m getting from some of the other candidates, as well. JN: Just in terms of wireless technology and the potential for wireless technology in the city and accessibility to the Internet, even councillors not using email. It’s typical in Ottawa, as well. I taught myself four or five years ago, but when you have a whole lot of assistants - I don’t think the mayor knew the difference between a corn chip and a microchip. I see tremendous opportunities for the City of Toronto to really be a pioneer and a front-runner as far as technology is concerned in new media. CNM: Toronto new media companies say they don’t have an effective voice. Is there anything you would do to help? JN: I’d be happy to facilitate a new media mayor’s roundtable, and to use my office as mayor to work with the federal and provincial governments. I see the mayor of the City of Toronto as playing a vital role in advocacy. Also, bringing people together. My plan is to bring all the elected officials in Toronto - the MPPs, the MPs, the councillors and the mayor - together on a regular basis, whether it’s every two months or every three months, to set priorities, to talk about issues and basically to facilitate flying in formation. I want to open up the avenues of communication to the other GTA mayors. I believe strongly in best practices. I think we should scour the world for best practices as far as new media and technology is concerned. If someone is doing it better somewhere else, then instead of re-inventing the wheel, let’s move forward. CNM: One of the models in terms of folks who seem to be doing it better in the new media space, the content case, is Montreal. Do you know much about what’s going on there? JN: In terms of the incentives they’re providing? CNM: Exactly, even at the city level. JN: I’m open to discussing different ways of being helpful, keeping in mind, of course, the limited resources we have. We really have to start living within our means as a municipality. It’s all about prioritizing different initiatives. But, in terms of investment in the future, I see technology and new media as one of those areas we can excel in. We have some of the world’s best and brightest here in Toronto, and we have to make sure that we don’t lose those bright people. CNM: One of the things the new media producers I speak with are looking for is someone who feels that new media is on par with the film and television industry. How do you feel about that? Is it as important as film and television? JN: I don’t know how large the new media industry is. I know film alone is about $1.3 billion to the local economy…I think the onus is on the industry to get its act together. If it’s such a large industry and there’s so much at stake, then I think the industry should certainly speak with one voice. From a layman’s perspective, it would seem that you need to organize internally. CNM: Is the mayor’s roundtable that you’ve proposed the answer to working with the federal and provincial bureaucracies on these issues? JN: Absolutely. That’s one venue where it can be raised and discussed. As the host of this group of the Toronto caucus, I’ll be setting the agenda so that time can be set aside and we can discuss it. Of course, in the bilateral meetings with the prime minister, the premier, the mayor, these are issues that can be raised, and with city bureaucrats, civil servants - at the other levels as well.

Toronto mayoral candidates promise support for city’s new media sector

Broadcast | October 22, 2003

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