I'm not sure Google knows either. "Smarty city" just smacks of vague buzzwordy-ness idealism. What is it exactly? Are you just going build some condos and stick some wifi around? How is that really different than any other modern city?
There's been a huge turnover this year, with people quitting the committee out of protest for an absolute lack of oversight into how Google will be using the "smart data" and piss-poor management by the city.
From what I can gather, some politicians want to add a "success" to their career with zero care about the long term consequences. I'd like to see every politician involved in this put their entire net worth into the project so that they have to care about the long-term success. People simply don't care about other people's money.
I'd have loved to see Kathleen Wynne go bankrupt over the hydro projects.
Lack of details and vagueness describes all the communication about sidewalk lab's project, not just this article.
If I had to guess the reporter doesn't really know and can't really find out.
Note that from the quotes in this article this most recent iteration seems to be a surprise to the city as well.