Mapping Canada’s Future: The Case for Societal GIS
- Jeff Lamb
- Jul 9
- 32 min read
Updated: Jul 24
The purpose of this article is to inspire and challenge Canada’s public sector to lead a national transformation by building a Societal GIS—a federated, public sector-led system that connects data across jurisdictions to align decisions, strengthen trust, and enable the government to meet its greatest challenges.
Dedication
For Greg – I always admired your commitment to the GIS profession and your unwavering tenacity in championing an idea.
Target Audience
The article is aimed at Canadian public sector executives, managers, and GIS professionals who are responsible for policy alignment, digital transformation, and cross-jurisdictional collaboration, with a strong secondary appeal to Indigenous leaders and data governance advocates.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Canada is at a turning point. The nation faces cascading crises—housing shortages, climate-related disasters, aging infrastructure, and economic fragmentation—while public trust in government systems grows fragile. These challenges cross municipal, provincial, and federal boundaries. Yet our governance remains siloed, our data fragmented, and our decisions too often made without seeing the full picture.
To meet this moment, Canada needs a Societal GIS.
Societal GIS is a federated, public sector–led framework that connects people, places, and decisions in real time. It enables governments at every level to collaborate while retaining control of their data. It is not about centralizing power or outsourcing innovation. It is about empowering public servants with the tools to govern a complex, interconnected country.
The need is urgent:
By 2030, over $300 billion will be invested in housing, transit, and climate adaptation. Without a shared spatial infrastructure, these investments risk duplication, delays, and wasted taxpayer dollars.
One in five Canadians lives in a region highly vulnerable to flooding or wildfire, yet emergency data often fails to move fast enough between jurisdictions to save lives.
Private vendors are building proprietary systems that threaten to pull control of public data out of public hands, reshaping governance in ways that prioritize profit over public good.
This is a critical juncture. If we do nothing, Canada risks losing its ability to coordinate across its federation, weakening responses to housing, climate, and health crises.
Who must lead? The answer lies in the public service. GIS professionals and data stewards already have the tools, expertise, and relationships to build this system. They are the architects of Canada’s spatial infrastructure, and they must step out of the map room and into strategy.
What if we get it right? Imagine a Canada where:
A federal housing minister can instantly see how provincial zoning changes intersect with municipal infrastructure plans.
Indigenous nations can collaborate as equal partners while protecting sovereignty over their data.
Public servants align investments across housing, transit, health, and climate, creating outcomes that are greater than the sum of their parts.
This is not theory. York Region has already demonstrated this model through its York Data Co-op, enabling real-time data sharing across municipalities and agencies while preserving local control. Scaling this nationally is possible, but only if we act now.
Societal GIS is the missing layer in Canada’s Digital Public Infrastructure. It is the foundation for ethical AI, smarter governance, and decisions that reflect the lived realities of Canadians.
The map is in our hands. The question is simple: will we let others define it for us, or will we step forward and draw a future that reflects Canada’s highest ideals?
1.0 - The Intersection: Canada’s Living System
A bus kneels to the curb as a mother lifts her child’s stroller onboard. A car horn blares as someone races through a fading yellow light. Beneath the pavement, a subway car slides into the station, its doors opening to release a wave of evening commuters. Above ground, a work crew smooths fresh asphalt into potholes as a cyclist weaves carefully between them.
Life moves here—layered, intricate, alive.
And yet most of us pass through without a thought for what holds it all together.
This is government. This is service.
Across Canada, quiet heroes—public servants—work tirelessly to keep intersections like this flowing. We expect the bus to arrive. The streetlights to glow. The roads to be smooth. The subways to run. The water to flow. And they do, because someone, somewhere, made sure of it.
This is trust.
It is the invisible trust we place in one another, in our institutions, and in the systems that stitch our communities together. Without it, the fabric begins to fray.
But beneath these visible systems lies another layer—a digital nervous system that connects them all. It is unseen but essential, the quiet architecture of coordination that allows Canada to function as more than a collection of parts.
At the heart of this invisible layer is a capability we have overlooked for too long: Geographic Information Systems, or GIS. More specifically, Societal GIS—a way of connecting people, places, and decisions across all the systems that shape our lives.
We are drawn to organize the world in straight lines and tall columns. Governments divide into departments. Companies split into divisions. Each builds walls around its work, forgetting that life flows across those walls.
But people do not live in silos.
A family searching for housing is also riding the transit system, drinking from the water network, relying on emergency services, and sending their children to school. Each need ripples into others in ways that are invisible to systems designed to stand apart.
This paper asks you to see the spaces in between. To think horizontally, where roads, rivers, and relationships cross boundaries. To think spatially, where decisions ripple outward across maps and jurisdictions.
Canada is not built of silos and sectors. It is a living mesh, a network of connections.
It stretches across 9.98 million square kilometres—from Newfoundland’s jagged cliffs to British Columbia’s temperate rainforests, from Nunavut’s Arctic tundra to Saskatchewan’s fertile plains. It is united by rivers, railways, and a shared history.
We are ten provinces, three territories, thousands of municipalities, and over 630 First Nations communities where more than 50 Indigenous languages are still spoken. Each jurisdiction carries its own responsibilities. And yet, together, they form a complex, resilient whole.
This complexity is not a flaw. It is Canada’s greatest strength.
But housing crises, climate change, and economic inequity do not recognize provincial borders. They demand a new way of thinking—one that sees Canada as a system of systems, working in concert.
