Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs is proposing that it receives a cut of property taxes, development fees and, increased land value for its work in Toronto, Toronto Star reports.
Sidewalk Labs is planning to make Toronto’s eastern waterfront into a 4.9-acre smart city which will be affordable and sustainable. In a statement to The Star, Daniel Doctoroff, CEO at Sidewalks Labs, said, “Infrastructure Sidewalk is considering funding would otherwise be unfinanceable. If we are prepared to do that when no one else is, we need to get paid back.”
Though this proposal has the potential to generate around C$6 billion ($4.5 billion) to pay for the infrastructure over 30 years but is yet to be approved by the Toronto city and the public. The project plan chalked by Sidewalk Labs is for a light railway transit, 2,500 homes where 40 percent would be below market price. According to the company, the tall-timber factory which they are planning currently will create 4,000 jobs. These will be initially financed by Sidewalk but the company further plans to regain the investment through the various taxes.
In an email to The Canadian Press, Sidewalk spokeswoman Keerthana Rang said, “The company does not intend to develop the entire eastern waterfront. Instead, Sidewalk will develop about 15 percent, leaving the rest to be developed “just like any other neighborhood in the city.”
Last week, even Amazon scrapped off its plans to set up its second headquarters in New York after facing a backlash. Just like Amazon’s HQ2 project, even Sidewalk Labs has received backlash from locals who are worried about the company’s lack of transparency and data privacy concerns.
When asked regarding the public backlash, Micah Lasher, head of policy and communications at Sidewalk Labs said he expected people would not pre-judge what the company is proposing, and that public discussion would be an important part of the process.
Toronto Mayor John Tory, said, “The City and Waterfront Toronto have not received any formal proposal at this time and no permissions or dispensations have been granted. Any final proposal … will be given full public scrutiny … and, ultimately, consideration by Waterfront Toronto and City Council.”
But Paula Fletcher, Toronto City Councillor was not much happy with this idea and said, “I was terribly shocked because this was not within the scope of the project. I think it’s a big credibility problem for everybody.”
It seems tech companies are mostly opting for PPP (Public Private Partnership) model. Italso looks like it is a proven model as it saves governments from spending a large amount of money. However, according to many, it is not a good plan as it consumes money from people’s pockets. One of the users commented on HackerNews, “The vast majority of public-private partnerships really end up being “public eats the costs, but private entities win all the benefits. It’s gotten to the point that the mere existence of the phrase “public-private partnership” is a red flag that something corrupt is happening. (If it was a good faith effort and all above board, then it would all be done publicly in the first place).”
Another user commented, “The fundamental problem of any PPP is that a lot can go wrong or change in 20, 50 years. It’s impossible to predict and anticipate future economic climate so both parts try to set up adversarial contracts where they are protected as much as possible.”
To know more about this news, check out the post by The Star.
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