The Province of Ontario has announced that it in the process of making government data open by default. This is part of Ontario’s larger Open Government initiative that focuses on open data, open engagement, and open government more generally.
Since November 2012 the Ontario government has been publishing statistics in the open data catalogue. So far 170 data sets have been placed online. This includes statistics on marriage registrations, farmers markers, water wells, flu shot clinics, woodland caribou and a wide range of other interesting topics. The data already online is a huge boon to researchers and is available in a variety of formats depending on the type of data and the original collection method.
In addition to the open data calalogue Ontario has created a data inventory. Which describes more than 1,000 data sets. The inventory is designed to allow the public to vote on which data sets are the most popular as a means of prioritizing the order in which data sets are made accessible.