List of Open Data Catalogues In Canada
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This page has been mirrorred from Wikipedia:Open_data_in_Canada&oldid=569138735 because someone keeps deleting the links.
Contents
(this info should be massaged into a list or a table)
== Federal ==
Canada's [[President of the Treasury Board (Canada)|President of the Treasury Board]] is the political lead on Canadian open government, including open data.
On March 17, 2011, Minister [[Stockwell Day]], then president of the board, announced the launch of the 12-month pilot period for Canada's national open data site, http://data.gc.ca/<ref>[http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/media/nr-cp/2011/0317a-eng.asp Minister Day Launches Open Data Portal]</ref> On April 11, 2012, Minister [[Tony Clement]], the current president, announced Canada's Action Plan on Open Government, a 3-year plan for open data including:
* expansion of the number of datasets made available, gathering requirements for the next generation platform, in the first year; and
* design and implementation of the new data.gc.ca portal, improving the level of standardization of data, in the second and third years.<ref>[http://www.open.gc.ca/open-ouvert/ap-patb-eng.asp Canada's Action Plan on Open Government]</ref>
On June 18, 2013 an updated version of the http://data.gc.ca/ portal was launched, along with an updated [http://www.data.gc.ca/eng/open-government-licence-canada Open Government License].
In addition to the main portal site, other Federal department sites include:
* [http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/ GeoGratis] from [[Natural Resources Canada]] - "Geospatial data available online at no cost and without restrictions"
* data from [[Environment Canada]] at http://dd.meteo.gc.ca/
== Multi-jurisdictional ==
* [http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca/ GeoConnections Discovery Portal] - "Enabling discovery and access of Canada's geographical information on the Internet"
* [http://www.communityaccounts.ca/ Community Accounts] covers Newfoundland only - "providing users at all levels with a reliable source of community, regional, and provincial data" - but the Senate has [http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2009/fin/0629n02.htm endorsed] making it Canada-wide.
* [http://waterenvironmentalhub.ca/ The Water and Environmental Hub] is a not-for-profit open web platform to aggregate and federate water and environmental data, focused initially on Western Canada.
== Provincial ==
=== Alberta ===
On May 28, 2013, the Province of Alberta launched the Alberta Open Data Portal (http://data.alberta.ca/) with approximately 280 datasets.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://alberta.ca/acn/201305/34228EBCE8BFB-DF9E-DB03-5A12207311B0B317.html | title=Redford government opens door on data | publisher=[[Government of Alberta]] | date=May 28, 2013 | accessdate=June 5, 2013}}</ref>
=== British Columbia ===
On July 19, 2011, the Province of British Columbia launched DataBC, Canada's first provincial open data site http://data.gov.bc.ca/ It contains data across a broad spectrum of subjects, access to tools to analyze the data, and a blog featuring data-related posts. Previously the site had been used just to host environmental data as part of the Apps 4 Climate Action contest.
=== Ontario ===
As of November 8, 2012, the Province of Ontario has an open data portal. It launched with 63 files.