Our task is clear: to respect diversity while aligning action. To ensure Canada remains strong not in spite of its complexity, but because of it.
And the key to unlocking this future may be hiding in plain sight.
2.0 - Public Servants: The Heart of Community
My father was an immigrant to this country. He arrived in the late 1960s from Liverpool, England, during a time of great struggle and rebuilding after the war. His father had fought against the Nazis in North Africa, where he was badly injured and spent the rest of his life shell-shocked. Knowing he had to give his family a better life, my grandfather brought them to a new country full of promise.
My father took that promise and ran with it.
He loved Canada deeply—not as an abstract idea, but as a living, breathing place. He loved its rivers and lakes, its provinces and territories, its cultures and values. He believed in what this country stood for, and he believed in serving it.
He spent his career in public service, working for the City of Toronto until the day he died. His contribution to Canada was not in headlines or accolades. He was an everyday hero. He made sure garbage trucks were fixed and recycling trucks showed up on time. He trained drivers to do their jobs safely. He looked out for his colleagues and for the residents they served.
To him, government was not a mechanism for profit. It was a way to serve. To serve his family. To serve his neighbors. To serve his community.
This is the heart of public service.
It is also what I loved most during my own time working inside and alongside government staff. I saw the quiet pride they took in keeping streets safe, water flowing, and services running. Somewhere along the way, that focus on service has been drowned out by louder voices—lobbyists and flagbearers who fire arrows at public servants and at the very idea of public governance.
It is time to remember what government is for. Government was never built to turn a profit. It was built to create community.
It exists to care for what the market cannot or will not care for. When leaders forget this and try to force the public sector to behave like a business, we lose the very protections and investments that allow a nation to thrive. It is time to give public servants their voice back.
3.0 - A Mindset: Thinking Horizontally, Acting Spatially
Across Canada, public servants have held this country together. They have kept water flowing, buses running, and communities safe through fires, floods, and pandemics. They understand the urgency rising around them—the demand for affordable housing, for transit that connects people to jobs and schools, for systems that can withstand the pressures of climate change.
But they are constrained.
Inside municipal, provincial, and federal systems, talented professionals see the barriers every day. Procurement processes that stall innovation. Departmental silos that block collaboration. Rigid hierarchies that treat interconnected issues as isolated problems. These barriers leave them managing symptoms instead of solving root causes.
To break free, Canada’s public service must change how it thinks.
It must think horizontally. This means seeing across departments, jurisdictions, and levels of government. It means recognizing that no problem—housing, transit, health, or environment—exists in isolation. A decision in one domain ripples outward, shaping outcomes in others. Horizontal thinking requires public servants to align systems that were never designed to work together.
It must also think spatially. Geography is not decoration; it is the key to understanding how systems intersect in real life. Spatial thinking reveals where a housing project will overwhelm transit capacity, where a new road will disrupt floodplains, or where infrastructure gaps leave communities vulnerable. It connects data to place, giving leaders the insight to coordinate their decisions with precision.
This is not about adopting new technology for its own sake. It is about adopting a mindset that sees the whole system and acts on it.
If governments fail to think horizontally and spatially, they will remain reactive and fragmented. They will miss the opportunity to align decisions that shape people’s lives and will cede leadership to private platforms whose priorities are profit, not the public good.
But public servants already hold the tools to lead. GIS professionals have built the maps, models, and systems that can align decisions across borders. They understand Canada’s complexity and are ready to turn data into action.
This is their moment. The future demands public servants who can step out of their silos, see the interconnections, and lead with clarity.
Canada is not a collection of isolated parts. It is a living system. To govern it well, we must think like it.
4.0 - Surprise: You’re Richer Than You Think
The good news is government already have the tools and the people to help you think spatially. Your organization has invested for years in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and that investment is more valuable than ever.
At its heart, GIS is about understanding place. It connects data to geography so we can uncover patterns, relationships, and trends. It answers not only what is happening, but where and why.
For decades, GIS has helped governments track flood risks, plan housing developments, model transit routes, and map how services flow through neighborhoods. When information is tied to location—whether a single street, a watershed, or an entire region—it gains context. And context turns raw data into insight.
Your organization is already rich in GIS capability. You have skilled professionals who know how to manage and analyze geospatial data. You have software platforms and datasets that support critical services. But here is what many don’t yet realize: GIS has evolved.
It is no longer just a technical tool for making maps.
GIS has become an enterprise platform for collaboration. It links departments and breaks down silos. It empowers planners, engineers, public health teams, and emergency managers to see how their work intersects and overlaps. It enables neighboring jurisdictions to work together on shared challenges like housing, transit, and environmental resilience.
This is the true power of GIS: it offers a common geographic language for decision-making. It gives leaders the ability to see the whole system and act with clarity, speed, and confidence.
5.0 - Federation: Together Yet Independent
Canada has always been a system of systems. A federation of provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous governments, each carrying its own responsibilities, histories, and ways of seeing the world. This complexity is not a weakness—it is our greatest strength.
But holding a country like this together requires more than treaties and borders. It requires connection. It requires trust.
This is where federation comes in.
In the GIS context, federation means creating a system where these diverse players stay connected while retaining their independence. It is not about flattening Canada into a single, centralized view. It is about weaving together the perspectives of every jurisdiction so that governments at all levels can see how their decisions ripple across the whole.
Think of it like a symphony orchestra. Each musician plays their own instrument, but they follow the same sheet music to create harmony. In a federated GIS, each jurisdiction keeps control of its own data and systems yet contributes to a shared geographic understanding of the country.
