On Toronto's Eastern waterfront, a new digital city is being built by Sidewalk Labs - a firm owned by Google's parent Alphabet.
It hopes the project will become a model for 21st-Century urbanism.
But the deal has been controversial, representing one of biggest ever tie-ups between a city and a large corporation.
And that, coupled with the fact that the corporation in question is one of the largest tech firms in the world, is causing some unease.
Sidewalk Labs promises to transform the disused waterfront area into a bustling mini metropolis, one built "from the internet up", although there is no timetable for when the city will actually be built.
Dan Doctoroff, the company's head and former deputy mayor of New York, told the BBC the project was "about creating healthier, safer, more convenient and more fun lives".
"We want this to be a model for what urban life can be in the 21st Century," he said.
The area will have plenty of sensors collecting data - from traffic, noise and air quality - and monitoring the performance of the electric grid and waste collection.
And that has led some in the city, including Toronto's deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, to question exactly what Sidewalk hopes to achieve.
"What data will be gathered and what is it going to be used for? These are real and prescient issues for the city of Toronto," he told the BBC.
Sidewalk Labs told the BBC that the sensors will not be used to monitor and collect information on citizens, rather it will be used to allow governments to be flexible about how neighbourhoods are used.