Site: http://www.ontario.ca/government/government-ontario-open-data
History: [[Toronto Life]] magazine reported on May 25, 2011, that Ontario’s minister of research and innovation, [[Glen Murray (politician)|Glen Murray]], was working on a provincial data portal.<ref>[http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/from-print-edition-informer/2011/05/25/bring-on-the-hackers/ Bring on the hackers]</ref> Minister Murray indicated "the project is fully funded through [[MaRS Discovery District|MaRS]] - it is being built over the next few months".<ref>[http://twitter.com/Glen4TC/status/73574808100675585 @Glen4TC (Glen Murray) on Twitter]</ref>
=== Quebec ===
The Gautrin Report (Rapport Gautrin, "Gouverner ensemble : Comment le Web 2.0 améliorera-t-il les services aux citoyens?") released May 2, 2012, announced many open government initiatives, including an open data portal.<ref>[http://www.mce.gouv.qc.ca/publications/rapport-gautrin-web-2-2012-03-06.pdf Gouverner ensemble : Comment le Web 2.0 améliorera-t-il les services aux citoyens?]</ref>
The open data portal went live June 28, 2012.<ref>[http://communiques.gouv.qc.ca/gouvqc/communiques/GPQF/Juin2012/28/c5177.html Le gouvernement du Québec pose le premier jalon du gouvernement ouvert et lance le portail www.données.gouv.qc.ca]</ref><ref>[http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Quebec+takes+first+step+open+government/6878807/story.html Montreal Gazette - Quebec unveils central website for data]</ref>
Site: http://donnees.gouv.qc.ca/
==Municipal==
The number of municipalities adopting open data policies and releasing open data has been steadily increasing since 2008. For a comprehensive list of municipalities with open data portals, visit [http://datalibre.ca/links-resources/datalibre.ca datalibre.ca blog] and the [http://datacatalogs.org/group/canada Data Catalogs - Group: Canada][http://datacatalogs.org/group/canada Data Catalogs - Group: Canada]. The cities of Edmonton, Ottawa<ref>[http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Council+approves+plan+release+city+data+hold+contest/3018221/story.html Council approves plan to release city data, hold app contest]</ref> and London have organized contests with cash prizes to encourage use of their open data.
== Background ==
NOTE: Open data in Canada dates back to the 1970s with the sharing of satellite imagery, the Data Liberation Initiative in the early 1990s, Geogratis and Geobase at the turn of the millennia, the Information Commissioner's call for Open Government, and any number of other civil society actions and events. The following is a partial and recent history/background by politicians.
The governing party in the [[40th Canadian Parliament]] was the Conservative Party of Canada. The [http://de-en.gc.ca/consultation-paper/ consultation paper] for the government's Digital Economy Strategy, released May 10, 2010, included the statement that "Governments can help by making publicly funded research data more readily available to Canadian researchers and businesses".
On September 1, 2010, Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Commissioners issued an Open Government Resolution,<ref>[http://www.oic-ci.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr-ori-ari_2010_1.aspx Open Government - Resolution of Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Commissioners (at OIC site)]</ref><ref>[http://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2010/res_100901_e.cfm Open Government - Resolution of Canada’s Access to Information and Privacy Commissioners (at Privacy Commissioner site)]</ref> but this does not have the force of law. They called for governments at all levels across Canada to endorse open government, and for them to proactively disclose information in open formats (i.e. open data).
On October 18, 2010 [[Charlie Angus]], an NDP MP, introduced a Private Members' Motion M-587 who primary purpose was to support the use of open source in the government, but which also called for "open access to government information".<ref>[http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3&DocId=4690722&File=11 Parliament of Canada - Order Paper and Notice Paper No. 82 - October 19, 2010]</ref>
On October 21, 2010, the Liberal Party of Canada released a party platform document, the Liberal Open Government Initiative. It included a commitment to create a national open data site opendata.gc.ca / donneesouvertes.gc.ca on which to "make as many government datasets as possible available".<ref>[http://www.liberal.ca/open Liberal Open Government Initiative]</ref>
On October 25, 2010, Green Party blogger [[Emma Jane Hogbin]] raised the issue of open data<ref>[http://greenparty.ca/blogs/16080/2010-10-25/interested-open-data-you-should-be Interested in Open Data? You Should Be.]</ref> and on November 25, 2010, the Green Party called for a Federal Open Data Policy.<ref>http://greenparty.ca/media-release/2010-11-25/greens-call-federal-open-data-policy</ref>
The [[Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics|House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics]] (ETHI), 40th Parliament, 3rd Session was conducting a study of Open Government. Recorded audio (Windows Media format) and minutes of their [http://www2.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/CommitteeMeetings.aspx?Cmte=ETHI&Stac=3081704&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3 meetings] are available.