This is not centralization. It does not mean handing control to Ottawa or outsourcing decision-making to private companies. Instead, it is about building trusted networks where public servants can align decisions using the same information, anchored in place.
When GIS and federation come together, governments can:
Break down silos between departments and jurisdictions.
Coordinate faster on issues that cross borders, like transit, housing, and water.
Make smarter investments by seeing how projects intersect on the ground.
Empower public servants with the tools and authority to act on shared priorities.
This is why Societal GIS matters. It is the foundation for a Canada that thinks, plans, and governs as one system—while respecting the diversity and autonomy that define us.
GIS professionals are already positioned to lead this transformation. They are the ones who can digitally recreate our federation—not as a single, centralized map, but as a living network of systems that remain sovereign yet connected. They can draw the lines that reveal Canada as it truly is: a constellation of communities and governments, each shining with its own light, and together forming something far greater.
In their hit song Bobcaygeon, The Tragically Hip sang of a quiet night where “the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time.” Canada feels much the same—a vast expanse of communities, governments, and cultures, each shining with its own light. Alone, each point is beautiful, but together they form something far greater.
Just as astronomers rely on shared maps of the night sky, Canada needs a shared geographic understanding to navigate complexity and move forward.
This is how we govern best. Not by asking every star to shine the same way, But by showing how, together, they illuminate the path ahead.
6.0 - Yonge and Steeles: From Inspiration to Action
It’s one thing to trace constellations in the night sky—to imagine connections and see patterns emerge. It’s another to make those connections real on the ground, where roads, pipes, transit lines, and lives overlap.
This is where federation stops being an idea and becomes hard, messy work.
At the corner of Yonge and Steeles, where Toronto ends and Vaughan begins, we find a microcosm of Canada’s complexity. Here, thirty different governments are already trying. In this single intersection—above ground, below ground, and across entire systems—the challenge and the promise of building something greater together come into focus.
What appears to be a routine suburban crossing is, in reality, a layered governance puzzle:
2 local governments: City of Toronto, City of Vaughan
1 regional government: York Region
6+ Ontario ministries: Metrolinx, MMAH, MECP, MTO, MOH, Infrastructure Ontario
6+ federal departments: Infrastructure Canada, CMHC, ECCC, IRCC, Public Safety, Statistics Canada
15+ local/regional departments: water, roads, EMS, zoning, fire, policing, public health
5+ transit agencies: TTC, YRT, Viva, GO Transit, Metrolinx, SmartTrack
In one location, more than 30 entities across four levels of government are not merely observing—they are actively building. This site represents a rare convergence of public ambition, where municipal, regional, provincial, and federal bodies are aligned.
Over the next decade, this intersection will see more than $11 billion in public investment, transforming it into a living example of coordinated, place-based action:
$5.6B – Yonge North Subway Extension: major station at Steeles
$2.24B – Federal investment in subway expansion
$1.7B – SmartTrack enhancements along the Steeles corridor
$42M – Infrastructure to unlock 14,000+ new homes
~2,500 units – Proposed housing in two towers at 7040 Yonge and 72 Steeles
$116M – Regional road and intersection upgrades
$20M – Cycling and pedestrian improvements
RapidTO – Dedicated bus lanes planned for Steeles
This is not just a construction project. It is a transformation—above ground, below ground, and across entire systems. Subway tracks rise into housing towers. Zoning maps collide with stormwater plans. Pedestrian flows intersect with utility corridors.
Every decision made by one agency ripples through the responsibilities of others. In this kind of environment, coordination is not a luxury—it is a necessity.
And coordination takes more than meetings, memos, or good intentions. It requires a shared data infrastructure.
Because when systems share geography, they begin to create momentum.
7.0 - Use Case: York Region Shows the Way Forward
The complexity at Yonge and Steeles—thirty governments, billions in investment, overlapping responsibilities—is not unique. It is a microcosm of Canada itself. And while it may seem overwhelming to imagine so many organizations coordinating effectively, we know it is possible.
York Region has already shown us how. I want to be super clear that this article is my own thinking that has been informed by my time with York Region but this article has not been endorsed by York Region and simply leverages open thinking and knoweldge they have shared with the global GIS community at their site york.ca/puttingdatatowork. In their 2020 video they explain this concept.
Home to 1.2 million residents and one of Canada’s fastest-growing areas, York Region has spent decades building a framework for collaboration. The York Data Co-op, a pioneering initiative of the YorkInfo Partnership, has proven that federation isn’t just a theory—it delivers transformative results.
Since 1996, York Region’s nine municipalities, two school boards, and two conservation authorities have worked together to share geographic data and insights. But the York Data Co-op takes this collaboration to a new level.
It creates a distributed network where each organization retains control of its digital assets—data, applications, tools—while making them accessible to others in real time. Using existing technology, the Co-op acts like a virtual marketplace. Partners can search for and use authoritative data without duplicating it or relying on outdated copies.
This federated architecture ensures that no single organization owns or controls the collective assets. Instead, trust is built into the system. Assets remain behind each partner’s firewall, constantly updated and fully governed by the organization that created them. It’s like giving every jurisdiction a window into the live data streams of its neighbors, allowing decisions to be made with current, trusted information.
The impact has been profound:
Emergency management: Vaughan’s Fire and Rescue Service uses the Co-op to share situational awareness data—like road closures and incident boundaries—across municipal, regional, and provincial agencies in real time.
Infrastructure planning: The creation of an All Pipes database allowed regional water and wastewater systems to integrate seamlessly with municipal networks, reducing duplication and improving service delivery.
