GIS touted as world class.

The Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre's highly touted Geographic Information System (GIS) recently received recognition in a national trade magazine.

The March issue of ArcNorth News, a quarterly magazine published by ESRI Canada, a GIS product distributor, features the work of the centre in installing a state-of-the-art GIS model with the Region of Halton.

"It simply validates the quality of the product and the work," says Williamson, business manager at the non-profit technology centre.

The article profiles the implementation of the GIS solution by the Innovation Centre and associate J.D. Barnes Ltd. with the Region of Halton (comprising the four municipalities of Burlington and the Towns of Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville) in upgrading their existing water and sewer GIS network models.

The GIS is a Web-enabled city mapping and administrative solution currently in use by the City of Sault Ste. Marie and the Public Utilities Commission.

Williamson says their municipal utility model features maps showing street locations, sewers, utility poles and all other infrastructure. Other customized models, which can built right into existing GIS programs can be tailored for planning, engineering and other municipal management as well as business, marketing, tourism and telecommunications.

The centre's Integrated Geomatics Service created seven innovative GIS models that can be implemented as new or advanced applications on existing GIS models.

"Our solution is the most comprehensive solution currently in the marketplace," says Williamson, "because we've developed an enterprise-wide approach to GIS.

"A lot of municipalities tend to grow various different sections of (GIS). The building control department builds one section to suit themselves and public works will build a different one with a different product.

"What we've developed is a product that covers the entire municipality."

Their seven models are adaptable to suit any municipality and range in price between $60,000 for a small municipality to purchase and install the technology to up to $700,000 for a larger city.

But with municipal dollars stretched tight, the Innovation Centre is currently pitching the product to small communities to access the province's new GeoSmart initiative, says Williamson. It provides leverage funding of up to 50 per cent to cover the costs of the technology, implementation and training of GIS solutions.

Already the municipalities of the Township of Michipicoten, White River, Dubreuilville and Chapleau have signed letters of intent expressing interest in applying for GeoSmart funding to use the product.

After two years of research and development, their plans are to market the product to small communities in Algoma and Northern Ontario before expanding across Canada, he says.

Within two years, he expects Sault property owners will have access to assessment data through the city's Web site in building upon an existing GIS street locator program.

"With (provincial) downloading, municipalities want the public to do more of the primary contact work in being able to access information themselves rather than tie up somebody's time," says Williamson.

Basic consumer information such as voting wards and polls, mass transit routes, snowplow routes and property lines will be obtainable with a mouse click, along with information on sewer, water and electrical lines to be made available to contractors.

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