City Opens Council Data

November 10, 2011

Finding it hard to keep up with all the activity of City Council?  Edmonton is proud to announce it is the first city in Canada to release a fully robust set of City Council data to its open data catalogue.  The City is committed to enhancing the transparency and accessibility of its civic information and these new data sets will allow residents to more easily locate relevant City Council information that has an impact on their everyday lives.

The five new data sets, which complement meeting agendas, minutes and live-stream video already available on edmonton.ca, include City Council and Committee:

• Meeting details: date, time and location for upcoming Council and Committee meetings.
• Agenda items: lists topics up for discussion at upcoming Council and Committee meetings. 
• Motions: records movers/seconders, whether a motion passes or fails and content of motions made by Councillors in Council or Committee meetings.
• Attendance: roll call for both Council and Committee meetings.
• Voting Records - tracks Mayor and Councillor votes for each motion at City Council and Council Services meetings.

With a total of 106 data sets now available through the catalogue, the City of Edmonton continues to be a leader in Open Government.  The City of Edmonton is encouraging citizens, the media, community organizations and private businesses to use information provided in the catalogue to develop innovative service-delivery ideas, applications and solutions. The data sets previously released resulted in many cell phone apps, including apps to find recycle depots, bus arrival times, and local restaurant inspections.
 
Over the coming weeks, the City plans to release more data sets including census data, tree locations and DATS stops.
 
Confidential and sensitive information held by the City will continue to be handled in accordance with existing protocols, and provincial and federal law.

For more information:

Karen Burgess