Cochrane, Alberta

them to start here, they’re more apt to locate here in the future, thereby creating more local jobs. We would like to build a tech incubator site, coupled with a library and cultural center for the performing arts, and house that all in one building right in a downtown that’s walk- able from those new developments.” As a municipality, Cochrane has already made some significant forays into 21st century tech- nologies and is planning even more. “We’re ex- panding our municipally-owned fiber network,” Genung reports. “In the past, we put in a fiber network to connect all of our town facilities. This provides us with an opportunity to look at providing it as a service to the community, with an emphasis on business development. Any infrastructure work, such as new pathways or roadways, also includes the installation of conduit to allow us to pull fiber and expand it throughout the community.” Though fiber installation, the Town aims to partner with telecommunication businesses in providing a WiFi mesh network over the com- munity that will provide WiFi as a utility, just the same as water, sewer, and garbage pickup. The installation of fiber will also be used to support the Town’s recently approved transit system. “We are doing things a little bit differently,” explained Genung. “The service will be the first of its kind in North America because it will be 100 percent on-demand, meaning that we’ll be combining ride hailing technology with public transit to create routes based on where people are and where they would like to go, instead of the old, traditional fixed route, where a bus would drive around in hopes of picking some- body up. It means more direct routes for riders, and buses that are not forced to travel empty from stop to stop through low-demand neigh- borhoods. “The on-demand transit will be unveiled this