Montréal Mayor Recognizes Project Titans and Esri Canada’s Digital Twin Role
Montréal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada remarks reinforces how collaboration, real-time data, and digital twin technology are helping shape the future of urban mobility and infrastructure planning.
A few weeks ago, I was in Montréal for the All In AI conference - Canada's largest AI and tech conference, which this year drew a record 10,000+ attendees from 50 countries - seated second row from the front, in the company of leaders and innovators I've had the honour of building this work alongside, as Montréal's Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada stepped up to deliver her keynote.
I knew the moment was coming. I didn't know what it would feel like to actually watch it happen from that close.
In front of a global audience, the Mayor spoke directly about Project TITANS - the digital twin of Montréal's transportation network that our team at Esri Canada has spent the past year building alongside the City, through Esri Canada's Transportation GeoXchange® (TGX) framework, with support from partners including Microsoft and Scenexus.
It's one thing to build something you believe in. It's another to watch a city's own leadership stand on a global stage and tell that story in their own words.
What the Mayor Actually Said
In her remarks, the Mayor described how the initiative will help Montréal progressively build a digital twin using real-time data and intelligent tools to improve construction coordination, traffic operations, event management, and public safety. She emphasized a practical approach to innovation: testing solutions in real-world environments, measuring results, and scaling what works.
Montréal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada delivers remarks at the All In conference on Project TITANS and Montréal’s digital twin initiative.
“This project, carried out with Esri Canada and recently recognized with an OCTAS award, will let us progressively build a digital twin of Montreal. With real-time data and intelligent tools, we will be able to better coordinate construction and events across the city, prevent accidents, and adjust lanes and traffic lights more quickly.
-Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Mayor of Montréal
(Translated from the Mayor's original French remarks.)
That framing matters. This wasn't presented as a finished product or a flashy demo - it was presented as a disciplined, step-by-step build. Test it. Measure it. Scale what actually works. That's exactly the philosophy behind Project TITANS from day one: a digital twin isn't meant to just look impressive. It's meant to let planners and stakeholders test a scenario before it hits the real world - strengthening evidence-based planning, deepening stakeholder engagement, and supporting safer mobility outcomes in line with Montréal's Vision Zero objectives.
And Project TITANS doesn't stand alone. It's one of the clearest examples yet of what's possible inside TGX - the framework that lets cities, agencies, and technology partners connect their data instead of building it in isolation. The recognition follows Project TITANS being awarded the coveted OCTAS Jury's Choice Award by Réseau Action TI earlier this year - a milestone for the project, and more importantly, a signal of where this kind of work is headed next.
Built on Collaboration and Trust, Not Just Code
None of this happens without the harder, less visible work underneath it: the communication, collaboration, and trust between the City of Montréal, Esri Canada, and every partner who showed up to build rather than just talk. Sitting next to me for the keynote were three of the people who've carried that trust the furthest: Jonathan Hamel-Nunes, Director of Innovation and Mobility Management for the City of Montréal, whose original vision set this project in motion; Roger Browne, Director of Network and Congestion Management for the City of Toronto and Chair of SMC Canada; and Daniel Kligerman, our own Director of Intelligent Transportation Solutions at Esri Canada.
Strong technology only moves as far as the relationships carrying it — and this project's momentum is as much a testament to the people who kept talking, aligning, and trusting each other through the hard parts, as it is to the exchange itself.
At the core of all of it is something simple: location.
Every connection TGX makes starts with where - and it's fitting, because this whole story starts with a where: Montréal, where the vision began, developed through close collaboration with the City of Toronto and the Halifax Regional Municipality every step of the way. It's Montréal's investment, Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada's voice on a global stage, and Jonathan Hamel-Nunes' leadership that turned a technical capability into a civic reality - one shaped by three municipalities, not one. And it's a story that belongs to the rest of Canada too - proof of what's possible when Canadian cities and Canadian innovators come together on something the world takes notice of and can benefit from.
What This Means Going Forward
As municipalities everywhere face transportation and infrastructure challenges that only grow more complex, Project TITANS - and the Esri Canada Transportation GeoXchange® (TGX) framework it's built on - is proof of something simple: collaboration and innovation can turn data into action. Hearing the Mayor say it from the stage at All In was a milestone in itself, and it's not the last stage this story is headed for.
Watch the moment for yourself
See Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada's All In keynote, including her remarks on Project TITANS, Montréal's digital twin initiative, and the role of Esri Canada in helping bring that vision to life.
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