WINNIPEG - Ontario and British Columbia have agreed to work together to improve the way information about the provinces' land and natural resources are managed.

The partnership will save both governments time and money and provide fast and easy access for government staff and partners who need the information, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay and British Columbia Minister of Sustainable Resource Management Stan Hagen announced today.

Computer-based geographic information has many uses. The detail can be so sophisticated that municipal planners can zoom in on maps that specify individual hydro poles. Emergency service operators can use such systems to instantly plot the quickest route to an incident. Natural resource managers can integrate different types of data (soils, water, vegetation) to make informed land use planning decisions.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the British Columbia Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management will use their combined skills and resources to determine the best ways to collect, store and distribute digital data.

"Both governments benefit," said Ramsay. "We can work as a team on projects, share funding opportunities and increase our buying power. It will also enable us to better pursue a role in similar provincial, national, and international initiatives."  

The provinces will share:
Expertise and techniques for  improving technology and information management
Policies and legislation regulating the use and collection of geographic information
Standards for storing, cataloguing and distributing geographic information
Techniques for collecting scientific and technical information used to help sustainably manage land and natural resources information.

Two initiatives that will benefit immediately from the partnership are Land Information BC and Land Information Ontario. Designed to provide fast, easy access to land and resource information, the agreement will enhance and speed up implementation of the goals of both initiatives.

This agreement culminates a particularly successful year for Land Information Ontario, which has won prestigious awards at the provincial, national and international level.

"Land Information BC is on track to fulfill the B.C. government's commitment to create a central source of information for users within and outside government," said Hagen.

The memorandum of understanding will be in effect until Sept. 1, 2006 and is renewable.  

Contact:

Rob Parry
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
705 755-2158

Graham Currie
B.C. Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
250 356-2862