Development coordination: A shared construction planning tool lets municipalities see each other’s planned projects, preventing costly disruptions and enabling combined efforts for efficiency.
This is more than a technical achievement—it is a cultural one. Smaller municipalities with limited GIS staff now have access to tools and applications developed by larger partners. Data sharing has moved from being exceptional to routine. What began as a series of bilateral agreements has matured into a self-sustaining ecosystem of trust, where collaboration happens at the speed of need.
The lesson for Yonge and Steeles—and for Canada—is clear: when systems are designed to federate rather than centralize, coordination becomes possible even in the most complex environments.
Now imagine scaling York Region’s model to a national level:
Provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous nations retaining autonomy over their data.
Real-time alignment across housing, transit, environmental, and health systems.
A Societal GIS that acts as Canada’s shared map, helping governments see and act together without ceding control.
8.0 - The Viewfinder: Seeing Canada Clearly
We hear it everywhere: “The Digital Twin is the future of cities.” It’s become the buzzword of choice for tech vendors and consultants, conjuring images of fully simulated worlds where every pipe, road, and building is rendered in precise, virtual perfection. The promise is seductive—if only we can model everything, we can manage anything.
But here’s the truth: the Digital Twin is not the future. It’s a tool. And like any tool, its value depends entirely on the systems it connects to and the context it reveals.
The real foundation is not the twin. It’s the Societal GIS.
Think back to when you were a kid and held one of those red View-Master toys in your hands. You’d take a white circular disk, slide it into the top, and press your face to the eyepiece. Suddenly, an image would appear—vivid, colorful, and complete. Each click of the black lever would rotate the disk, revealing a new picture, a new story waiting to be seen.
This is how Societal GIS works.
Imagine each of those white disks as a live, federated system—a school board, a hospital network, a transit authority, a housing registry. Each holds its own data, carefully stewarded and never duplicated or extracted. The disks don’t merge into one; they remain distinct, yet when aligned inside the Viewfinder, they create something extraordinary: a clear, unified picture.
Now imagine you are a leader in public health. You raise the Viewfinder to your eyes, and in an instant, all the data you need is there—hospital capacity, vaccination rates, water quality, transit patterns, social vulnerability indexes. You see not just the pieces, but how they fit together.
You hand the Viewfinder to the head of housing. With a single click, the disk rotates, and a new image appears—one showing housing availability overlaid with zoning rules, infrastructure capacity, and flood risk areas. This leader doesn’t have to request data from ten different departments or reconcile outdated spreadsheets. The information is there, live and trusted, flowing directly from the systems where it is created and maintained.
The Digital Twin is the Viewfinder. It is the tool through which leaders can see these images. But the power of the Viewfinder comes not from itself—it comes from the disks. Without them, there is nothing to see, no patterns to reveal.
The disks are the Societal GIS, a federated and interconnected network of public systems. Each jurisdiction, department, and community retains control of its own data, yet contributes to a shared framework where windows are opened—not walls built.
When these disks are aligned, leaders stop asking "How do we solve this problem?” and start asking “What decisions must we make now that we see the whole picture?”
This is not about centralizing information. It’s about creating the ability to see across systems without breaking the trust that holds them together.
The York Data Co-op is the creation of these disks and it didn’t happen overnight. It required leadership, technical vision, and a deep commitment to collaboration. But its success proves a vital truth: federation is not just an idea for the future. It is an operating model for today.
If it can work across 14 organizations in York Region, it can work across 30 organizations at Yonge and Steeles. And if it can work there, it can work across all of Canada.
9.0 - Canada’s National Priorities: Empowered by Societal GIS
When Prime Minister Mark Carney took office, he offered Canadians something rare in federal politics: clarity. By distilling his government’s ambitions into seven national priorities, Carney set a bold expectation—Canadians should judge his leadership not by rhetoric, but by visible, measurable progress on the issues that matter most. Affordability, housing, economic unity, sovereignty, fiscal discipline, partnerships, and immigration reform—these are not abstract policy goals. They are urgent, interconnected challenges that demand a level of coordination governments have long struggled to achieve. To deliver on them, Canada needs more than good intentions. It needs systems that can see across jurisdictions and align action in real time.
This is where Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) enters the conversation. DPI has been called the modern road network, the electric grid of the digital age, and the backbone of inclusive digital economies. It includes the essential building blocks of a modern state: digital identity, secure payments, and data exchange systems that allow governments and citizens to interact seamlessly. But DPI alone cannot show how these interactions play out across streets, neighborhoods, regions, and borders. It cannot reveal how infrastructure investments, housing developments, and climate risks intersect on the ground. Without a spatial layer, DPI risks becoming an abstract system disconnected from the lived realities it is meant to serve.
This is why Societal GIS matters. It provides the missing spatial layer of Canada’s Digital Public Infrastructure—a federated, place-based strategy for connecting the systems that govern Canada. And there is already proof it can work. In York Region, nine municipalities, two school boards, and two conservation authorities have spent decades building a framework for collaboration. The York Data Co-op is a public sector–led innovation that allows every partner to retain control of their data while contributing to a shared geographic understanding of their region. This model has delivered profound results: real-time emergency coordination, integrated infrastructure planning, and development tools that prevent costly disruptions.
