By Michelle Zeh

The World Economic Forum (WEF) once infamously said that in the future “You Will Own Nothing and You Will Be Happy.” Of course, what this really means is: they will own everything and you will be poor. Recently, the WEF has been pushing the “15-minute city” concept — with a plan to bring us all a whole lot closer to a dystopian future.

If you’ve never heard of the WEF, it’s an international lobbying organization for multinational companies. They are made up of some of the most powerful institutions in the world, including former and current presidents of nations, big tech CEOs, asset managers, banks, and non-governmental organizations. The end of private ownership is one of the main goals of the WEF, and they apply this to everything from cars to private homes,enabled by 15-minute city design principles.

If you’ve read the mainstream news, you may see that 15-minute cities are being advertised as something we want, rather than what they (the international lobbying organizations for multinational corporations) want. As the Ontario newspaper The Peterborough Examiner put it: “Imagine being able to walk your kids to school or daycare, commute to work, enjoy recreational opportunities, and be able to pick up what you need from the store. Imagine being able to do all that while always being within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from your residence!”

Funnily enough, the WEF is known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where politicians, business leaders, celebrities, and journalists fly annually in droves of private jets, spewing more carbon in a single trip than the average car does in its lifetime. An analysis commissioned by Greenpeace International found that last year’s WEF gathering in Davos saw over 500 private jets arrive with a single meeting attendee. 53% were short-haul flights under 750 km, while 38% were flights under 500 km. The shortest flight recorded was only 21 km (about a 23-minute car ride, or one-hour bike ride). Yes, that’s right, the “climate friendly” 15-minute city concept is being promoted by the same elite group of people polluting our planet.

While this concept first started in Paris, England’s City of Oxford is the furthest along in their 15-minute city implementation. The pilot project involves dividing the city into six districts and the roads between districts are off-limits to cars without permits between 7 am and 7 pm, 7 days a week. This means setting up cameras everywhere to keep track of where everyone is driving to ensure that they do not leave their designated district too frequently. Starting in January 2024, boundaries will be enforced through traffic filters that will automatically issue fines to violating vehicles.

Here at home, Edmonton, Alberta is set to be Canada’s first pilot city. Phase 4 implementation of the 15-minute model across 15 districts, blanketing the entire city is already in place. Phase 5 will finalize the plans and is expected to happen between July and January of 2024. Among the goals outlined in the Edmonton City Plan include: reduced reliance on single-occupancy vehicle use and increasing the collection and sharing of data between government institutions and nonprofit groups. While they don’t elaborate on how this data will be collected, the increased connectivity through technology like SMART streetlights will help to facilitate this data capture.

While Edmonton is in the most advanced stage of the plan, Ottawa, North Vancouver, and other Canadian cities have also been making plans for 15-minute cities.

So how are residents of these cities reacting to the plans? They are not loving it. When the residents of Oxford were asked by city planners, 93% were against the 15-minute city plan. There were a lot of concerns, with one area of issue being segregation. Dividing cities into districts will guarantee that the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich. Some would say that is the entire purpose of the plan because a WEF panelist discussion revealed that different cities will have different rules for different districts. In other words, the rich will remain free.

But probably the biggest concern is economic inequality as a result of giving more power to governments and big businesses. Instead of saving our planet, 15-Minute Cities are a one-way path to a society that favours both big-government control and the corporate interests that will benefit from their big-government contracts used to help implement the plan, and the agendas being pushed forward.

While it’s unclear how the plans will evolve and to what degree restrictions will be put on us, what we do know is that the 15-minute city is one step closer to “You‘ll Own Nothing and You’ll Be Happy.”