Smart farm proposal anchors Ottawa's bid for piece of $950M fund

The City of Ottawa is pitching the idea of turning a parcel of land the National Capital Commission administers into a testbed for smart farming technology in a bid for federal innovation funding.

The parcel of land is bounded by West Hunt Club Road in the north and Fallowfield Road in the south, Greenbank Road in the west and Woodroffe Avenue in the east. It's located across the road from a Canadian Food Inspection Agency lab.

Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder presented the proposal to the business community at Ben Franklin Place on Friday.

"Between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency field and our farm field, we're talking close to 3,000 acres, north of suburbia, north of Barrhaven," she said. "It's amazing that we have that."

1. Liberals narrow list of contenders for 'supercluster' innovation hubs to 9
2. Ottawa offers $950 million for 'superclusters' to create jobs

The federal innovation supercluster program is offering up to $950 million dollars from 2017-2022 for hubs that will generate the most economic growth.

The Ottawa proposal is part of larger pitch led by a group based in Alberta's private sector.

Source: CBCNEWS