If the Government of Canada and provinces followed York Region’s lead—thinking horizontally, thinking spatially, and establishing their own public sector–led Societal GIS—they could solve the very challenges that Carney’s priorities demand. Public servants and GIS professionals already have the tools, expertise, and mandate to align systems across jurisdictions. What is needed now is leadership: to federate rather than centralize, to empower rather than outsource, and to build a living, connected map of Canada that respects local autonomy while enabling national action.
Mark Carney’s seven priorities set the direction. Societal GIS provides the compass.
9.1 - How Societal GIS Helps Achieve It with Real-World Use Cases
To deliver on these priorities, Canada does not need to centralize its data or strip control from the hands of those who know their communities best. It needs a new kind of connection—one rooted in trust. Societal GIS offers this: a federated framework where data remains with its stewards, alive and constantly updated at source, yet visible through secure windows that allow others to see and act in harmony. This is not about pulling information into one place. It is about weaving together the insights of many places into a larger story. When we honor local knowledge and empower public servants to share what they know, we unlock the ability to act as one country while respecting the diversity that defines us. Here is how this vision helps achieve the Prime Minister’s seven priorities:
Mark Carney’s Priority | Use Cases |
1. Affordability | Securely connects cost-of-living datasets stewarded by municipalities, enabling targeted affordability programs. - Provincial housing ministries can access local food price data to design subsidies for high-cost areas. - Federal planners analyze transit costs from municipal systems to adjust tax credits for commuters. - Indigenous communities share energy cost data to prioritize federal energy assistance programs without ceding control of sensitive local information. |
2. Housing | Shares live zoning, infrastructure, and environmental datasets across jurisdictions while respecting local governance. - Municipalities expose development approval data to regional housing boards to coordinate multi-jurisdictional builds. - Conservation authorities share floodplain data with cities to prevent housing projects in high-risk areas. - Federal housing agencies access aggregated local permit data to track housing stock growth in real time. |
3. Economic Unity | Provides windows into supply chain, trade, and transportation data held by provinces and regions to unlock bottlenecks. - Provincial transportation departments securely share bridge weight limits to optimize freight movement nationally. - Municipal ports expose live shipment data for federal trade analysis. - Prairie grain cooperatives share rail line congestion data to reduce export delays. |
4. Sovereignty and Security | Enables federated access to critical security and environmental datasets without centralizing control. - Border agencies view provincial wildfire data in real time to reroute goods during emergencies. - Coastal provinces share fishing vessel location data to protect sovereign waters. - Cities expose emergency services coverage maps to federal agencies for coordinated disaster response. |
5. Fiscal Discipline | Avoids duplication by allowing departments to reference authoritative datasets at source. - Federal grant programs access regional infrastructure maps to avoid redundant investments. - Provincial and federal agencies reference a shared sewer infrastructure dataset to coordinate repairs and upgrades. - Departments securely pull live population data from municipal systems to plan services instead of purchasing third-party estimates. |
6. Partnerships | Supports agreements between governments and partners by sharing geographic data within trusted governance frameworks. - Indigenous nations share environmental monitoring data with provinces for joint stewardship agreements. - Municipalities provide live transit data to private app developers to improve regional mobility services. - Federal and provincial governments exchange energy usage data to negotiate international climate targets. |
7. Immigration Reform | Provides federated access to settlement and service availability data while protecting community control. - Municipalities share aggregated housing availability data with federal immigration planners to direct newcomer placement. - Provincial health authorities expose real-time clinic capacity data to federal agencies planning refugee resettlement. - Local school boards share enrollment projections to guide family settlement programs. |
10.0 - Centralization: Why One System Can’t Govern This Land
If federation is like a symphony where each musician retains their individuality but plays in harmony, centralization is like one person trying to play every instrument alone.
In a centralized system, decision-making authority, data, and control are concentrated in a single place—whether that’s Ottawa, a provincial capital, or even a private corporation.
Instead of empowering diverse jurisdictions to collaborate while maintaining their autonomy, centralization pulls everything into the hands of a single authority.
Where federation values shared governance and autonomy, centralization prioritizes uniformity and control.
In the GIS context, this would mean:
Local data and systems are absorbed into a national platform controlled from the top down.
Decisions are made far from the communities they affect, often without local context or nuance.
Public servants and jurisdictions lose ownership of their data, becoming dependent on external systems and approvals.
Innovation is stifled as one-size-fits-all solutions are imposed on diverse geographies and cultures.
In the extreme, centralization can drift into privatization, where control over public data and decision-making is handed to private companies. Instead of a shared geographic view that reflects public values, the system risks becoming a product for sale, optimized for profit rather than the public good.
Does this sound like us? A single authority holding all the power, drawing one map to govern a land as vast and varied as Canada? It doesn’t. We are not a country built on uniformity. We are a federation of many voices, many cultures, and many ways of seeing the world. From coastlines to prairies to Arctic tundra, each community carries its own knowledge of place.
To centralize that—to flatten it into a single system—would be to deny who we are. Canada’s strength has always come from connection, not control; from weaving together diversity, not erasing it.
Federation reflects that truth. It honours the autonomy of provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous nations while creating the shared infrastructure we need to face challenges that cross every border. It is not about sameness. It is about harmony. And in this country, that feels deeply, unmistakably Canadian.
11.0 - The Future: AI, Societal GIS and Data Trusts
We are standing at the threshold of an artificial intelligence revolution that will redefine how governments think, plan, and act. Generative AI is not coming—it is here. And with it comes extraordinary promise and unprecedented risk for the public sector.
