Introduction

The Government of Ontario promotes an Open by Default approach to the proactive release of Data.

This Directive outlines requirements for ministries and Provincial Agencies on listing all data inventories, publishing Open Data, and preparing information systems to support ongoing Open Data requirements.

The Open Data initiative supports government efficiency, effectiveness and innovation. Faster and easier access to Government Data through a one-window data portal facilitates evidence-based policy, informs service delivery and promotes greater transparency and accountability.

The Open Data initiative also supports public engagement and participation by allowing Ontarians to develop their own analysis, insights, and digital products.

To support this implementation of the directive, an Open Data Guidebook is available as a tool and resource to Ontario ministries and Provincial Agencies.

The Open Data Directive is a Management Board of Cabinet Directive, issued under the Management Board of Cabinet Act.

Purpose

The purpose of this directive is to maximize access to Data by requiring that Government Data be Open by Default unless exempted from release in limited and specific circumstances as specified in this directive.

For the purpose of this directive, “Data” is defined as facts, figures and statistics objectively mea­sured according to a standard or scale, such as frequency, volumes or occurrences, but does not include Information (as defined by this directive).

This directive:

  • Instructs ministries and Provincial Agencies to release Government Data that they create, collect, and/or manage as Open Data, unless the Data is exempt from release as Open Data, pursuant to this directive.
  • Defines principles and requirements for publishing Government Data as Open Data.
  • Promotes a culture of openness and collaboration – both within the public service and externally with the people of Ontario.

Application and Scope

This directive applies to all Ontario ministries and Provincial Agencies.

This directive applies to all Government Data.

This directive promotes Data Management practices which enable the proactive and ongoing release of Government Data and is to be implemented in a manner that is consistent with existing legal obligations, restrictions and requirements, including the Archives and Recordkeeping Act, 2006, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 1990, the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004, the French Language Services Act, 1990, and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 or other applicable legislation.

Principles

Government Data is Open by Default unless exempted from release in limited and specific circumstances as specified in this directive.

Personal Information is not to be released as Open Data under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Ontario. However, where there is sufficient statutory authority to release Personal Information, and where it is appropriate, Personal Information may be made available in a Machine-readable format.

Government ensures exempted Data remains secure and is managed responsibly.

When Government Data can be made available to the public, it will be released over the internet in an Open Format, at no charge to the user, and will be released under the Open Government Licence - Ontario (see Appendix A).

Open Data, to the fullest extent possible, is available in its original, unmodified form.

Government Data released as Open Data is accurate, timely, open access, interpretable coherent and primary as outlined in Appendix C: Data Quality Principles.

Mandatory Requirements

The directive requires Government Data be Open by Default unless exempted from release in limited and specific circumstances as set out below:

  • Data that is subject to statutory confidentiality requirements, (i.e. exempt from publication under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 1990, the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 and/or other statutes).
  • Data that should not be disclosed for legal, security, confidentiality, privacy or commercial sensitivity reasons.

Data Inventory

  1. The Treasury Board Secretariat will establish, coordinate and maintain a comprehensive government-wide data Inventory. This government-wide data inventory will be published online and will be accessible to the public.
  2. The Treasury Board Secretariat will identify common core Metadata elements and data standards, where applicable, to describe items listed in the inventory.
  3. Each ministry and Provincial Agency must create an Inventory of Datasets within its custody and control.
  4. Each ministry who has custody and control of Datasets must contribute to the government-wide data Inventory by providing to Treasury Board Secretariat a listing of all Datasets or categories of Data.
  5. Provincial agencies must publish their Inventories in a new web page on their site or, in its absence, another government site in accordance with the Open Data Guidebook.
  6. Ministries and Provincial Agencies are responsible for keeping their Inventory list up-to-date on an ongoing basis.
  7. Ministries and Provincial Agencies must identify any Dataset which cannot be made accessible to the public as Open Data on its Inventory. In addition to identifying such Datasets, the ministry or Provincial Agency must provide a detailed explanation as to why the Dataset cannot be made accessible to the public as Open Data (e.g., exempt because of legislation, contains personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information, security, contains data for which Ontario does not have the necessary rights to make available as Open Data, etc.).
  8. For each Dataset listed in the Inventory that can be made accessible to the public as Open Data, ministries and Provincial Agencies must identify in the Inventory, on an ongoing basis, if that Dataset will be released as Open Data.
  9. In exceptional cases, ministries and Provincial Agencies may exclude a Dataset from their inventory where the organization is prevented from disclosing the Data by law or it is authorized by law to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of Data.

