Picture this.
It’s 2012. You’re a mobile technology entrepreneur living in Vancouver. Using free searchable data available through the City of Vancouver Open Data Catalogue, you’ve created a wildly successful iPhone app that uses traffic cam footage to help people plan their daily commute.
Now, you’re ready for a bigger challenge. You want to create an app using Statistics Canada data that competes on the national market.
If the Conservatives are still in power, your entrepreneurial streak ends there. Under a Liberal government, however, your business is about to blossom.
That’s because of our Open Government Initiative, which I introduced today alongside Liberal Democratic Renewal Critic Carolyn Bennett.
The Open Government Initiative will:
- Immediately restore the long-form census;
- Make all government datasets available free of charge to the public at opendata.gc.ca in an open and searchable format, starting with Statistics Canada data, including data from the long-form census;
- Post all Access to Information requests, responses, and response times online at accesstoinformation.gc.ca; and
- Make information on government grants, contributions and contracts available through a searchable, online database at accountablespending.gc.ca.
So it’s not just your mobile technology business that will benefit from new and exciting opportunities.
Researchers, scientists, businesses and academics will enjoy unprecedented access to Statistics Canada data, including the long form census, entirely free of charge. Journalists, think tanks, government watchdogs and even individuals, will be able to file Access to Information requests – and get timely replies. And ordinary citizens and taxpayer associations alike will be able to monitor all government spending right from their laptop.
That’s our Liberal vision for accountability. Can you imagine any of this under a Conservative government – in 2012, or ever?
Two words. Dream on.
- Marc
UPDATE: You can read more about our new Open Government Initiative in posts by David Eaves and Michael Geist, as well as here.
Marc Garneau is MP for Westmount-Ville-Marie and the Liberal Party’s Industry, Science & Technology Critic