AI thrives on data. It ingests, analyzes, and recombines information at speeds and scales no human could match. But not all data is equal—and not all of it can be trusted. In this new era where ministers, planners, and public servants will converse with AI as naturally as with a colleague, asking questions and receiving answers in seconds, the quality and integrity of the data feeding these systems becomes existential.
We are moving beyond static dashboards and disjointed maps. Soon, a mayor or council or senior leaders will ask AI:
“Show me which housing projects will be impacted if we approve this new transit line.”
“What are the climate risks in this watershed over the next decade?”
“Where can we invest to reduce food insecurity while protecting natural ecosystems?”
The answers they receive will depend entirely on the data pipelines beneath the surface. If these pipelines are fragmented, outdated, or owned by private vendors, we risk an era where public decisions are shaped by incomplete truths and proprietary algorithms. Geography—the context of life itself—risks being flattened into datasets optimized for profit, not public good.
This is where Societal GIS becomes indispensable. It is the missing backbone of AI-enabled governance: a federated, live network of spatial data that stays with its stewards yet is made visible across jurisdictions. Societal GIS does not centralize information; it opens secure windows into it, ensuring that every AI query is grounded in reality and aligned with the public interest.
Imagine a Pan-Canadian Federated GIS:
A system where data flows seamlessly across federal, provincial, municipal, and Indigenous jurisdictions.
A system where autonomy is preserved, yet national patterns emerge.
A system where decisions can be simulated, stress-tested, and improved in real time—without sacrificing trust or sovereignty.
But to fully realize this vision, we need more than technology. We need Data Trusts—publicly governed frameworks that ensure data is ethically managed, securely shared, and used in ways that benefit all Canadians. These trusts would safeguard the integrity of our collective intelligence, anchoring it in public values rather than private interests.
Generative AI will accelerate decision-making and disrupt long-standing processes. But without a trusted geographic foundation, it risks amplifying biases, deepening silos, and eroding public confidence.
The future of governance is conversational. But conversation without context is chaos.
Societal GIS provides the context.
Federation provides the trust.
Data Trusts provide the ethical foundation.
The question is not whether governments will use AI. The question is whether they will shape it—or be shaped by it.
12.0 - GIS: A Profession on an Unnecessary Decline
Once, Geographic Information Systems stood at the cutting edge of public service. GIS professionals were pioneers—building the maps, tools, and systems that made sense of our world. But today, something unsettling is happening. The power of spatial thinking—the very ability to see how lives, systems, and landscapes connect—is quietly slipping out of focus.
In too many organizations, GIS has been reduced to a back-office function, a technical service to call when someone needs a map. The profession that once held the keys to understanding place has been sidelined, fragmented, and left vulnerable to irrelevance in an era that desperately needs its wisdom.
This decline is not inevitable. But if GIS professionals do not rise up now, others will fill the vacuum. And they will not carry the same commitment to public good. Private vendors are already moving fast, packaging proprietary platforms and selling them as replacements for in-house expertise. Generative AI will only accelerate this trend—creating seductive shortcuts for decision-makers who don’t understand the difference between a map and the truth.
If GIS professionals stay silent, they risk becoming invisible. If they don’t modernize, they risk being replaced.
But here’s the truth: no one is better positioned to lead this transformation than you.
You chose this profession because you understand geography is not just about lines on a screen—it’s the connective tissue of society. You know that housing, health, transit, and the environment are not separate problems. They are spatial problems, and solving them requires spatial thinking.
Now is the time to step out of the map room and into the rooms where decisions are made. Governments don’t just need maps anymore—they need context. They need insight. They need trusted, federated data to guide choices that impact millions of lives.
This is no longer about software or code. It’s about stewardship. You are the guardians of spatial data—the foundation for ethical AI, resilient infrastructure, and equitable communities. If you don’t ensure that data is accurate, trusted, and governed wisely, who will?
Stop seeing yourself as “just the map people.” You are the next generation of location-empowered leaders. The future of governance depends on GIS professionals who have the courage to upskill, modernize, and assert their relevance in a world obsessed with speed and scale.
If you don’t lead, someone else will. And their priorities may not align with the public good.
This is your moment to:
Step forward as a trusted advisor, not just a technical expert.
Keep geography at the heart of every decision.
Build systems that reflect the values of the communities you serve.
You are not just mapping the world. You are shaping how we see it, how we care for it, and how we act within it.
The map is in your hands. Will you let it fade—or will you draw the future?
13.0 - Vendors: A Time and a Place
The private sector has always played a vital role in helping governments modernize—providing the software, infrastructure, and expertise to make ambitious visions possible. Vendors bring innovation, scale, and technical know-how that public agencies cannot always build in-house.
But there is a time and a place for vendors.
When it comes to geographic data and systems of governance, the stakes are too high to outsource leadership. Geographic data is not just technical—it is political, cultural, and deeply tied to sovereignty. Decisions about how data is shared, who controls access, and how systems interconnect must be rooted in public values, not profit motives.
Societal GIS puts the public sector in the driver’s seat. It ensures that provinces, municipalities, Indigenous governments, and federal agencies can collaborate on a shared geographic understanding while retaining control over their data. It creates trusted windows into systems—without handing the keys to external platforms.
This is where vendors come in:
As enablers, building the tools and platforms that visualize and analyze federated data.
As innovators, developing digital twins, AI assistants, and analytics engines that sit on top of public infrastructure.
As partners, working within governance frameworks led by public institutions.
What they are not:
The owners of Canada’s geographic nervous system.
The arbiters of how public data flows across jurisdictions.
If we get this right, the relationship between government and vendors becomes one of mutual respect—where the private sector thrives by helping the public sector lead.
