2011 CivicSpatial Funding for AddressBC

The latest CivicSpatial Grant offering has proved to be a great success in supporting participation in AddressBC.

The re-allocation of $100,000 of CivicSpatial Grant funding provides $1,500 grants for members participating in AddressBC.  At the end of 2011 a total of 38 grants totalling $57,000 were awarded to help Local Governments and First Nations create and provide regular updates of their address data to AddressBC. These CivicSpatial Grant recipients are now at the leading edge for participation in AddressBC:

Sunshine Coast Regional District

Midway
Langley City

Taylor
Summerland

Vernon
Squamish Lillooet Regional District

Fruitvale
Canal Flats

Grand Forks
Sooke

Squamish
Burns Lake

Okanagan Similkameen Regional District
Duncan

Kootenay Boundary Regional District
Metchosin

Revelstoke
Kelowna

Rossland
Merritt

Warfield
Lil’wat Nation

Sidney
Valemount

Lake Cowichan
Trail

Thompson Nicola Regional District
Montrose

Whistler
Musqueam Indian Band

West Kelowna
Adams Lake Indian Band

Port Edward
Central Coast Regional District

Port Clements
Greenwood

Fraser‐Fort George Regional District

AddressBC grants are just one way that the CivicSpatial Grant program assists ICIS members.  Other projects eligible for funding under this program include projects that work to improve the accuracy of the cadastral fabric.  For more details, please check out ICIS CivicSpatial Grant Program or contact Ann Archibald, Program Coordinator.

AddressBC – Up, Running, and Gaining Speed

Now that AddressBC has been up and running for a few months, we have had a chance to work with many members and their address submissions. As staff members, we are always encouraged and gratified to see the ongoing dedication, support, and effort willingly undertaken by our Local Government and First Nations address providers working towards such a significant achievement. 

Further proof of this commitment is now being tracked as AddressBC continues to gain traction.  AddressBC Status Maps have been created for October, November and December 2011, showing the status of each jurisdiction’s involvement in AddressBC as participation advances across the province.

Find these and other useful resources in the AddressBC Resources section of the ICIS website.  There you will find the AddressBC data model, helpful User Guides and our new Online Tutorials that walk through many of the different tools available online through AddressBC including address editing, creating maps, and reports and exporting address data. 

If you are interested in joining in and getting started with AddressBC, please contact Ann Archibald or Mike Wardell by email or give us a call at 250‐381‐9295.  We are here to help!

ICIS receives the Public Enterprise Award for AddressBC!

While ICIS members’ commitment to a collaborative data sharing model has been recognized informally by many organizations, the recent announcement of the Geospatial Leadership Public Enterprise Award for AddressBC is a formal recognition of the success of this collaborative model in action.  In fact, many organizations throughout North America look to ICIS and AddressBC as a model of collaboration that they would welcome in their region. 

So while kudos are rolling in we must focus the limelight on the ongoing dedication, support and effort willingly undertaken by our Local Government and First Nations address providers that are working together to create AddressBC as a comprehensive, current and accurate province‐wide address resource. 

 

Islands Trust Looks Forward to AddressBC (by Mark van Bakel)

The Islands Trust is a federation of local governments with a provincial mandate to preserve and protect the environment and unique amenities of the Trust Area. The Trust Area is comprised of the islands and waters between the BC Mainland and southern Vancouver Island, including Howe Sound and as far north as Comox. The Area contains 13 major islands and more than 450 smaller islands, and has a total population of 25,000. 

The large extent of the Trust Area overlaps with 7 Regional Districts, each of which is responsible for maintaining addressing. Rather than attempting to coordinate a Regional District compilation dataset, with all the challenges associated with maintaining currency and common standards, the Trust currently utilizes BC Assessment and Land Title mailing address records.   

Although functional, this approach is less than perfect, and often results in a high percentage of return to senders when utilized in notifications and mail-outs. It is for this reason that we very much look forward to implementing an improved address and land parcel relationship as proposed by AddressBC. 

Easy as ABC!

Dedicated staff at the District of Taylor have now completed their update of AddressBC. 

An early AddressBC tutorial with two staff members had to be rescheduled because, in a town the size of Taylor, people get used to wearing many hats, and one attendee was called away to her role as a First-Responder.  After managing to avoid any further emergencies, the tutorial was rescheduled and Taylor got down to the business of learning the AddressBC online editing tools via a webinar and then through a hands-on ‘refresher’. 

One staff member, who works part-time at the District offices and part-time at the medical offices in town, found the tools easy to use, making the address entries go very smoothly.  Once all addresses were entered and posted, staff checked in with ICIS to see that the addresses were posted correctly.  Everything checked out perfectly and they exclaimed “That’s it?  That was so easy!!”

Now that Taylor has entered their address information, they will be maintaining and updating their addresses using the same AddressBC online tools so that their staff, ICIS member jurisdictions and service providers can have ready access to current address information for their area.  

ABC Test Data to Best Data

While our fabulous folks on the AddressBC Working Group are working with our new AddressBC PRODUCTION system, the Project team here at ICIS will be starting the next phase of the roll-out which includes opening up access to those jurisdictions that have test data in AddressBC.

During development, ICIS announced that there were approximately 800,000 address points for use as test data for AddressBC development. This test data has remained in the system as a collection of address-point data-sets that were converted from parcel attribution submitted to ICIS through regular parcel data submissions from various Local Government members. As this conversion work was undertaken by ICIS in late 2009 to early 2010 it will require review by the custodial jurisdictions to validate and update this data prior to the full release of PRODUCTION.

As this test data has already been converted to the AddressBC data model, some jurisdictions may find that this provides them with a good ‘head-start’ to their own efforts to develop a point-based addressing system. For others there may be interest in updating and validating the test data-sets so that they can immediately start participating in AddressBC with little effort.

The AddressBC project team will be contacting each jurisdiction with AddressBC test data to ensure that the best option is well supported so that AddressBC can go into full PRODUCTION with validated, accurate and authoritative address data.

FortisBC Values AddressBC

FortisBC’s Conflation Project will adjust its gas facilities data in GIS to new and more accurate cadastral landbase data. 

A key component for the success of the Conflation Project is to have spatially accurate land-base and address data available, which are provided by ICIS members. Local Government participation in AddressBC will provide FortisBC and other ICIS members with an accurate, accessible and province-wide address source so that projects like the Conflation Project can succeed.

The Conflation Project is well underway in Vancouver Island and plans to roll-out to the Interior BC through July and August, followed by the Lower Mainland in September and November 2011.

To find out more about FortisBC’s Conflation Project and its importance for your area please contact Piet Nooij (604) 592-7622.