On Open Government

One way to open up government is to enable easy access to information. I believe that making City of Victoria data routinely accessible to all is a basic principle of democracy. It is an effective way to increase transparency, stimulate economic development, reduce risk, engage our residents and encourage innovation.

I am proud to say that my ‘Open Government through Open Data’ initiative was adopted by Victoria City Council On October 13. If re-elected, I will facilitate the implementation of this initiative, and take more action to open up city hall to Victoria residents.

Here is the background information and Motions that Council adopted.

The Initiative: Open Government through Open Data

The City of Victoria is committed to operating a local government that is open, transparent and accessible to its citizens. To facilitate further progress on these commitments, the City of Victoria could embark on a series of phased actions intended to open up government by way of providing its data* for easy observation and use to the people who pay for it – local residents.

Opening up municipal data is a primary step in the move to make government operations more transparent. It is also an effective way to stimulate economic development, reduce risk, engage our residents and innovate.

Background

Most communities start this process by acknowledging and supporting three commonly accepted Laws of Open Government Data:

1. If it can’t be indexed, it doesn’t exist.

2. If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage.

3. If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be repurposed, it doesn’t empower.

The guiding principle for public access to data should be that any data paid for by the City (and thus the taxpayers) should be accessible to any taxpayer.

Open data is a philosophy and practice requiring that certain data are made freely available to the public, in machine-readable format without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.

In the public sphere, the goal of Open Data is to remove barriers to access to information created or managed by government institutions, while respecting privacy and sensitivity concerns. Facilitating access to this information allows entrepreneurs, academics, community groups and others to study communities and develop applications that leverage the data to improve community experience and stimulate economic growth.

The open data movement has garnered interest at the national and international level over the past few years. Government institutions at all levels have embraced the “open” culture. At the federal level in Canada, a recent speech from the throne highlighted priorities around Open Data, Open Information and Open Dialogue. The Province of British Columbia has created the Ministry of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government. At the municipal level, cities across the nation, including, Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, Nanaimo, Surrey and others have adopted the “open” philosophy.

The City of Victoria is now positioned to join the ranks of its municipal counterparts on the national and international scene. It is currently updating and reconfiguring its internal computer and web systems to enable greater and easier access to information. In a complementary manner, while that work is underway and until that system reconfigure is complete, the City of Victoria can facilitate the evolution of Open Government by adopting the principles of Open Data and examining the costs associated with specific future actions. Open Principles provide the baseline for those actions, will effectively increase access to a public good, and be perceived as technologically progressive and politically transparent.

Adopting Open Principles will help local government become a platform for improved community engagement and well-being, economic development and decision-making. It is consistent with our Civic Engagement Strategy, and it will help our City organisation address our strategic priorities of Enhanced Communication, Enhanced Council Decision Making and Quality Core Service Delivery.

Therefore the following two Motions are Moved:

Motion One

To lay the foundation for the practical steps needed to facilitate open government operations and open data accessibility, the City of Victoria will adopt these Open Data Principles, which, when applicable, will guide future actions taken in our efforts to operate the most open and transparent civic government possible:

1. Complete: All public data should be made available*. Public data is data that is not subject to legal or otherwise valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.
2. Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.
3. Timely: Data is made available as quickly as possible to preserve the value of the data.
4. Accessible: Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.
5. Machine processable: Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.
6. Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.
7. Non-proprietary: Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.
8. License-free: Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.

Motion Two

Working towards the practical application of these principles, the City of Victoria will take these steps:

1. Identify immediate opportunities to distribute more of its data*
2. Record the votes cast by each Councillor at each Council and Committee meeting, whether in support or opposition to any Motion
3. Ask staff to report back on the cost associated with taking the actions identified in (a) through (j), below, including an analysis of how these Open Government/Open Data initiatives complement and can be applied in concert with the City of Victoria’s Official Community Plan, Economic Development Strategy and Civic Engagement Strategy.
   1. Build a searchable database of: existing bylaws, policies, permits, procedures, schedules and feeds, such as child care spaces, garbage collection, health inspections, election results, council meetings, open houses, public hearings, road closures, Police and Fire incidents, etc.
   2. Post, as searchable text (not scanned images), Agendas, minutes, and other (out-of-camera) documents related to Council meetings
   3. Post searchable archived Council agendas, minutes, and reports
   4. Begin broadcasting live video streaming (and archiving) of council meetings
   5. Continue to enhance interactive online services
   6. Identify an appropriate data license
   7. Index, publish and syndicate its data to the internet using prevailing open standards, interfaces and formats
   8. Ensure that data supplied to the City by third parties (developers, contractors, consultants) are unlicensed, in a prevailing open standard format, and not copyrighted except if otherwise prevented by legal considerations
   9. Release automatically all reports submitted to council that do not require confidentiality – if it could be subject to an FOI request, release it and let people know that it is available
   10. Inventory existing data, including background research where available, BC Transit Data, GIS data sets, such as locations of bike lanes, parking, park boundaries, zoning maps, air quality, seismic risk areas, community mapping projects, budget data, grant recipients, festival permits, etc.

Submitted by Councillor Marianne Alto

*Access to data would be restricted to information not required to be held confidential by any provincial or federal statute, or required to be held confidential by reason of its application to civic land, legal or labour decision-making, as stipulated in Council By-Law No. 09-046, s. 12(3) and 12(4).