14.0 – The Case for Action: What You Stand to Gain
Across all levels of government, leaders face complex challenges that demand collaboration, insight, and innovation. Whether you’re shaping national priorities, coordinating across jurisdictions, or stewarding local services, Societal GIS offers a framework to align decisions and unlock measurable results. Here’s how this approach can empower federal, provincial, Indigenous, regional, and municipal leaders—and what steps you can take right now.
14.1 - Federal Government
If you are a… | You might be wondering… | Here’s what’s in it for you… | Here’s what you can do right now… |
Deputy Minister (DM) | “How can I ensure federal priorities align across provinces and municipalities?” | A framework for aligning national initiatives with local realities while respecting jurisdictional boundaries. | Request a briefing on how Societal GIS could support Carney’s priorities and convene cross-departmental discussions. |
Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) | “How can we break silos across departments and levels of government?” | Access to federated data models to deliver faster, more targeted programs across housing, climate, and transit. | Identify a program (e.g., housing) where federated data could improve coordination with provinces. |
Federal CIO | “How do we modernize while maintaining security and sovereignty?” | A federated approach that enhances interoperability without centralizing sensitive datasets. | Begin exploring federation standards as part of GC Digital Ambition or Cloud Strategy updates. |
Policy Analyst | “How can we model programs that ripple across jurisdictions?” | Access to live, trusted data windows into municipal and provincial systems for better program design. | Engage GIS teams to explore federated datasets for upcoming policy proposals. |
14.2 - Provincial/Territorial Government
If you are a… | You might be wondering… | Here’s what’s in it for you… | Here’s what you can do right now… |
Deputy Minister (DM) | “How do we align municipalities and regions without losing provincial control?” | A federated GIS model to harmonize planning across jurisdictions while respecting local autonomy. | Convene a workshop with municipal CAOs and GIS leads to explore shared challenges. |
Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) | “How do we coordinate housing, transit, and infrastructure more effectively?” | Federated data sharing to break silos between ministries and local governments. | Identify a pilot region for testing federated GIS collaboration. |
Provincial CIO | “Will this duplicate or replace our provincial systems?” | Builds on existing IT infrastructure while enabling secure, real-time data access across levels of government. | Audit current GIS and data sharing practices to find federation opportunities. |
Policy Advisor | “How can we reduce program delays caused by fragmented data?” | Faster, more accurate insights into local needs for targeted funding and policies. | Consult GIS teams about federated data availability for priority programs. |
14.3 - Indigenous Governments and Organizations
If you are a… | You might be wondering… | Here’s what’s in it for you… | Here’s what you can do right now… |
Chief/Regional Chief | “How do we protect sovereignty while collaborating with other governments?” | A trusted framework where your community controls its data but can open secure windows for collaboration. | Explore how Societal GIS can support Indigenous data sovereignty and partnerships. |
Band Manager | “How do we align services across jurisdictions without losing autonomy?” | Access to federated tools that respect your governance while improving coordination on housing, water, and health. | Engage neighboring municipalities and regions about federated data-sharing agreements. |
Indigenous Data Sovereignty Lead | “How can we share data safely while protecting cultural and territorial rights?” | A model that prioritizes local stewardship and ethical use of Indigenous data. | Begin conversations about creating data governance frameworks aligned with Societal GIS principles. |
14.4 - Regional Government
If you are a… | You might be wondering… | Here’s what’s in it for you… | Here’s what you can do right now… |
Regional CAO | “How do we coordinate services across municipalities and levels of government?” | Federated data sharing to align housing, transit, and infrastructure planning across jurisdictions. | Convene local CAOs and GIS managers to map shared challenges and quick-win opportunities. |
Regional Planner | “How do we balance growth with environmental and infrastructure constraints?” | Real-time access to neighboring municipalities’ data for smarter regional planning. | Request federated access to datasets (e.g., zoning, infrastructure capacity) from member municipalities. |
Regional GIS Manager | “How do we lead data-sharing while respecting municipal autonomy?” | A framework to share live data securely and avoid duplication across local partners. | Initiate a pilot with one or two municipalities to federate key datasets (e.g., pipes, roads). |
14.5 - Municipal Government
If you are a… | You might be wondering… | Here’s what’s in it for you… | Here’s what you can do right now… |
CAO/City Manager | “How do I align departments and show visible results to council and residents?” | A strategy to break silos, coordinate housing, transit, and services, and build trust in government leadership. | Meet with GIS and planning leads to identify existing overlaps and create a cross-departmental task force. |
Planning Director | “How can we align development with regional transit and environmental goals?” | A federated GIS model for coordinated planning that accounts for upstream and downstream impacts. | Begin sharing planning datasets with regional and provincial partners using secure data windows. |
GIS Manager | “How do I elevate GIS beyond making maps and influence decisions?” | A pathway to position GIS as a critical enterprise platform for collaboration and to lead cross-departmental alignment. | Prepare a briefing for leadership showing how GIS supports enterprise-wide priorities (e.g., housing, transit). |
IT Director | “Does this duplicate systems or create security risks?” | Builds on existing investments and enables secure, federated access to data while maintaining governance and compliance. | Review current GIS infrastructure for readiness to support federated data-sharing models. |
15.0 – A Path Forward: Five Strategic Actions
This paper has argued for a bold, federated vision of Canada’s digital future—one where public servants lead, data flows securely across jurisdictions, and decisions reflect the complexity of real life. But vision alone is not enough. We need action.
