SURREY — The City of Surrey has placed among the top three cities in Canada for open data according to the Public Sector Digest and Canada’s Open Data Exchange.
The Open Cities Index report ranks 34 of Canada’s largest municipalities' open data programs measuring the readiness, implementation, and impact of the participating cities’ open data initiatives.
“I am pleased we have been recognized for our commitment to an open and accessible government,” says Mayor Linda Hepner in a release. “The City of Surrey is continually striving for innovative and leading edge solutions to achieve our goals."
Surrey’s Open Data Program was launched in 2014.
The goals of the program are to empower citizens, help small businesses and enable socio-economic development through better access to data.
Surrey’s provides free public access to more than 300 diverse datasets from Fraser Valley Health restaurant inspection reports to bike route data to historical climate data.
The new annual benchmark ranks Surrey third and the city is only inched out by Edmonton and Toronto.
The report notes “these cities have placed open data at the centre of their strategies to open up government, while providing the private sector with valuable data for analysis and reuse.”
Now staff