I promised some weeks ago after having found the great directives from
INSPIRE (EU spatial data infrastructure) and US OMB directives on data
that i would go looking into the Canadian Process. And well dang it!
our parliamentary system is not easy and not necessarily the most
transparent either.
I wanted to know how we go about creating entities like the Canadian
Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) which i consider to be one of the
most interesting and innovative public sector organization when it comes
to data access, discovery and dissemination in the field of geomatics
(Geobase.ca, and Geogratis.ca, Atlas of Canada, GeoConnections etc.).
So far i have found out that it is a budgetary process and have found
two of the following documents that related to GeoConnections:
a) The Budget Plan 1999
(
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/F1-23-1999-3E.pdf), search
GeoConnections in the doc
b) The Budget Plan of 2005
(
http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget05/pdf/bp2005e.pdf) search GeoConnections in
the doc
I also found out that Results-based Management and Accountability
Framework (RMAF) documents from Treasury Board are part of the process
but i am not quite sure how at this point
(
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/eval/pubs/RMAF-CGRR/rmafcgrr01_e.asp) these
work in the creation of a programs as they seem to be more associated
with the maintenance of a program. But there seems to be quite a few
RMAF documents associated with NRCan and GeoConnections but details are
limited in what you read.
There have also been submissions to Cabinet but these are not available
to the public and at the moment i have no clue how to go about looking
for who has submitted what when!
I also discovered that Canada has an Office of the Registrars Lobbyists
which creates and maintains a Lobbyist Registry
(
https://strategis.ic.gc.ca/app/secure/ec/lrrs/guest.do;jsessionid=0000UkUTPS8gy5SxN1VbVqp5X11:10hc5g1ed?lang=eng).
At some point i will go and look up the organizations that i think were
involved in lobbying for the creation of this organization. But i will
also go and look up the big data brokers to see if they have been
lobbying for anything.
I find it fascinating that much tacit knowledge is required to make
something happen in our government at the federal level and the process
is extremely complex. I am doing this partially out of personal
interest but also i want to discover the best place for me and some of
you who might be interested to focus our interests at the highest level
of government on the topic of access to public data at no cost to
citizens. So far! I dunno how! But as i discover stuff i will share it.
Cheers
t
Locked