Here’s where to begin:
15.1 - Empower GIS Professionals as Strategic Leaders
GIS is on an unnecessary decline, but it doesn’t have to be. Public servants and data stewards are perfectly positioned to lead this transformation—if they are given the tools, training, and voice to do so.
Start here: Upskill GIS teams in leadership, communication, and collaboration. Position them as advisors to executives, not just technical staff.
Ask yourself: What will it take for GIS to be seen as an essential enterprise platform rather than a niche specialty?
The time for quiet technical excellence is over. GIS must step boldly into strategy.
15.2 - Assess Your Current State and Benchmark Against Others
Before charting a path forward, take stock of where you are. Many organizations underestimate how much progress they’ve already made—or overestimate their readiness for transformation.
Start here: Conduct a maturity assessment of your GIS programs and data governance. Benchmark your capabilities against peer organizations to identify gaps and opportunities.
Ask yourself: Where are we strong? Where are we vulnerable? And what would it take to become a leader in federated, place-based governance?
Understanding your current state is the first step to shaping your future.
15.3 - Articulate a Federated Vision for Your Organization
Many governments already have the people, tools, and data to lead—but these assets remain invisible because they are trapped in silos or hidden behind technical language. Leaders must work with their teams to surface these strengths and communicate them in ways that resonate with executives, elected officials, and citizens alike.
Start here: Convene your GIS professionals, planners, and data stewards to identify the full potential of your existing systems.
Ask yourself: What picture of our community do we want to show? How can we frame GIS as a platform for collaboration, not just a technical tool?
This is not about buying more technology. It’s about creating clarity of purpose and inspiring alignment.
15.4 – Build Trust Through Federated Data Models
The fastest way to prove the power of federation is to test it in the real world. Instead of abstract frameworks, focus on practical use cases where collaboration across municipalities, regions, provinces, and Indigenous governments is essential.
Start here: Identify a shared challenge—like affordable housing along a transit corridor, floodplain management across watersheds, or emergency response planning—and bring together the jurisdictions involved. Develop a federated data model that allows each partner to retain control of their data while securely sharing insights where they intersect.
Ask yourself: Which high-impact problem requires multiple governments to align? How can we build a pilot project where federation is not optional, but foundational?
This is how you demonstrate trust, governance, and security in action—and lay the groundwork for ethical AI and resilient public services.
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15.5 - Tell Your Story and Inspire Action
Too often, the successes of GIS teams and public servants remain hidden. Stories of how data has improved lives, prevented crises, or unlocked innovation are left untold—leaving room for private vendors and consultants to dominate the narrative.
Start here: Capture and share stories of your team’s impact. Showcase how spatial thinking has solved problems others thought were intractable.
Ask yourself: What stories would inspire our stakeholders to invest in collaboration? What legacy do we want to leave?
A compelling narrative can shift mindsets and spark the political will needed for change.
Conclusion
I wrote this paper because I care deeply about the GIS profession, about public service, and about the future of those who have chosen to dedicate their lives to serving their communities. Over my career, I have seen patterns worth exploring—glimpses of what is possible when governments think spatially, act collaboratively, and honor the complexity of the land and people they serve.
While at York Region, I was fortunate to witness how a federated approach to geographic data could quietly transform decision-making and align the work of dozens of organizations. But the pandemic years didn’t allow this work to be widely seen, and I worry its lessons may fade before they can be scaled across Canada.
This paper comes from a place of care—and concern. Care for the integrity of public institutions and the civil servants who hold them together. Concern about corporate overreach and the risks of allowing a single dominant vendor to shape the priorities of an entire profession. I have no stake in the outcome. These are simply observations from a career spent at the intersection of geography, governance, and service.
Canada does not need to reinvent itself to meet the challenges ahead. It already has the people, tools, and data required. What it needs is a renewed commitment to connection—to seeing itself as a system of systems, where diversity is not flattened into uniformity but woven into strength.
A Societal GIS offers this possibility. It is not about centralizing control or outsourcing innovation. It is about empowering public servants with the ability to see across jurisdictions, align decisions in real time, and act with clarity and confidence. It is about building trust—between governments, with Indigenous nations, and among the communities that make this country whole.
This is not just a technical vision. It is a civic one. Geography is not neutral—it is the lens through which we understand ourselves and the stage upon which our future will unfold. To give away stewardship of that lens is to risk losing sight of what matters most.
The map is in our hands. And as a profession, as a public service, and as a country, we face a choice: let others define it for us—or draw a future that reflects our highest ideals.
The opportunity is here. The question is—will we take it?
About the Author
Jeff Lamb has spent his career helping governments see the whole picture. With more than 25 years working in GIS, data strategy, and public service, he understands both the technical tools and the human relationships that keep communities running.
Jeff began his journey as a child mapping rivers and forests near his home—a curiosity that grew into a life’s work. Over decades in municipal and regional government, he has seen firsthand how public servants quietly hold the fabric of society together. He believes their work deserves to be supported, celebrated, and empowered with systems that reflect the complexity of the world they serve.
Through The North Arrow, Jeff helps organizations:
Take stock of the capabilities they already have.
Find the stories that inspire trust and collaboration.
Visualize and communicate their work in ways that resonate with leaders and communities alike.
Jeff’s approach is rooted in a simple idea: geography is not about maps—it’s about connection. And governments that think spatially are better equipped to solve the challenges that cross departments, jurisdictions, and borders.
If you’re ready to align your systems, empower your teams, and make better decisions in a complex world, Jeff can help you take the first step.
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