“Open government” is a transparent, public-facing, and accessible approach to government. For municipalities, the open government concept allows for more citizen engagement, collaboration, and oversight, and strengthens the accountability of municipal staff and elected officials. The free sharing of information is an important part of the open government philosophy. This component is termed “Open Data”.
Open Data is information that is made freely available to the public in a machine-readable format without restrictions on use.
The City of Welland supports the open government concept and is committed to improving the delivery of services to its constituents, providing greater value, increasing transparency of governance activities, increasing citizen involvement, and supporting opportunities for economic growth. The free sharing of City information, or “Open Data”, further strengthens this commitment.
The City of Welland Open Data project was initiated by the Information Services Division and involves the free dissemination of digital information via the City’s web site. The Open Data Catalogue provides a list of all the digital data sets available for download and use. You will find spatial data for use with GIS software, as well as tabular and textual data and documents. This Data Catalogue will expand and change over time as more information becomes available for public use, so we encourage you to visit the data catalogue often.
We are interested in your input and suggestions on what information we are offering through the Open Data initiative.
Published By: City of Welland, opendata@welland.ca
Publication Date: July, 2014
