Shaping Tomorrow's City Today

As leaders within the City of Toronto's Sector Development Office, they've built a practice around turning creative ideas into tangible community value, convening unlikely partnerships, and piloting first-of-their-kind programs that position Toronto as a testing ground for solutions that scale.

Their approach challenges the notion that government moves slowly: instead, they've created an environment where experimentation is encouraged, silos are dismantled, and long-term vision drives immediate action. In this conversation, Leslie and Jagdish share how their team generates momentum in a complex municipal environment and what it takes to foster innovation when your stakeholders include everyone from green tech startups to post-secondary institutions.

1. What does innovation mean to you in the context of municipal government?

Innovation means turning creative ideas into real value for people and communities. It's not just about novelty—it's about applying improved approaches, products, or services that deliver tangible outcomes.

Our innovation approach rests on several pillars. First, it's about overcoming barriers. Second, it requires safe experimentation, where we share risk so new ideas can be tested in a supportive environment. Third, it demands building credibility and consensus so ideas can actually take root and succeed, which involves working with diverse stakeholders. Finally, innovation must be future-focused—envisioning the city we want decades from now and taking deliberate steps today to shape that future.

A concrete example: our team took the City's Net Zero Carbon targets and systematically worked out whether Toronto's future workforce could realistically deliver on them based on current capacity. That kind of forward-thinking analysis helps us identify gaps before they become crises.

2. How do you and your team generate new ideas?

We use a structured yet creative process that combines research, collaboration, and experimentation. The goal is ensuring ideas are both forward-looking and grounded in real needs.

First, we immerse ourselves in the ecosystem. We spend as much time as possible outside with stakeholders—connecting with entrepreneurs, manufacturers, students, and thought leaders.

We also use what we call the "straw-dog" approach in a safe space. We start with a simple mind dump, just getting ideas down without worrying about perfection. Then we share openly with colleagues and partners, framing it as a first pass. That way, everyone feels comfortable taking a red pen to it, and the honest feedback makes the idea stronger.

Beyond that, we constantly listen and scan—capturing stakeholder needs through conversations, partnerships, and trend scanning to anticipate future opportunities. Promising ideas are then tested through small-scale pilots with built-in feedback loops to refine and scale successful approaches.

3. Can you share some unique innovation tactics your team relies on?

We focus on three main approaches that turn ideas into impact.

First, we actively work on breaking silos. We bring together industry, academia, government, and even competitors to tackle shared challenges. The mix sparks solutions no single group could create alone. A great example is our Green Workforce Readiness Workshop, which brought together City staff focused on environment and climate policy, industry leaders, post-secondary institutions, nonprofits, and workforce groups to address skills gaps in six green economy sectors. The focus was aligning training with Toronto's climate and economic goals.

Second, we build ecosystem networks in high-growth, export-oriented sectors like tech, life sciences, green economy, and food and beverage production—especially where they don't already exist. These networks become spaces where new ideas naturally emerge. For instance, we regularly convened all of Toronto's public post-secondary institutions, and that table evolved into the Toronto Higher Education Alliance, which has now become CivicLabTO, a city-wide initiative.

Third, we focus on proof through pilots. We de-risk first-of-their-kind projects by starting small, proving value, and building the credibility to scale. When we saw green companies struggling to commercialize, we secured Council approval for the City's first program of its kind—the Green Market Acceleration Program. It gives companies a pathway to test products in City facilities, generate real-world data, and use that proof to win customers and investment. We're now scaling the program and preparing for full launch.

4. Do you have any specific rituals for resetting your team's creativity?

We don't have a formal toolbox, but we reset creativity by deliberately shifting perspectives. We change how we engage—trying new formats, bringing in new voices, and finding new ways to frame challenges. Bringing in different partners and perspectives keeps us from falling into routine and sparks new ways of thinking.

5. Has there ever been an instance where another industry or sector has inspired an innovation at the City of Toronto?

Constantly. Our work is fundamentally about learning from one sector and applying it to another.
We've partnered with Trend Hunter for years to showcase Toronto's innovative startups and scale-ups at their Future Party. Building on that success, we've expanded the model to other sectors -- launching a Startup Alley at the SIAL Food and Beverage show and showcasing companies at the Grocery Innovation Show this October.

Another example: the successful cluster approach in financial services, through our work to catalyze the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, inspired how we're now building networks in emerging sectors like AI and green industry growth.

6. What makes an innovative culture in a government context? How do you create that culture?

Innovation thrives when people feel empowered to take risks, share ideas, and collaborate across boundaries.
We focus on leveling the playing field. On our team, titles take a back seat to ideas. Everyone was hired for their expertise, and their perspective is valued. We think that creates psychological safety to try new things and take calculated risks.

We also make a point to share what works. When someone figures something out, we celebrate it and encourage them to help others raise their game. We think carefully about how we give feedback and advice—inspiration doesn't come easily if people feel demoralized. And we stay purpose-driven, keeping the end in mind and building for the outcomes we're trying to achieve.

7. Looking to the future, how will the Sector Development Office continue to be a leader in innovation?

We can't speak for the City as a whole, but our division has been focused on improving collaboration among staff and across all sections of our Economic Development and Culture Division to increase engagement, efficiency, and effectiveness.

For our team specifically, we'll maintain several key elements. First, long-term vision—planning for the city we want decades ahead, not just the next budget cycle. Second, partnership leadership—Toronto's strength lies in convening and aligning diverse players such as industry, academia, governments, and communities to turn ideas into action.

We'll continue our test-and-adapt approach, piloting first-of-their-kind programs and learning quickly so we stay agile. And we'll keep facilitating and enabling—positioning Toronto as a platform where ideas can be tested, showcased, and scaled in collaboration with our partners.