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Montreal, QC - The Geography Division of Statistics Canada and Intélec Géomatique Inc. were recently presented with ESRI Canada's Award of Excellence at the 8th Annual Regional ESRI User Conference. Alain Dombrowski, Regional Manager for ESRI Canada, presented the award in recognition of their work on an automated map production project for the 2006 Census of Population. More than 150 GIS professionals attended the presentation on the project by Daniel Paquin of the Geography Division of Statistics Canada and Pierre Trépanier of Intélec Géomatique Inc.
"This award of excellence was presented to Statistics Canada, Geography Division to acknowledge the success of a dynamic organization in achieving significant performance gains and providing users with the products they require," stated Alain Dombrowski. "It was also presented to the consulting firm that played a major role in the success of the project." Before every census, the Geography Division of Statistics Canada produces large quantities of maps in a range of scales and in formats of various sizes, including a series of maps delineating geographic territories for enumerators to use during collection of census data. In the past, cartographers produced these maps by hand. By the early 1990s, all maps for urban areas were being produced using ArcInfo. For the 2001 census, the Geography Division established the National Geographic Database (NGD), which featured a national road network. The NGD was used to automate production of all maps for that census. A new approach was adopted for the 2006 census collection activity where the Geography Division of Statistics Canada re-engineered the application used in automated production of geographic maps to incorporate new technologies developed by ESRI (ArcGIS 9, the geodatabase, ArcSDE, ArcObjects, and the Maplex extension). A study was completed and Geography Division partnered with Intélec Géomatique, a Quebec-based Canadian firm specializing in systems development, telecommunications, and geomatics, to develop the Census Mapping System (CMS). Development of the CMS involved primarily transposing and adapting the existing mapping system used by Elections Canada, known as Electoral Maps and Reports Production System (EMRP), which was also developed by Intélec Géomatique. The CMS features a bilingual interface and modules supporting tasks including:
"Despite still being in its early stages, CMS has already proven to be a success as a result of ESRI's advanced technology and the close partnership among Statistics Canada, Elections Canada, and Intélec Géomatique Inc.," said Daniel Paquin, Chief of the Applications Development Section in the Geography Division of Statistics Canada. "The team of technology experts, their knowledge of the issues and dedication to the project, made the new system a success." Operational since March 2005, CMS has enabled the Geography Division to meet its map production goals. No production delays have been experienced, and in fact the production team was able to complete the first series of maps an entire month ahead of schedule. This first series consisted of 41,505 unique maps of urban regions throughout Canada. The maps were produced, reviewed, packaged and delivered by a work team of less than 10 within a three-month period. Production of the second half of the required maps is currently underway. A key feature of CMS is that very few maps have required modifications after production, and users have expressed great satisfaction with the cartographic quality of the maps.
Media Contacts:
Pierre Trépanier | |