The NITGC is a partnership consisting of six communities (i.e. Chapleau, Dubreuilville, White River, Hornepayne, Manitouwadge, and the Township of Michipicoten) in the Superior East Region. The development of the NITGC has enabled the smaller northern communities that have experienced economic downturns to pool their resources and take advantage of the power of GIS. As a result, partnering communities are now better prepared for legislative changes such as the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) changes to asset accounting and asset management. 

"This is proof positive that smaller communities can generate unique solutions by combining their resources and information technology to the betterment of their organization; in this case we were definitely ahead of the curve," stated Chris Wray, Michipicoten's Chief Administrative Officer.

"This is a great example of how a community GIS should be set up," said John Houweling, Regional Manager for Ontario Region. "They were able to establish strong partnerships and build an extensive solution with a very limited budget. This level of technology is seen in few mid-sized communities and even fewer smaller communities."

In late 2002, the Township of Michipicoten began to plan for its initial investment in updating its information technology by researching funding opportunities. Work began in late 2004 with funding through FedNor and GeoSmart. Numerous local GIS Vendors (i.e. Wilderness GIS, Cree-Tech, the Sault Ste Marie Innovation Centre, Pensink, and ESRI Canada) were utilized on the project.

The project called for the capturing of orthophotography for five communities along with attribute data that included Official Plan and Zoning information, and the update of many of the major assets and systems of each partner community.  The initial stage of the project was completed in February 2005. Since that time, the communities have added parcel fabric, property assessment data, and additional attribute data, and have conducted individual community-based data capture projects.

The Township of Michipicoten is effectively the central editing hub and location of the GIS data warehouse as well as the web hosting site.  Each of the partnering communities access their community information through a secure, password protected web mapping interface and have the ability to query and report on their data. The public web mapping applications are available at: http://www.nitgc.on.ca/

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 fifteen 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:

Chris Wray
CAO
Township of Michipicoten
T: 705-856-2244 ext. 223
E: cwray@wawa.cc

Jason Morrison
GIS/IT Administrator
Township of Michipicoten
T: 705-856-2244 ext. 230
E: jmorrison@wawa.cc