Blaine Castle, ESRI Canada Account Manager, presented the Award to the Capital Regional District in recognition of their enterprise GIS and web mapping applications.

The CRD is the regional government for the 13 municipalities and three electoral areas that are located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The urban centre of the CRD is the City of Victoria, and the regional district also includes many of the Gulf Islands, a number of rural municipalities, and a vast tract of wilderness that lies along the south-western coast of Vancouver Island.

"The Award of Excellence is going to a very deserving organization that is dedicated to the advancement of GIS within municipal government," said Mr. Castle. "They have made significant improvements with regard to the way that spatial data is created and maintained and have improved access to this data by leveraging internet mapping technology. Such initiatives are assisting the CRD in meeting key priorities in their Strategic Plan and giving them the tools necessary to make information available to the public, employees, and other government partners."

The Capital Regional District began implementing an enterprise GIS in 2001 to centralize GIS data and maps and disseminate information via Internet mapping technology. The CRD provides GIS data and services to the public via a popular application called the CRD Natural Areas Atlas (www.naturalareasatlas.ca). In addition, the CRD has fostered partnerships across the various CRD municipalities through spatial data sharing arrangements. These partnerships have contributed significantly towards ensuring geographic information is easily accessible to local government partners, employees, and the public.

In 2007, the CRD launched a new web map viewer to combine the functionality and data from the Natural Areas Atlas, the CRD Harbours Atlas, and CRD intraMap. In addition to further enhancing their public web mapping, the CRD is integrating GIS with their financial system in order to create an asset management and maintenance management system in preparation to meet the PS3150 requirements. Such initiatives are helping the CRD meet the key priorities in their Strategic Plan by reducing bottlenecks, improving data sharing, enhancing workforce management, and improving service delivery. 

The CRD also uses GIS for a variety of planning and operational purposes including emergency preparedness and fire protection, regional parks and trails, population growth and development, liquid waste management, transportation, and water supply and distribution. In June, the CRD successfully integrated a work order and asset management system into their GIS to improve the dissemination of information between their public works and engineering departments.

About ESRI Canada:
Established in 1984, ESRI Canada is a Canadian owned company specializing in geographic information systems (GIS) solutions. ESRI Canada distributes the world's leading GIS software solutions from ESRI Inc., Miner and Miner, and Azteca. In order to provide organizations with complete industry-specific solutions ESRI Canada has established an extensive business partner program that includes more than 125 Canadian organizations. ESRI Canada also provides professional services including consulting, training, technical support, and enterprise GIS implementation. ESRI Canada is a leader in providing world-class enterprise GIS solutions for many industries including local government, utilities, public safety and defence, business demographics, education, natural resources, and transportation. ESRI Canada has fifteen regional offices across the country, with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, please visit www.esricanada.com or call 1-800-447-9778.