2004-2005 represented the last year of the initial funding for GeoConnections. Since its inception in 1999, this national partnership initiative has built the foundation of policies, standards, protocols, technologies, and partnerships required for Canadians to benefit from easy on-line access to geographic data, services, and applications via the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI).

All levels of government, the private sector, academia, and non-government organizations have worked together to build the CGDI and in turn contribute to the Canadian economy, society, and environment. For example, GeoConnections' leadership helped governments across Canada to integrate their geomatics activities by encouraging them to work together and by developing policies and standards for efficiently sharing and using data.

GeoConnections also contributed to Canada by helping build geomatics capacity in rural, coastal, Aboriginal, and northern communities. These communities can now use geomatics to support socio-economic growth and make informed decisions about sustainable development. If Canadians know how to capitalize on geomatics tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS), they are much better equipped to plan their communities, manage natural resources, protect the environment, and safeguard their health.

In addition, GeoConnections helped build awareness of geomatics in secondary and post-secondary schools, and nurtured the skills of qualified people to help the Canadian geomatics industry fulfill its vast potential.

Today, thanks to GeoConnections, numerous groups of users with distinct requirements are also discovering the benefits of geospatial information - in the fields of real estate, school administration, and public health, among others.

Moving Confidently Into the Future

On February 23, 2005 the federal government tabled its 2005 Budget and demonstrated its commitment to continue building the CGDI and promoting its use, particularly in key priority areas such as health, public safety, sustainable development and the environment, and issues of importance to Aboriginal people. By investing $60 million over the next five years for the continuation of GeoConnections, the federal government intends to maintain the momentum that the first GeoConnections initiative achieved and to continue leveraging the efforts of partners.

Partnering With Industry to Spur Technology Development

Through GeoConnections, the Government of Canada has helped geomatics technology projects leverage other contributions and get off the ground. In fact, since its inception, GeoConnections has provided more than $11 million to Canada's geomatics industry through its GeoInnovations program. Combined with contributions from other partners, that funding has resulted in technology projects valued at more than $32 million. For instance, in 2004, GeoTango International Corp. worked with GeoConnections to create a more intuitive way to explore, analyze, and understand complex geospatial data. The tool they developed, GSN 3D Explorer, allows users to visualize and analyze geography markup language (GML) data in three dimensions. Another company, CubeWerx Inc., developed security software in 2004 that lets organizations minimize the costs to adopt, administer, and participate in web-enabled and secure collaborative geospatial information infrastructures such as the CGDI. These, and many other projects have developed advanced CGDI technologies and applications that better equip Canadians to access and use geospatial data.

Enriching Community Decision Making

Through its Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI), GeoConnections has launched 109 projects involving more than 250 rural and remote Canadian communities to help them apply GIS to administer community resources and development effectively. Working with SCI, these communities learned how to use GIS and digital maps to address specific community challenges. For instance, Bearskin Lake is an isolated First Nation community about 400 km north of Sioux Lookout in north western Ontario. In 2004-2005, SCI trained two community members to use desktop GIS software as part of a resource-development program, including a five-year land-use management plan. In Saskatchewan, three members of the Kawacatoose First Nation community were trained to use GIS and global positioning systems (GPS) to develop a land-tracking system. This system will help the community develop organic-based agriculture on its recently expanded land holdings.

GeoConnections also worked with a number of communities of practice representing key public priorities. For example, GeoConnections partnered with the Winnipeg School Division and DMTI Spatial Inc. to develop an on line Housing Registry based on the CGDI to help inner-city families find new accommodation within their existing school zones. This tool will help parents avoid unnecessarily transferring their children to different schools, a disruptive practice that often impedes youth education and social well-being.

Improving Access to Free Quality Data

GeoBase is a collection of current, accurate geospatial data about Canada-roadways, administrative boundaries, and other geographic characteristics. It delivers on the framework data commitments of the GeoConnections initiative, which is itself a key contributor to GeoBase. By 2005, the National Road Network (NRN), one of six GeoBase themes, blanketed Canada - a 133% increase in coverage in a little over a year. GeoBase now houses accurate, consistent, and up-to-date information about every highway, thoroughfare, street, boulevard, crescent, avenue, and cul-de-sac in the country. GIS developers can use this roadway data to build GPS- or web-based applications and integrate this layer and any, or all, of the other five GeoBase data layers to produce perspectives far more valuable than any one data layer would offer alone.

The Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program (CCIAP) is a national initiative designed to generate greater knowledge about Canada's vulnerability to climate change. By filling gaps that limit our understanding of vulnerability, the program equips Canadians to better assess the risks and benefits posed by climate change and to make informed decisions about adapting to its impacts. CCIAP also assesses the latest science related to impacts and adaptation, encourages stakeholders and researchers to collaborate, and facilitates climate change policy development. More information ...

Research Projects Study Climate Change Impacts across Canada

CCIAP funded 32 new research projects across Canada in 2004-2005. These projects dealt with a variety of issues including water resources, fisheries, agriculture, non-commercial food supplies, and human health and well-being. For instance, researchers investigated the vulnerability of groundwater supplies in Prince Edward Island, they studied the impacts of climate change on Arctic char in the North, they examined strategies to deal with drought in the Prairies, and they assessed the role that local ecological knowledge can play in adapting to changing food supplies in northern B.C.

Climate Change Policy Coordination and Networking

Through CCIAP, ESS is coordinating the development of climate change policy and addressing gaps in our knowledge of Canada's vulnerability to climate change. By leading the development of the National Adaptation Framework, ESS helps governments work together to increase Canada's capacity to adapt to climate change. The framework's objective is to equip Canada to recognize and reduce risks associated with climate change and to capitalize on any opportunities that climate change offers. The CCIAP also coordinates the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network (C-CIARN). This national network of 13 regional and sectoral coordinating offices has more than 2,650 members and brings researchers together with decision-makers from industry, governments, and non-government organizations to improve our knowledge of climate change and its potential impacts.

Report Presents Overview of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Canada

In August 2004, CCIAP released Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: a Canadian Perspective. CCIAP distributed more than 8,000 paper and CD copies of this report to federal, provincial, and territorial government officials, researchers, municipal and private industry decision makers, and other interest groups. The report will also serve as a primer for the next national assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation in Canada.

Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP) is a national service delivery agency that coordinates logistics support to Canadian government agencies, northern land claims, northern communities, and independent and university groups conducting research in Canada's Arctic. Support is also provided on a full cost-recovery basis to private sector and non-Canadian researchers. Researchers receiving logistics support from PCSP have helped to define Canada's off-shore limits; establish Canada's claims to off-shore hydrocarbon and mineral resources; identify safe shipping routes into northern communities; establish National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries to protect and conserve wildlife habitats; identify pollution sources and their effects on the northern food chain; and to preserve and record the traditional knowledge of the North's Aboriginal inhabitants. More information ...

In 2004 - 2005, PCSP provided $4.5 million in efficient and cost-effective logistics services to approximately 125 projects researching, for example, archaeology, anthropology, biology, botany, climate change, ecosystem assessments, oceanography, and geology.

Through its ongoing Traditional Knowledge Program, PCSP also provided support to three community-based cultural programs. These included the Vuntut Gwich'in First Nation oral history project; the Iqaluktuuq Project researching long term Inuit cultural history; and the Igloolik Inullariit Elders Society traditional skills camp to equip their youth with the essential skills needed to survive and live on the land.

The Group on Earth Observation (GEO) initiative is an international initiative to build a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained Earth observation system of systems. By continuously collecting high quality and timely worldwide data, the many participating nations will be able to gain a deeper understanding of dynamic Earth processes, better predict events of nature, and further implement environmental treaty obligations.

Established in 2001, the Innovation Acceleration Centre (IAC) is a model for the federal government to assist Canadian companies to develop and commercialize geomatics and geoscience products and services. After being selected through a competitive process, successful IAC companies are mentored either on-line or on-site by ESS experts and have access to federal knowledge and facilities.

The IAC has resulted in significant sales in new geomatics products and services, ranging from mineral exploration to advanced satellite image analysis technologies. Successful projects have resulted in multi-million dollar investments, sales and savings. A major product update from PCI Geomatics including IAC-based technology is to be released soon and a significant new international contract has been won by Vexcel Canada, a new participant. In 2004-2005, four new companies - Consultants TGIS (Montreal), Radarsat International, Noetix and ANF Energy Consultants (Ottawa) - were selected to join the 16 companies already participating in the IAC.