March 18, 2021
The City of Edmonton continues its run as Canada’s Most Open City for the fifth consecutive time in the 2020 Open Cities Index Report. Released by Public Sector Digest this morning, the report details Edmonton’s performance compared to 41 other North American municipalities.
Edmonton came in first with a score of 98.4 per cent. The average score for municipalities in the index was 34.9 per cent.
The City’s Open Data work includes monthly committee meetings, a formal city-wide open data policy, a strategic plan for open data with a guide for its implementation and an online portal for the public to access over 1,200 open data sets and over 2,500 assets including maps and charts.
“Once again, we’ve been recognized for our efforts to share information with citizens as an Open City,” said Mayor Don Iveson. “The City of Edmonton continues to lead the way in transparency and accountability, and we continue to improve our data-driven decision making as a municipal government.”
Edmonton was also ranked first in the Open Cities Index in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. Public Sector Digest did not compile the index in 2018.
As part of the City of Edmonton’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Open Data team has collected health-related data published by other orders of government
in order to share it in accessible and machine-readable formats for use in trend analysis and decision making. The city has also published this data in a COVID-19 dashboard for the public.
Open data is raw data, readable by software and computers, that is made available free of charge to individuals, businesses or anyone interested in research and analysis. Research software and app developers can use programs to access this data automatically and apply it to their own purposes. City of Edmonton data has been used to create applications, inform business ventures, study social issues and connect residents to City projects and services. In 2017, Edmonton became the first organization in Canada and the United States to adopt the International Open Data Charter—a commitment to rigorous and formal evaluation of open data performance.
