St. John's, NL - The Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation was recently presented with an Award of Excellence at ESRI Canada's Regional User Conference in Halifax. Alex Miller, President of ESRI Canada, presented the Award in recognition of the Department's innovative application of GIS for the management of drinking water quality. Their Water Quality Management System, based on ESRI's web mapping technology, is one of the first of its kind in Canada.

"The Award of Excellence is going to a very deserving organization that is dedicated to the advancement of GIS throughout the government of Newfoundland and Labrador," said Mr. Miller. "Their Intranet web mapping application for water quality management is leading edge. The department's efforts in centralizing and sharing data and maps throughout the province serves as an example for other governments across Canada, I applaud their efforts."

The mandate of the Water Resources Management Division of the Department of Environment and Conservation is to administer various statutes as they relate to the allocation of water, stream alterations, protection of water supply areas, licensing of well drillers, and other aspects of water resource management. It is also responsible for monitoring and tracking the safety and quality of community water and waste water.

"The GIS Intranet application is an important step in ensuring drinking water safety," said Tom Osborne, Minister of Environment and Conservation, for Newfoundland and Labrador. "It allows drinking water quality data sharing between four provincial government departments involved in ensuring safe drinking water through Newfoundland and Labrador's Multi-Barrier Strategic Action Plan." The Minister explained that while the application is currently only available to provincial government users, the department's planning to include a public portal in the near future.

About ESRI Canada:
Established in 1984, ESRI Canada is a Canadian owned company specializing in geographic information systems (GIS) solutions. We distribute the world's leading GIS software solutions from ESRI Inc., Miner and Miner, and Azteca. In order to provide organizations with complete industry-specific solutions we have established an extensive business partner program that includes more than 125 Canadian organizations. ESRI Canada also provides professional services including consulting, training, technical support, and enterprise GIS implementation. We are leaders 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 thirteen regional offices across the country, with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, please visit http://www.esricanada.com/ or call 1-800-447-9778.

Media Contacts:
Heather Adams
Communications Specialist
ESRI Canada
T: 416-386-6463
E: hadams@esricanada.com
W: http://www.esricanada.com/
 


Diane Keough
Director, Communications Division
Newfoundland and Labrador
Department of Environment and Conservation
T: 709-729-2575
E: DKeough@gov.nl.ca
W: http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/