When Surrey, B.C., Mayor Dianne Watts announced last April that she planned to turn one square mile of her City Centre into a leading centre for medical technology, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) in the Pacific region immediately started paying attention.

“When we heard of her intention to create an Innovation Boulevard, we knew the mayor needed to tap into Israel’s spirit of ingenuity,” CIJA Pacific region director Darren Mackoff said.

Mackoff and his team helped organize a six-day trade mission to the Holy Land for Watts last month, with a delegation that included individuals from the health technology business sector and representatives from Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and Kwantlen Polytechnic University – all of them key stakeholders in Surrey’s Innovation Boulevard.

In January, just a month after her return home, Watts signed a deal with Israel Brain Technologies (IBT), the first international deal of its kind secured since she and her Innovation Boulevard co-chair, SFU neuroscientist and professor Ryan D’Arcy, announced the boulevard last year. Israel Brain Technologies, created by Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, is the country’s most prestigious neuro-technology consortium. It unites Israel’s academics, neuroscientists and industry leaders under a single umbrella of brain research and innovation.

The deal will give the City of Surrey access to some of Israel’s top thinkers and the development of innovative, life-saving medical advances, Mackoff said, but it will also give IBT the opportunity to engage in exchanges and to partner on specific projects with their counterparts in Western Canada.

In a press release, Watts said, “Israel and Surrey have common health-care challenges and share the goal of setting a new standard in medical care and innovation. By combining our remarkable pool of talents and expertise, I know that Surrey and Israel will together create ground-breaking and life changing advancements in health care.”

Watts’ CIJA-led educational mission was packed with 25 business meetings at Israeli universities, hospitals and centres of innovation, political briefings, tours of Israel’s most significant historic and contemporary sites, and a strategic visit to Israel’s northern border with Syria, on the Golan Heights.

“In addition to gaining a strong understanding and appreciation for Israel and the challenges the Jewish state faces in the region, it was extremely important that Mayor Watts left Israel with tangible collaborative partnerships between the city, trip delegates and their counterparts in Israel,” Mackoff said.

The blizzard-like conditions in Jerusalem on the mayor’s day of arrival meant CIJA had to do some quick, on-the-ground improvising and move the team to Tel Aviv at the last minute. Nonetheless, the itinerary was executed seamlessly. Mackoff travelled with the mayor and says she was tremendously moved and inspired by this visit.

“The Jewish and pro-Israel community in Western Canada has a firm friend in Mayor Watts,” he reflected. “She saw first-hand what Israel is truly about – a country that has overcome tremendous obstacles to create a thriving democracy that is leading the world in scientific advancements.”