A Good Memo, But The Words Got In The Way

In this memo to the mayor and council, how are they to understand a project when this missive is written in municipalese. It is incomprehensible.

Council is making decisions on projects described in reports that are impossible to understand. One hopes they are not written this way on purpose. The Bulldog’s comments below are in boldface:

To / Destinataire Mayor and Members of Council File/N° de fichier:

From / Expéditeur Vivi Chi

Interim General Manager

Planning, Development and Building

Services

Alain Gonthier

General Manager

Public Works

Subject / Objet Digital Twin: Traffic Assets Infrastructure Mapping

Date: May 22, 2025

The purpose of this memorandum is to inform Mayor and Council that, as part of the Digital Twin  Project (what is that?), a geospatial city-wide inventory of traffic infrastructure assets (what is that?) will be taking place over  the summer months. The inventory collection (of what?) will be completed using a city vehicle equipped with  a mobile mapping device (how does that work?). The Mobile Mapping of Traffic Infrastructure Project leverages new  technology (what new technology) and is delivered in collaboration between the Public Works and the Planning,  Development, and Building Services Departments.

Project background and purpose

Traffic Services and the Geospatial Analytics, Technology and Solutions Branch (GATS) (what is that?) are  launching a full inventory of street-level traffic assets (what are those?) using a hybrid system approach leveraging  both the Mosaic Meridian system and Esri Field Maps (oh come on.). This initiative aligns with the Comprehensive Asset Management integrated business approach and GATS’ Council-directed  mandate to build and maintain the City’s Digital Twin—an interactive, virtual representation of  Ottawa’s infrastructure (Motion No. PLC-ARAC 2021-5-28 [m81.1]) (what is that?). Traffic Services is the first to  leverage this corporate technology (what technology) for a comprehensive asset inventory. A fleet vehicle equipped  with a mobile mapping device has been deployed and will be visible on Ottawa’s streets for  testing in May 2025. High-quality geospatial data (what is that?) essential for the accurate and efficient  maintenance of traffic assets will be collected from June to September 2025.

Data will be collected on assets including traffic signals, signs, pavement markings, streetlights,  and pedestrian crossovers, and more. The data will be integrated into the City’s Digital Twin (what is that?),  enhancing decision-making and resource optimization for future infrastructure planning. By integrating data from Mosaic 51, LiDAR, and Esri Field Maps (what are those?), the project will streamline traffic  asset data collection by minimizing repeat site visits (for what?), reducing operational costs, and increasing  overall efficiency (how?). In addition to the data integrating into the City’s Digital Twin, it will inform the  development of a traffic asset management plan (what is that?).

Technology Overview

The Mobile Mapping of Traffic Infrastructure Project marks the first use of the Mosaic Meridian  system in Ottawa which features a mobile mapping unit equipped with a high-accuracy Mosaic  Meridian system—featuring a 360º camera and precision LiDAR (what is that?) —mounted on a City vehicle. The  Mosaic Meridian system captures 360º visuals using the industry-leading Mosaic X camera  system, paired with a precision INS/LiDAR device from Inertial Labs (oh come on). This integration ensures  millimeter-level accuracy for both imagery and point clouds—3D data used for identification and  classification of assets, providing reliable and high-quality geospatial data (what language is this … oh yes, municipalese). Designed to withstand  Ottawa’s diverse climate conditions, it ensures uninterrupted data collection in extreme heat, cold,  dust, water, and poor road conditions (to achieve what?).

Using a hybrid system approach (what is that?), the project leverages both the Mosaic Meridian system and Esri  Field Maps (really? How can a normal human being know what a Mosaic Meridian system is as well as an Esri Field map?) to validate and check the accuracy of collected data, ensuring a reliable and high quality traffic asset inventory (what assets are being counted?)

(at this point in the memo, your agent is losing the will to live.)

Privacy Protection Measures

While the primary goal is to collect traffic asset infrastructure data, incidental capture of personal  information (e.g., faces, license plates) is possible. To safeguard privacy:

• An automated anonymization process will blur all personal identifiers (is there not a simpler way of writing this? what is an anonymization process and are personal identifiers things like licence plates).

• All data handling will comply with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of  Privacy Act (MFIPPA).

• A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is underway, with oversight from the City Clerk’s  Office. The PIA will identify any privacy risks associated with the collection of data and how  these risks are managed.

Public Transparency

The data collected will be used solely for the purpose of improving city infrastructure and data  collection. Any personal information collected during the mobile mapping process will be handled  in a confidential and secure manner in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and  Protection of Privacy Act (I am not confident that any personal information can be kept confidential by anyone … hackers are much smarter than this document).

A Notice of Data Collection has been published on Ottawa.ca.

Project Timeline

• May 2025: Testing and calibration of the mobile mapping unit.

• June 2025: Collection of traffic asset infrastructure begins.

• June to September 2025: Data collection, validation, and processing period.

2

• September 2025: Completion of collection of traffic asset infrastructure data. • Q4 2027 (TBC): Final data processing and integration into the City’s Digital Twin.

Conclusion

This project represents a significant advancement in how the City manages its transportation  infrastructure and supports long-term sustainability (how and forget the “sustainability”. It’s a catch-phrase). Should you have any questions (oh my god, see the questions above) , or if you  receive inquiries from constituents regarding Digital Twin and/or the Mobile Mapping technology (Really? People have lives.),  please contact Randal.Rodger@ottawa.ca. Please direct any questions or inquiries on the  inventory of traffic infrastructure to Barrie.Forester@ottawa.ca.

Original Signed by:

Vivi Chi

Interim General Manager

Planning, Development and Building Services Department

Alain Gonthier

General Manager

Public Works Department

CC: Senior Leadership Team

Planning, Development and Building Service Departmental Leadership Team  Chief Communications Officer, Public Information and Media Relations

—

Well City of Ottawa, here we go..

Who: Who authorized this project?

What: What exactly is this project? The words above defy understanding. Or was that the point?

When: When was it authorized?

Why: Why are we doing this? It is unclear because the reader doesn’t know exactly what this project is.

How: How will this be done written in an accessible way? What are the implications for residents? What kind of information on them will be collected?

How much: How much does this cost and is it justified when the city has a huge hole in its budget?

The person who wrote this, were they in a newsroom, would not remotely pass their three-month probation and is unlikely to be hired at the smallest community newspaper or media outlet.

This is absolutely horrible writing of the worst kind. It would fail a high-school essay assignment.

Furthermore, this is a major reason that things go wrong at Ottawa City Hall. Based on this memo, councillors could not possibly hope to understand this issue. I have been editing things for 48 years so I know of what I speak. I have seen all forms of writing and this is among the worst, if not the worst, I’ve ever read.

The key to writing is to be understandable, not impress with your vocabulary (no $20 words when a nickel works fine), be accessible and, most of all, write in a way that is intelligent, conveys information and is interesting (if not entertaining). There is a good story, maybe, in this memo but it is unintelligible … lost in the poor writing.

And these reports matter. Council and the public must be able to understand them to do the right thing with legislation and our money.

Were I Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, I would send this memo back to city manager Wendy Stephanson and ask her how this could possibly have been released to council and the public. File it again when it is written in English (or French).

This document diminishes the credibility of staff and hampers proper (and sustainable) good governance.

Ken Gray

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