Buying Canadian should also mean spending smarter

Ontario’s Buy Ontario conversation has renewed attention on where public money goes and what governments gain from their procurement decisions.

For municipal planning and permitting, there are two important considerations: How much are municipalities spending to develop the same digital capabilities independently? And who retains control of the technology and information those investments create?

As permitting becomes increasingly digital and AI-enabled, both questions deserve a place in procurement discussions.

The cost of building the same thing repeatedly

Implementing a digital permitting system involves much more than purchasing software. Municipalities must structure regulatory information, configure application requirements, connect property data and develop workflows for staff and applicants.

Some of that work is unique to each municipality. Much of it addresses challenges shared by communities across Ontario.

When municipalities procure and develop similar capabilities independently, they can end up paying repeatedly for the same underlying work. Those costs can continue long after implementation through maintenance, integrations and regulatory updates.

Through One Ontario and the AI for Housing Coalition, we are developing standardized digital foundations that can support locally configured planning and permitting services.

The objective is to reduce unnecessary duplication while allowing each municipality to retain control over its workflows, services and decisions. Public investment can then be directed toward the needs of the community rather than repeatedly rebuilding the same underlying technology.

Digital sovereignty belongs in the conversation

Cost is only one part of a municipal technology investment. The other is what happens to the information and capability that the municipality comes to depend on.

Permitting and land-use systems can hold property records, development plans and application histories. Increasingly, they also contain the digital workflows and regulatory intelligence used to interpret Canadian planning and building requirements.

When municipalities procure these systems, they need to understand who controls the underlying technology, which jurisdictions govern access to their data, whether information can be transferred to another provider and where the expertise developed through implementation will remain.

These considerations apply to Canadian and international technology providers alike. Canadian ownership does not automatically guarantee municipal control or interoperability. But developing more of this capability domestically creates opportunities to retain Canadian expertise, technology ownership and the ability to maintain and improve these systems here.

As these tools become embedded in public services, the long-term implications of procurement extend well beyond the initial contract.

Making municipal investments go further

The Buy Canadian discussion creates an opportunity to look at both the immediate cost of technology and the lasting value of what public investment creates.

For municipalities considering new digital permitting and AI systems, that means examining which capabilities can be shared, where duplicated development and maintenance costs can be avoided, and what control they will retain over their information and digital processes. It also means considering whether an investment can strengthen the Canadian expertise and infrastructure that future municipal implementations will depend on.

Through One Ontario, municipalities, researchers, industry and technology partners are working together on these challenges. The opportunity is to reduce the cost of municipal modernization while building digital infrastructure that Canadian communities can continue to use, control and improve.

Putting this approach into practice

Through the AI for Housing Coalition, One Ontario is working with Canadian partners including RESCON, LandLogic and York University’s Regulatory Compliance Intelligence Lab (RCI Lab) to advance a more coordinated approach to planning and permitting technology.

The coalition brings together housing-industry experience, land and regulatory intelligence, and research in AI-assisted compliance to develop solutions that municipalities can configure around their own needs. By building on common capabilities rather than starting from scratch with every implementation, municipalities have an opportunity to reduce duplicated costs while strengthening Canadian expertise and control over the technology supporting their services.

We welcome municipalities, researchers, industry organizations and technology partners interested in helping develop, implement and scale this work.