Success Stories
ESRI Award of Excellence
ESRI Canada, a leading geographic information systems (GIS) provider, presents an Award of Excellence annually to organizations and individuals across Canada for outstanding achievements in the application of GIS technology. On September 16, 2004, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) received a joint Award of Excellence from ESRI Canada, at their annual User Conference held in Ottawa attended by more than 350 GIS professionals from the private and public sectors. Mr. Alex Miller, President of ESRI Canada presented the award in recognition of the joint initiative undertaken by NRCan, Elections Canada and Statistics Canada in building name and address attributes on the GeoBase National Road Network (NRN) for Canada.
GeoBase is a current, accurate, and maintained set of base geospatial data that describes Canada. Operating under the banner of the Canadian Council on Geomatics (CCOG), federal, provincial, and territorial governments are working together to make GeoBase possible by offering source data for the creation of the GeoBase themes. The GeoBase Portal hosted by NRCan, promotes the sharing and maintenance of a common, closest to the source base of quality geospatial data.
Jean Cooper, Acting Director General of the Mapping Services Branch (MSB), Earth Sciences Sector accepted the award on behalf of NRCan. Maurice Bastarache, Associate Director, Electoral Geography at Elections Canada, and Gordon Deecker, Director, Geography Division at Statistics Canada accepted the award on behalf of their respective organizations. Special recognition was given to Heather Kinsley from Elections Canada in her role as Project Manager for the attributed road network project.
“The Award of Excellence recognizes the efforts of Elections Canada, Statistics Canada, and Natural Resources Canada to advance the development of an addressed national road network.
” said Mr. Miller. “Between 1997 and 2004 these department shave worked in a coordinated fashion for the betterment of Canadians - I applaud their efforts.
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NRCan has been working with provincial and territorial governments over the past five years to deliver the NRN, which is based on a national standard established through consultation with stakeholders across the country. The NRN data includes basic geometry captured using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, with additional attributes. The NRN version 1.0 is publicly available on-line through the GeoBase web portal (www.geobase.ca).
“We are moving towards a new geospatial and mapping environment, building on a common base of quality geospatial data, and partnership is key to its success”
said Ms. Cooper. “By working together to improve access to a valuable and reliable source of geospatial information, we are improving decision-making of all Canadians from all sectors of economy.”