The government of British Columbia's Open Government initiative earned its third award in the past year - an Esri Special Achievement in geographic information systems (GIS) - for making geographic data more accessible to the public, business and government decision-makers via DataBC.

B.C. has adopted a cross-government approach for geographic information management, access and sharing. The B.C. Geographic Warehouse, a component of the Province's Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) contains datasets used for land-use planning, environmental stewardship, emergency response and public safety, economic development, community health, transportation and infrastructure management.

Better and faster access to geographic data throughout the province encourages business innovation, increases efficiencies, reduces costs and improves overall service delivery of government programs. For example, the BC Emergency Event Map Viewer or BCeMap provides a unified view of emergency events in the province that helps government respond to emergency events of all types.

Launched last summer, the Esri award is the third award this year for B.C.'s Open Government initiative:

• In February 2012 - B.C. earned a 2011 Public Sector Leadership Award for Open Government from IPAC, the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

• In April 2012 - B.C. achieved the number-one ranking overall in Canada for eGovernment in a study released by the Stanford Institute.
  

British Columbia joins Canadian organizations Barrick Gold Corporation and Dalhousie University - GISciences Centre, as well as several organizations from around the globe honoured by Esri at a conference in San Diego, California.

For more information about the 2012 award winners, go to: esri.com/sag

Contact:

David Haslam
Communications Manager
250 387-0172