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SpatialNews.com Press Release
District of Saanich Receives Award For Enterprise GIS
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Victoria, BC - The District of Saanich was presented with an Award of Excellence at ESRI Canada's Regional User Conference in Victoria. Alex Miller, President of ESRI Canada, presented the Award in recognition of the District of Saanich's innovative application of Enterprise geographic information system (GIS) technology. Gerry Powell from the Saanich Engineering Department was on hand to receive the award.
"Each year we like to honour one of our many deserving clients with an Award of Excellence," said Mr. Miller, "in the case of this year's recipient, the award is well deserved. Saanich has embarked on an enterprise wide GIS program and have achieved a great deal in a very short period of time. The result is that all District employees now have access to a wide variety of information via an Intranet mapping site, greatly decreasing the amount of time spent chasing down the required information."
Within the District, GIS is used by many departments for a variety of functions including planning. For example, Saanich's GIS Online Mapping System for staff (launched July 2004) has proven to be a benefit in the planning process. "Having the tools to analyze data and print a map from your desktop has significantly reduced staff time to get maps produced through our drafting section," said Gerry Powell, Technology & Training Coordinator. "For example, you have a meeting to go to and you need a quick map, within a couple of minutes you can print a map with a colour photo of a property, sewer, drain or water utility."
Saanich is also dedicated to providing GIS services in order to better serve the public. With this goal in mind, an Internet mapping application was created in August 2004, to help citizens and businesses quickly and easily locate information about property within the Municipality. This application allows users to view and print parcel and layer information within Saanich.
It currently provides access to aerial mapping, land information (e.g.
streets, property boundaries, zoning, and land contours), sewer, storm, and water information.
ESRI Canada presents Awards of Excellence annually to organizations and individuals across the country for their outstanding achievement in the application of GIS technology.
About the District of Saanich:
The District of Saanich was incorporated on March 1, 1906. With an area of
11,179 hectares, it is the largest of the core municipalities making up Greater Victoria. The topography is undulating with many glacially scoured rock outcroppings. Saanich can best be described as a bedroom community serving the City of Victoria. Single family dwellings are the predominant land use. As of December 31, 1997 there were 39,237 dwelling units accommodating a population of about 106,000.
About ESRI Canada:
Established in 1984, ESRI Canada is a Canadian owned company specializing in GIS solutions. ESRI Canada distributes the world's leading GIS software solutions from ESRI Inc., NovaLIS Technologies, Miner and Miner, Telcordia, Azteca, and CommunityViz. In order to provide organizations with complete industry-specific solutions ESRI Canada has established an extensive business partner program that includes more than 100 Canadian organizations.
ESRI Canada also provides professional services including consulting, training, technical support, and enterprise GIS implementation. ESRI Canada is a leader in providing world-class enterprise GIS solutions for many industries including local government, utilities, public safety and defence, business demographics, education, natural resources, and transportation.
ESRI Canada has ten regional offices across the country, with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.esricanada.com or call 1-800-447-9778.
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