April 22, 2009 -- Québec, QC – Communauté Métropoltaine de Québec (CMQ) was recognized with an Award of Excellence at ESRI Canada’s Regional User Conference in Québec earlier today. Alain Dombrowski, Québec Regional Director for ESRI Canada, presented the award to recognize the development of a comprehensive web mapping portal that promotes access to information among the 28 municipalities, counties and boroughs within the Québec greater area.

“CMQ has shown remarkable initiative in leveraging GIS to create an effective information sharing platform for the region of Québec,” said Alain Dombrowski, Québec Regional Director for ESRI Canada. “It is an honour to recognize their achievement that will reduce costs, promote efficiencies and foster collaboration across the entire region.”

CMQ provides support for land management and planning as well as the economic, social, cultural and environmental development of Québec’s greater area municipalities. Prior to implementing the web mapping portal, costly paper maps were leveraged to share geographic information throughout the region and there existed no central location to access data. The absence of a common operating picture proved problematic particularly when an emergency would arise (such as a flood) that crossed municipal boundaries.

In response, CMQ leveraged ArcGIS Server and Geocortex to build a user-friendly portal that makes a multitude of layers available online such as hydrography, topography, infrastructure, cadastral, social services, transportation and agriculture. Region-wide data now resides in a central geodatabase and the portal’s intuitive design provides easy access for a range of core municipal users, including staff with limited GIS experience.

“Prior to the web mapping portal, we would spend up to $5,000 even on very small mapping projects,” said Bruno Labonté, Conseiller en géomatique, Communauté Métropoltaine de Québec. “We no longer need to rely on costly PDF or scanned maps and all participating municipalities now have simplified access to the maps and management plans.

Looking forward, CMQ plans to make the web mapping portal available to universities, colleges and non-profit organizations throughout the region, and will build a tool that will empower municipalities to directly update their own data layers.

About Communauté Métropoltaine de Québec
Créée le 1er janvier 2002, la CMQ regroupe 28 municipalités comptant une population totale approchant les 700 000 habitants. Cet organisme de planification, de coordination et de concertation vise à doter les 28 municipalités comprises sur son territoire d'une vision commune de l'organisation du territoire et de leur développement économique, international, social, culturel et environnemental. La Communauté métropolitaine de Québec est gérée par un conseil composé de 17 élus municipaux ainsi que par un comité exécutif formé de cinq membres. Quatre commissions permanentes ayant pour fonction d'étudier toute question transmise par le conseil ont également été instituées. Une permanence légère assure le suivi des dossiers. Pour de plus amples renseignements, visitez le : www.cmquebec.qc.ca.

About ESRI Canada
Founded in 1984, ESRI Canada provides enterprise geographic information systems (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments, and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission critical decisions by leveraging the power of maps. The company distributes the world's leading GIS software from ESRI Inc., Miner and Miner, Azteca, and other technology partners. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 8,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Information about ESRI Canada can be found at www.esricanada.com.

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