Ontario officials are asking for public comment on a new open data plan. Ontario is the first province to post a draft Open Data Directive for public feedback.
The feedback request is part public comment period, part education effort as public officials seek to explain what will be on the portal and what won’t be. “Ontario is sharing the draft directive to make sure it reflects the needs and input of Ontarians. The directive will instruct Ontario ministries and provincial agencies to make data public, unless it is exempted for privacy, legal, security or commercially sensitive reasons,” Deb Matthews, President of the Treasury Board wrote in a statement announcing the comment period.
The release of new data is slated for Fall of 2015.
Ontario has already released 185 data sets the most of any Canadian province, but hopes to do more.
Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario wrote an open letter about the effort citing the need to improve transparency and service delivery. “To get this process started, I’ve asked each of our 27 ministries to develop a plan on how they will become open and engaged. And we’ve brought together an expert team that will lead a province-wide discussion about how we, as a government, can be more open in everything we do,” the letter said.
Users can leave their feedback on the first version of the open data portal at Ontario.ca.
