June 27, 2007: On June 20th, the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre’s (SSMIC) Community Geomatics Centre (CGC) was selected to receive a “Special Achievement in GIS” (SAG) Award – International Category for GIS in Human Services at ESRI’s 27th Annual User Conference held in San Diego, California.

This major award was given to user sites around the world in recognition of their outstanding work in the geographic information systems (GIS) field. The SAG is one of the highest awards in the world for GIS whose past winners in the international category have included the United Nations, New Zealand Ministry of Health and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). The awards were presented at a special ceremony on Wednesday June 20th at the San Diego Convention Centre. Held from June 18-22, 2007 in San Diego, this is the largest conference in the world devoted to GIS and was attended by close to 16,000 people from more than 120 countries.

“The value of this International recognition cannot be overstated,” said Chris Wray, Chair, SSMIC Board of Directors. “This award is a testament to the skill and determination of the CGC staff and the Sault Ste Marie Innovation Centre. This is yet another dividend of the ongoing investment being made by the community.”

“For CGC’s work in the GIS field to be honoured at ESRI’s International User conference is a significant achievement,” says Tom Vair, Executive Director, SSMIC. “We are extremely proud of our staff and grateful to all the partners in the community who have collaborated to make Sault Ste. Marie a globally recognized leader in the advanced field of GIS.”

During the conferences opening remarks, Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI Inc., touted the Innovation Centre’s CGC as a leader in expanding GIS into health and human services and one of the most successful multi-enterprise GIS implementations anywhere. To the award winners he said, “To make a successful system takes a lot of work”, said Jack. “Nothing I can say can give your story justice. Tell your story to other GIS professionals so they know what it takes to do what you've done. Your work raises the field to another level.”

“This award recognizes the SSMIC CGC's leadership in bringing GIS technologies to health and human services” said Paul Beach, General Manager, Community Geomatics Centre, SSMIC. “What we are accomplishing here in Sault Ste. Marie is bringing change throughout North America which will improve quality of life.”

The CGC delivers a community-based GIS solution to more than a dozen organizations at affordable costs. Enormous amounts of data are being shared by all organizations to solve enterprise and inter-enterprise issues. GIS expertise is well entrenched in the area, and it is being transferred to the private sector. In addition, the entire community is benefiting from the enhancement of the IT expertise.

In recent years, the CGC has expanded the municipal and utilities GIS in innovative ways in order to address health and social issues in the community. Using the already established CGC GIS solution and the municipal dataset as background layers, social and health agencies were approached to join the CGC partnership to improve the community’s overall operation and health.

This approach brought about significant improvements in services from all sides thus allowing services to be optimally delivered to areas where they are needed most. Early results have indicated improvements in public safety and health delivery, reductions in municipal liabilities and more effective use of budgetary resources.

The CGC has won several awards including the Leadership in the Field of GIS in Ontario (2006), ESRI Award of Excellence for GIS in Health Care (2006), Best Municipal GIS in Ontario (2003 & 2006) and the Most Comprehensive Municipal/Utilities GIS in Canada (2003).

Photo (l to r): Alex Miller (President, ESRI Canada), Gerry Belanger (Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre), Paul Beach (Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre), Jack Dangermond (President, ESRI Inc.), Chris Sambol (Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre), and Marie Alexander (Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre).