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• The Geoconnections branch of the Canadian Government released the GeoConnections Canadian Geospatial Data Policy Study in June, 2001. It was produced by KPMG Canada under contract.

  GeoConnections has requested feedback to the study. Please let them know what you think !

  The recommendations from the Executive Summary (PDF):

  1. Recommendation -- Digital geospatial data that are collected or created by any level of government should be made as readily available electronically to the public as possible by improving access mechanisms and processes, unless there are privacy, security or competitive reasons not to do so. Specifically, in implementation, the following points should be taken into consideration:
     • Expand distribution of thematic data via the Internet, possibly by providing some dedicated marketing and distribution funds to expand web-based focal point(s) for free data distribution (i.e., "GeoGratis" or similar sites).
     • Restrictions on redistribution should be eliminated?except where commercial data used within government is redistributed.
  2. Recommendation -- Core framework data, particularly the geo-reference and topographical framework maps used as the underlay for thematic data, should be provided free as a public good (or more properly, licensed at no cost), to encourage use, standardization, and consistency amongst all client groups. In making this data more accessible, efforts should be made to keep distribution costs to a minimum, however, additional funding will be required for some agencies.
  3. Recommendation -- Where costs are material and exceed the "public good" of encouraging their use, costs should be borne by those seeking the data. Notwithstanding, the cost of making data available should be minimized as much as possible. "Nuisance fees" can be utilized for non-Internet distribution (i.e., CDROM, paper), to encourage use of digital distribution and to recoup easily quantifiable hard-copy reproduction and media expenses.
  4. Recommendation -- Transaction fees should remain an appropriate mechanism for cadastral data systems at the provincial and municipal levels. This includes "registered user" connections and access charges. However, efforts should be made to implement unrestricted integration with municipal / assessment databases.
  5. Recommendation -- Digital geospatial data should be licensed at no royalty cost to users with respect to use and redistribution. Use copyright and licensing within Canada to protect quality of geospatial data originating from all government agencies, particularly at the federal level, rather than to prevent use. Most digital geospatial data should be licensed at no cost to users. "Branding" of the original source data would facilitate re-use by retaining the "brand name" as long as the original data is not modified.
  6. Recommendation -- Develop an inter- and intra-governmental data sharing policy model which would encourage and allow the free exchange and sharing of geospatial data by data agencies with other government departments and with other levels of government.
  7. Recommendation -- Reasonable direct costs can and should be recovered from clients (public and private sectors) when a government data agency applies some form of "value-added" service to its data. Government supply of value-added products/services should be limited to instances where the policy rational is valid (i.e., the private sector cannot provide the value-added products/services due to public good or privacy concerns).

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