2023 Canadian Open Data Awards Winners

2023 Jury Statement  

The Open Data Awards were created to celebrate excellence in open data across Canada. The awards provide an opportunity for the community to recognize their peers' contributions to the field. As a movement that is constantly evolving, it’s also an opportunity to bring visibility to new ideas and encourage cross pollination, so that the open data community continues to advance and flourish as a whole. For the many who work behind the scenes and advocate for more openness, transparency, inclusion and better services for all people in Canada, we salute you. On behalf of the jury, we look forward to celebrating you, open data stars, in 2024!

2023 Canadian Open Data Awards Winners

Open Data Accessibility Award: Living Environment Equity Index by Ville de Montréal

The City of Montreal's Living Environment Equity Index (IEMV) is a territorial index aimed at locating living environments having cumulative urban vulnerabilities.

It integrates several dimensions of vulnerability (social, environmental, economic, urban security, etc.). This allows the use of data to better prioritize investments in the most vulnerable Montreal neighborhoods-- combating territorial inequity. For example, this will result in the implementation of development projects to improve the living conditions of people in vulnerable situations.

From the start, the IEMV team chose to use open data rather than internal city data, in order to promote transparency and allow everyone to reproduce the work. The IEMV is made accessible through the open data site of the city of Montreal, and through a cartographic application to ensure the accessibility of the index to the general public. Beyond sharing data, the intermediate variables calculated by the team are also shared in order to promote reproducibility by everyone.

Open Data for Democracy Award: dia-log by Culture Laval

This pan-Quebec initiative brought together regional cultural councils (CRC’s) and their members, around issues related to the discoverability of cultural content on the Web.

They tangibly increased the online visibility and findability of cultural events of sixteen arts presenters and programmers, located in twelve administrative regions. Culture Laval did this by providing arts presenters with structured descriptive metadata, and pooled them in the pan-Canadian knowledge graph Artsdata.ca.

The technological work carried out in collaboration with La Culture Crée had the following quantitative impacts:

  • 17.4% more page views per structured cultural event per day;

  • 4x more clicks on structured events web pages per day;

  • Added 3,251 events and 54 locations to Artsdata.ca;

  • Added 212 artists to Artsdata.ca or Wikidata;

  • Potential for interoperability – average of 2.6 external links referred per artist which, with the structuring of data, is set to grow.

Hundreds of Quebec workers, artists and cultural organizations now benefit from improved visibility on culture consumption platforms and search engines. This methodology, represents a model to follow for any organization or consortium wishing to undertake this type of initiative.

Open Data Equity Award: ΔE+ (Delta E Plus)

ΔE+ (Delta E Plus) research group, based in the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering at Simon Fraser University, builds modelling tools for sustainable development.

Their open research activities include OSeMOSYS Global. OSeMOSYS Global is an open, freely available open electricity model generator for any arbitrary region of the planet. Their modelling also supports international capacity building activities. ΔE+ members are regularly invited to be trainers for the Energy Modelling Platform events (Latin America and Caribbean in January 2023, Africa in April 2023, and February 2024 in Brazil) and the UN Summer School on Modelling (Italy every June since 2017). At these events, modellers are invited to learn about open modelling principles and applications to provide policy insights for their countries. ΔE+ has also partnered with Catalyste+ to support modelling in Kenya and Suriname using open principles.

Open Data Innovation Award: Energy Modelling Hub

The Energy Modelling Hub launched two open-source models, SILVER and COPPER, enhancing transparency and collaborative efforts in energy modelling. These models, published on GitLab under a collaborative development approach, provide open, well-documented, and quality-assured models to the community. These models are already being used by groups that evaluate the impact of the proposed Clean Electricity Regulation.

Open Data Quality Award: Columbia Basin Water Hub

The Columbia Basin Water Hub serves as a shining example of accessible freshwater data. This platform goes beyond the traditional constraints of data management by empowering local communities, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with comprehensive freshwater data which previously was held on private devices and was at risk of being lost.

At the core of the Water Hub's success, is its unwavering dedication to data quality. They have introduced  a new metadata schema to enhance data categorization and accessibility. They have also actively addressed previous issues by refining the codebase and improving search functionality. Moreover, the Hub has incorporated new databases such as "depth2water" and USEPA datasets to enhance data diversity and quality. They are steadfast in their dedication to upholding rigorous QA/QC practices, and to the utilization of data grading to ensure and maintain high data quality standards.

Open Data Rising Star Award: Energy Modelling Hub

In its very first year in existence, EMH has created a national network of energy modellers, researchers, and policymakers to guide the transformation of Canada's complex energy systems.

In its very first year, EMH has:

  • launched two Open Source Models,

  • developed an Open Source Modelling Platform,

  • supported several teams in open-sourcing their models and hosting them on the EMH modelling platform,

  • launched the CODERS platform to share energy-related data,

  • organized a dozen free workshops and events, to foster open dialogue and skill development among the Canadian energy modelling community.

  • offered free modelling services on our models, including for stakeholders assessing the Clean Electricity Regulation's impact

  • updated the national inventory of models and experts, enhancing the accessibility to modelling resources and expertise.

Canadian Open Data Excellence Award: Energy Modelling Hub

Here’s a rundown of EMH’s key achievements:

  1. Open Source Models Release: EMH launched two open-source models, SILVER and COPPER, enhancing transparency and collaborative efforts in energy modelling. These models are already being used by groups that evaluate the impact of the proposed Clean Electricity Regulation.

  2. CODERS Database Launch: Version 1 of CODERS (the Canadian Open-source Database for Energy Research and Systems Modelling) was launched, offering a robust platform for sharing energy-related data. By aggregating national and provincial databases, CODERS advances the collective understanding of sustainable energy systems.

  3. Convening Activities: Through nearly a dozen free workshops and events, EMH fosters open dialogue and skill development among the Canadian energy modelling community.

  4. Free Modelling Services: Offers free modelling services on EMH’s models, including for stakeholders assessing the Clean Electricity Regulation's impact. This initiative, bridging the technical gap for stakeholders, ensuring informed decision-making.

  5. Open Source Modelling Platform Development: The EMH platform supports modellers with tools for storing, connecting, and managing their models. This includes support for open-source implementation, standardized format establishment, environment handling through SPINE Workflow management, and connection to visualization platforms like IDEA.

  6. Support to Modelling Teams: Supported several teams in open-sourcing their models, and hosting them on the EMH modelling platform.

Canadian Open Data Leader of the Year: Lee- Anne Black

Over the past 20 years, Lee-Anne has been driving openness and transparency of data at WSIB while maintaining privacy of the customers they serve.

During the past 5 years, Lee-Anne has launched two public facing data tools that have transformed how you can access Ontario health and safety data – Safety Check Safety Check (wsib.on.ca) & Compass.

Safety Check (Safety Check (wsib.on.ca)) is one way the WSIB is making workplace data open and accessible. Doing so provides more transparency, lets citizens and community-based organizations use WSIB data, and supports innovation. This online health and safety tool provided Ontarians for the first time, the ability to find and compare health and safety statistics for the over 300,000 businesses registered with WSIB. Lee-Anne led this work from its inception. She continues to expand the tool with over 8,000 users accessing the tool each month.

In 2019, the second phase of the tool – Compass – was launched by providing a secure login for registered WSIB employers with an accessible and innovative decision support tool. For the first time, employers could access their detailed health and safety statistics at a claim level to understand their performance. This tool has on average 7,000 users per month.

Media Contact

Paul Connor, Executive Director
Canadian Open Data Society
admin@opendatasociety.ca