Open Data Publication

  1. All ministry Open Data must be made available in the Ontario Data Catalogue, which is a one-window central platform for all Open Data published by ministries and is administered by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
  2. Provincial Agencies must publish all Open Data following Open Data requirements.
  3. Ministries and Provincial Agencies must follow the Open Data Guidebook to ensure Government Data being released as Open Data meets required criteria.
  4. Ministries and Provincial Agencies should prioritize the publication of Datasets frequently requested by the public, collected in support of government priorities or mandated by legislation (see Appendix B and Appendix D).
  5. All Open Data must be released in an Open Format.
  6. Open Data must be released at no charge to the user and under the Open Government Licence - Ontario (See Appendix A).
  7. Ministries and Provincial Agencies must review and update Datasets released as Open Data periodically to ensure accuracy and timeliness.
  8. No Datasets released as Open Data are to be deleted or removed from public access, except where a Dataset was published in error:
    1. In situations where active maintenance and update of a Dataset is discontinued, or where any published Dataset has to be replaced with a newer or modified version, the Dataset description should be updated in the catalogue to reflect the “inactive” status, without restricting public access to the Dataset.
    2. Where custody and control for a Dataset is transferred from one program area to another program area, the new program area must update the Dataset description in the Ontario Data Catalogue to reflect this.
  9. When legislation mandates the release of Data but does not specifically prescribe the format, ministries and Provincial Agencies should make best efforts to apply Open Data principles (i.e., listed in Ontario Data Catalogue, in an Open Format under the Open Government Licence - Ontario).
  10. In cases where ministries and Provincial Agencies apply fees to process a request for Data, they must review the current practice to assess if releasing it as Open Data would be a more effective and efficient way of providing the Data. This does not apply to freedom of information requests made under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act application and processing fees or other fees authorized by or under statute.
  11. Open Data is to be published in the Ontario Data Catalogue in the language it was collected. The dataset title, description, and all accompanying information must be available simultaneously in both English and French.

Procurement and Contracts

  1. To enable the release of Open Data, ministries and Provincial Agencies must, at minimum, include in all new government contracts with vendors, provisions that address the following concepts:
    1. The Government of Ontario will obtain the right to publish procurement contract data as Open Data. Procurement contract data such as the winning bid for every contract awarded (e.g. vendor name, financial payment information) should be included and published in a timely manner, unless excluded from being made available as Open Data. Vendors shall agree that financial data of contracts are not considered commercially sensitive and may be released.
    2. The Government of Ontario will obtain the right to publish as Open Data original data created or collected as an output of contracts with suppliers, unless the data should be excluded from being made available as Open Data.
  2. The Treasury Board Secretariat must ensure that Open Data requirements (i.e., extraction of data in an Open Format) are built into the Corporate Enterprise Architecture Review Requirements and Policy on the I&IT Project Gateway Process.
  3. All ministries and Provincial Agencies are accountable to include Open Data requirements (i.e., extraction of data in an Open Format) into their architecture review and project approval processes.
  4. All data management platforms, applications and solutions acquired or built must have features as a core function that allow for the extraction of content into an Open Format. This may be accomplished through application programming interfaces (API) in accordance with common best practices presented in the Open Data Guidebook.

Reporting and Compliance

  1. The Treasury Board Secretariat will monitor and report compliance with the directive.
  2. The directive sets out the authority and level of responsibilities to make decisions while maintaining compliance with the principles and the mandatory requirements.

Open Data Engagement

As part of the Ontario’s Open Government Initiative, ministries and Provincial Agencies should develop plans to promote Open Data under the guidance of Treasury Board Secretariat and their specific communication branches. Ministries and Provincial Agencies should communicate the strategic value of Open Data to stakeholders and the public.

  1. Work within the Ontario Public Service, Broader Public Service and with the public and stakeholders to assist in identifying and prioritizing the release of Datasets at the community, regional and provincial levels to support social research and planning.
  2. Work with industry stakeholders to raise awareness of the economic potential of Open Data and to prioritize the release of Datasets to support economic activities.
  3. Leverage educational programs and tools to promote data literacy within their ministries/Provincial Agencies and with their stakeholders under the guidance of Treasury Board Secretariat.
  4. Promote the use of Government Data and digital applications and services with stakeholders.
  5. Evaluate the potential of sharing the Data internally and/or with relevant external organizations in secure environments in cases where Government Data cannot be broadly shared as Open Data.
  6. The Treasury Board Secretariat will coordinate with stakeholders and other levels of government to increase the interoperability and relevance of Data. This includes collecting community input, feedback and improving Open Data quality standards.

Definitions

Provincial Agency – has the following characteristics:

  • is established by government through a constituting instrument (under or by statute, Order in Council or regulation);
  • is accountable to a minister for fulfilling its legislative obligations, the management of the resources it uses, and its standards for any services it provides;
  • the majority of its appointments are made by the government;
  • is not organizationally part of a ministry but is part of the Government of Ontario; and,
  • has authority and responsibility, granted by the government, to perform an ongoing public function or service that involves adjudicative or regulatory decision-making, operational activity, or an advisory function.

