Every resident should be able to ask City Hall a question in plain language and receive an immediate, useful, accurate, trackable response — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Ordinary residents face the same problems again and again: calling 311 and waiting on hold; submitting a Van311 request into the void; not knowing whether a complaint was received, assigned, delayed, closed, or ignored; being bounced between departments; missing deadlines because the process was unclear; and receiving vague replies instead of practical next steps.
This wastes public time and public money. The resident is frustrated. The 311 worker is overloaded. The department receives incomplete information. The file gets delayed. The public loses trust. That is not a staffing problem alone. It is a systems problem.
A Great Scott Government will fix the first layer of the system by building an AI-powered front desk for the entire City.
A resident should be able to type, speak, or text any of these questions and receive an immediate, useful, trackable response.
AI helps residents describe the issue, identify the right category, collect location and photos, and submit a cleaner service request — reducing incomplete tickets and misdirected files.
Every request receives a tracking number, the department assigned, estimated response time, next steps, and escalation options. No resident wonders whether City Hall received the request.
Plain-language help for renovations, basement suites, fences, signage, and business licences — required documents, common mistakes, inspection steps, fees, and timelines. AI helps submit; humans approve.
Missed pickup, illegal dumping, potholes, sidewalk hazards, streetlight outages, blocked drains, graffiti, abandoned items, public washroom maintenance, and accessibility barriers — classified and tracked.
Residents can ask whether a problem is enforceable, what evidence is needed, where to file, what timeline to expect, and what happens after the complaint is submitted.
Payment deadlines, dispute rights, evidence requirements, hardship options, and how to prepare a clear dispute statement. AI explains the process — humans make the decision.
Shelter information, sanitation services, food access, public washrooms, outreach referrals, tenant information, and City-related housing services. High-risk cases escalated to human support.
Simple language, step-by-step instructions, translated text, audio support, and SMS-style guidance. Government should work for people who find government difficult — not just the people who already know how it works.
Clearer Freedom of Information requests save staff time and help residents get useful information faster. AI helps narrow the request, identify the right department, and explain timelines.
What an agenda item means, what Council is voting on, how to submit comments, what the deadlines are, and what decision was made — civic participation made accessible to ordinary people.
AI City Hall must not become a secret decision-maker. The rules are clear and published.
The purpose is a better front desk, not a robot government.
A Great Scott Government will not ask residents to trust a black box. Before full deployment, the City will require: a privacy impact assessment; cybersecurity review; data-residency review; access-control rules; audit logs; human-review pathways; bias and accuracy testing; a public AI-use policy; clear notice when a resident is speaking to AI; and rules preventing AI from inventing City policy.
The City must select an enterprise or government-grade AI system where municipal data is protected and not used to train public models by default. A public AI system must be more transparent than a private chatbot, not less.
A monthly public dashboard will show: AI-assisted service requests, 311 calls avoided, top complaint categories, average time to confirmation and closure, AI errors identified, corrected responses, resident satisfaction, and estimated staff time and money saved. If the AI gives a bad answer, that must be tracked. If a pilot fails, that must be admitted.
Total four-year planning estimate: $9.75M–$19.5M. These are planning ranges, not final procurement prices. Savings are redirected to detox beds, sanitation, infrastructure repair, and public washrooms.
Text911.ca is a working beta for silent emergency text triage. It is not an official 9-1-1 service and is not connected to E-Comm dispatch unless and until authorized public-safety agencies approve such integration. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.
The campaign position is that this working beta was built in roughly one day at a cost of under $100. That does not make it ready for official emergency dispatch. It means the core idea is no longer theoretical.
A Great Scott Government will ask E-Comm, public-safety agencies, privacy officials, victim-services groups, disability-accessibility representatives, and emergency-response professionals to review whether Text911.ca or a similar silent-intake model should be tested in a controlled sandbox.
The rule: AI may assist, summarize, structure, and escalate. AI must not deny, close, downgrade, or promise emergency dispatch. Human authority remains in charge.
Pilot concepts to be tested in the open, measured by service speed and cost per request.
A 24/7 AI-assisted City Hall front desk that answers plain-language questions, triages 311 requests, guides permits, and gives every resident a tracking number — with a human accountable for every consequential decision.
An opt-in civic digital ID so residents without traditional documents — including many in the DTES — can access services and take part.
Reduce rush-hour gridlock by spreading work, service, and delivery times across the day and modernizing traffic signals — no new infrastructure, just smarter use of what we already have.