The Ford government is considering creating a new agency to oversee the digital mapping of Ontario’s underground utilities to try to make construction quicker and safer, government documents indicate.
The records also show the government is interested in creating a new online permitting system for certain priority projects — like hospitals and transit — to give the province more insight into and power over approvals of certain work.
Government documents outlining the potential new agency were posted online at digitaltwinontario.ca — the website of a not-for-profit started by a former Infrastructure Ontario employee. Some records pertaining to digital twin technology on the site were marked as “confidential advice to government” or “confidential draft for discussion purposes only.”
Digital twinning is essentially the digital mapping of infrastructure including underground assets like utilities. The new agency the government is contemplating is referred to as “Digital Twin Ontario” in documents posted to digitaltwinontario.ca.
However, there's “no relationship between the site and any government or related entity,” Ian McConachie, communications manager at Infrastructure Ontario (IO), told The Trillium in a statement.
“We have reached out to the creator to remove any confidential or privileged information immediately as well as any linkages to IO, or government,” McConachie said.
As of midday Monday, digitaltwinontario.ca remained online. Password protections had been applied to documents that were previously freely available to view.
Digitaltwinontario.ca’s “about” page says it belongs to “Digital Twin Ontario … a not-for-profit cooperative membership organization dedicated to elevating the level of diaglogue (sic), raising standards, and promoting growth and innovation within the public infrastructure sector.”
A not-for-profit called Digital Twin Ontario Inc. was incorporated on June 6, its corporate records show. Gordon Reynolds is listed as one of its directors.
Reynolds worked for Infrastructure Ontario for a few years before leaving earlier this year. He was Infrastructure Ontario’s vice-president of commercial projects and was quoted in a press release Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) published on Jan. 23 announcing a digital twins-based partnership with the government.
Reynolds told The Trillium he started Digital Twin Ontario Inc., the not-for-profit corporation, to help bridge the gap between companies already using the technology and the government. He also said the not-for-profit and website have no relationship with the government.
“It’s neither a provincial agency nor does it have a contract with the government,” he said.
Reynolds denied that any of the material on the website was confidential.
“This is all publicly available information through public sources,” he said. “They’ve been made available to industry partners and associations, different working groups, municipalities, utilities, at conferences and other forums by the ministry.”
In the same way that Google Maps serves as a “twin” of much of the Earth’s surface by showing road networks and offering insight into traffic flows to better plan a trip, a digital infrastructure twin provides a model of where utilities, or other infrastructure components, are underground, and what they look like. Digital twin technology can also be used to provide real-time updates on an asset’s performance so it can be managed from a computer, rather than requiring someone to examine it firsthand.
“It's this idea of real-time, two-way communication between this physical asset and its digital counterpart,” said Jenn McArthur, a TMU professor specializing in digital twins.
One reason it’s gaining in popularity is because it allows organizations to run a “scenario analysis” on a piece of infrastructure. For example, a company could figure out whether its office building could be properly air-conditioned on a hot day, or if it would need to take added steps to make it comfortable for workers, MacArthur said.
Over time, as more digital twins are created, the government would have an increasingly accurate map of what utilities and other infrastructure exist, and where, theoretically making it easier to plan and build public infrastructure projects.
That could eliminate or seriously cut down on the time and money spent surveying underground infrastructure prior to construction, McArthur said, because all the information would be readily accessible through the digital twin.
The Ford government has already started experimenting with digital twin technology. In the province’s 2024 budget, it announced it would spend $5 million partnering Infrastructure Ontario with TMU and others “to leverage their experience with digital twins and explore solutions” the technology could offer.
The government and TMU signed a two-year memorandum of understanding in January to study how the technology can be used for “more efficient delivery of public infrastructure,” according to a press release published by the university.
TMU researchers are currently working on creating a digital twin of the entire campus.
Last month, the province announced it will test the technology on three public projects. The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital redevelopment, Ontario Place and the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension are the test dummies.
“These projects were chosen because of their complex utility systems such as existing and planned electrical, water, gas and wastewater services,” the government’s press release said. “By identifying and mapping the location of these underground utilities in a virtual model, the province can help avoid costly and dangerous utility conflicts, which will help improve worker safety, save money and ensure projects are completed on time.”
Digital Twin Ontario — the agency that records show the government is considering adding under the Ministry of Infrastructure — would help manage the application of the technology. It could help speed up construction timelines because encountering an underground water pipe or electrical wire, for example, can be difficult to work around and present a safety risk.
The Ford government is contemplating legislation that would create the new agency and give it powers to designate priority infrastructure projects, records show. Special rules would then apply to these projects.
An example given in the government documents of how these priority projects would be affected mentions construction: workers would attach pieces of underground infrastructure with radio frequency identification tags feeding into a virtual model of the physical asset, allowing the government and construction companies to know exactly where utilities, or other pieces of infrastructure, are located and how well they’re functioning.
Digital Twin Ontario would be empowered to levy fines for non-compliance with the special rules, according to what’s been outlined internally.
The priority projects would also go through a provincial permitting system, rather than the normal municipal permitting process, giving the province a window into how fast — or slow — a city is issuing approvals.