For further clarification refer to Agencies and Appointments Directive

Data – is defined as facts, figures and statistics objectively mea­sured according to a standard or scale, such as frequency, volumes or occurrences, but does not include information (as defined by this directive).

Dataset - is an organized collection of data. The most basic representation of a dataset is data elements presented in tabular form. A dataset may also present information in a variety of non-tabular formats, such as an extensible mark-up language (XML) file, a geospatial data file, or an image file, etc.

Data management – for the purpose of this directive refers to the identification and tracking of datasets, metadata, and databases (not to be confused with general records management).

Government - refers to the Government of Ontario.

Government Data – refers to all data created, collected, or managed by ministries and Provincial Agencies. Government Data includes Open Data as well as all other Datasets.

Information – refers to ideas, thoughts, knowledge or memories irrespective of format or medium, which may be represented in manuals, reports and similar work products and may contain Data.

Inventory – A complete list that describes the data holdings of a program area and the Data’s characteristics.

Machine-readable – is a format in which Data (or Metadata) can be understood and directly used by a computer. See Open Data Guidebook for a list of Machine-Readable file formats.

Metadata – describes the characteristics of Data.

Open Data – is data that is released to the public without charge, under the Open Government Licence - Ontario, through the Ontario Data Catalogue.

Open by Default – is a presumption in favour of disclosure over non-disclosure.

Open Data Guidebook – refers to Ontario’s reference document maintained by the Treasury Board Secretariat. It contains Open Data technical standards and recommended data assessment processes.

Open Format – is a set of specifications used to store and transmit digital Data that is platform independent, machine-readable, vendor-neutral, standardized where possible, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that Data.

Ontario Data Catalogue – online tool used to disseminate data in accordance with this directive. Can be viewed at Ontario.ca/opendata.

Open Government Licence - Ontario – a legal agreement that sets out the terms and conditions relating to Ontario’s Open Data.

Personal information – is as defined by applicable legislation, such as the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and as “Personal Health Information” in the Personal Health Information Protection Act.

Responsibilities

Deputy Minister, Treasury Board Secretariat – responsible for:

  • Reporting on Ontario Public Service compliance with the directive and on the progress of the open government initiative.

Deputy Heads (Deputy Minister or Equivalent, and Agency Heads where applicable) – responsible for:

  • Adhering to and promoting the principles and mandatory requirements in this directive and ensuring that ministry staff do the same.
  • Approving the release of ministry open data (this authority may be delegated to an Assistant Deputy Minister or equivalent).
  • Approving the removal of ministry Datasets from the Ontario Data Catalogue.

Assistant Deputy Minister for Open Government, TBS – responsible for:

  • Providing oversight and ensuring compliance with this directive.
  • Establishing and maintaining an Ontario Data Catalogue and OPS-wide data inventory.
  • Maintaining and updating this directive and associated policy documents.

Cluster Chief Information Officers – responsible for:

  • Providing IT support to client ministries in the release of Open Data as required.
  • Ensuring compliance with the updated Information Technology Enterprise and Information Management Architecture process and IT standards.
  • Ensuring that all data management platforms, applications and solutions acquired or built have open data features as a core function, in accordance with this directive.

Assistant Deputy Ministers (Program Areas) – responsible for:

  • Adhering to and promoting the principles and mandatory requirements of this directive and ensuring that division staff do the same.
  • Maintaining an Inventory of ministry Data and acting as stewards of publicly-owned data sets.

I&IT project governance committees – responsible for:

  • Ensuring that projects meet the requirements outlined in this directive.

Program Managers – responsible for:

  • Identifying Datasets for potential posting on Ontario Data Catalogue.
  • Reviewing Datasets published by their organization to ensure currency and accuracy.

Employees – responsible for:

  • Being aware of and abiding by the principles and mandatory requirements of this directive.

Appendix A – Open Government Licence – Ontario

Note: The Open Government Licence – Ontario is based on a template adopted by some Canadian governments at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

Open Government Licence – Ontario

Using Information under this licence

  1. Use of any information indicates your acceptance of the terms below.
  2. The information provider grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the Information, including for commercial purposes, subject to the terms below.

You are free to:

  1. Copy, modify, publish, translate, adapt, distribute or otherwise use the Information in any medium, mode or format for any lawful purpose.

You must, where you do any of the above:

  1. Acknowledge the source of the information by including any attribution statement specified by the information provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence.

    If the information provider does not provide a specific attribution statement, or if you are using information from several information providers and multiple attributions are not practical for your product or application, you must use the following attribution statement:

    Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario.

  2. The terms of this licence are important, and if you fail to comply with any of them, the rights granted to you under this licence, or any similar licence granted by the Information Provider, will end automatically.

Exemptions

  1. This licence does not grant you any right to use:
    1. personal information;
    2. information or records not accessible under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Ontario);
    3. third party rights the information provider is not authorized to license;
    4. the names, crests, logos, or other official symbols of the information provider; and
    5. information subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade-marks and official marks.

Non-endorsement

  1. This licence does not grant you any right to use the Information in a way that suggests any official status or that the information provider endorses you or your use of the information.

No warranty

  1. The information is licensed "as is", and the information provider excludes all representations, warranties, obligations, and liabilities, whether express or implied, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
  2. The information provider is not liable for any errors or omissions in the information, and will not under any circumstances be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other loss, injury or damage caused by its use or otherwise arising in connection with this licence or the Information, even if specifically advised of the possibility of such loss, injury or damage.

Governing Law

  1. This licence is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the applicable laws of Canada.
  2. Legal proceedings related to this licence may only be brought in the courts of Ontario.

Definitions

  1. In this licence, the terms below have the following meanings:
    Information
    means information resources or records protected by copyright or other information or records that are offered for use under the terms of this licence.
    Information provider
    means Her Majesty the Queen in right of Ontario.
    Personal information
    has the meaning set out in section 2(1) of Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Ontario).
    Records
    has the meaning of "record" as set out in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Ontario).
    You
    means the natural or legal person, or body of persons corporate or incorporate, acquiring rights under this licence.

Versioning

  1. This is version 1.0 of the Open Government Licence – Ontario. The information provider may make changes to the terms of this licence from time to time and issue a new version of the licence. Your use of the information will be governed by the terms of the licence in force as of the date you accessed the information.

Appendix B – Examples of High-Value Data and Priorization Guidelines

Prioritization Criteria:

  1. Ministries and Provincial Agencies should prioritize the release of data with high social and economic value.
  2. High-value datasets are deemed to be those that are:
    1. Frequently requested by the public via Freedom of Information requests, public surveys, phone, mail inquiries, and media.
    2. Collected or produced in support of government priorities.
    3. Mandated by act or statute (see Appendix D).
    4. Identified as such by reputable international organizations, such as the Open Government Partnership or the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Examples of High-Value Data

Sector

Type of data

Crime and Justice

Crime statistics, safety, court statistics

Land and natural resources

Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting, mineral reserves

Education

List of schools; performance of schools, curriculum, test scores

Energy and Environment

Pollution levels, energy consumption, air, water quality.

Finance

Budget, Public accounts, procurement awards

Government Accountability

Public appointments, public expenditures, salaries, workforce demographics, contact info.

Health

Prescription data, wait times, performance data, disease control

Social mobility and welfare

Housing, social assistance, health insurance and unemployment benefits

Transport and Infrastructure

Public transport timetables, highways and roads data, collisions, key infrastructure.

Adapted from G8 Open Data Charter

Appendix C – Open Data Quality Principles

Accurate: The accuracy of Data information is the degree to which the Data correctly describes the phenomena it was designed to measure. It is usually characterized in terms of error in statistical estimates.

That means that data should correctly describe the situation it is measuring, with the smallest margin of error available.

Timely: The timeliness of data refers to the delay between the reference point (or the end of the reference period) to which the data pertains, and the date on which the data becomes available.

That means that datasets being released should be as up-to-date as possible, without compromising accuracy. In some cases, historic data may be of high-value or interest and should also be released.

Open Access: The accessibility of data refers to the ease with which it can be obtained as well as the suitability of the form or medium through which the data can be accessed. The cost of data may also be an aspect of accessibility for some users.

That means that datasets should be released in a machine-readable, downloadable format as part of the Ontario Data Catalogue, and made available to the public at no charge and without restrictions that would impede the re-use of that data, under Ontario’s Open Government Licence.

Interpretable: The interpretability of data reflects the availability of the supplementary information and metadata necessary to interpret and utilize it appropriately. This information normally covers the underlying concepts, variables and classifications used.

That means that data should be easy to interpret, with the appropriate supplementary information and metadata included to help others to be able to understand the data and use it appropriately.

Coherent: The coherence of data reflects the degree to which it can be successfully brought together with other data within a broad analytic framework and over time. Coherence does not necessarily imply full numerical consistency.

That means that data should be coherent, intact and in a consistent format, so that it can be brought together and analyzed with other datasets.

Primary – Published data should be as detailed as possible. Data should be published in primary forms (i.e. as collected at source) at the finest level of granularity available. Aggregate data may be published when granular source data is not available.

Adapted from: Statistics Canada Data Quality Guidelines

Appendix D – Sample of Data Published in Response to an Act

  • Vital Statistics – Vital Statistics Act, 1990
  • Energy consumption and emissions – Ontario Green Energy Act, 2009
  • Toxics reduction - Ontario Toxic Reductions Act, 2009