Guidance on submitting geospatial data

On this page

• Introduction
• What should be submitted?
  • Initial Project Description
  • Impact Statement
• Data submission requirements

Introduction

Under section 6 of the Information and Management of Time Limits Regulations, any information that is required to be submitted by a proponent under the Impact Assessment Act must be in a machine-readable format.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) requires proponents to provide electronic geospatial data files for site maps provided in the Initial Project Description (IPD). Additionally, geospatial data files may be required in the Tailored Impact Statement Guidelines issued to proponents at the end of the Planning phase. These files are to be submitted along with the Impact Statement. The following document provides guidance on submitting electronic geospatial data files to IAAC during the impact assessment process.

What should be submitted?

Initial Project Description

Proponents are required to submit electronic geospatial data files for the site maps detailing the project’s proposed general location and the spatial relationship of the project components.

This would include (where applicable) geospatial data showing:

• Project footprint, including associated activities (such as work camps, aggregate sources, material storage location, waste water or storm water ponds, material storage location);
• Route for linear projects, or components to be built as part of the project, including; pipelines, transmission lines, roads (permanent / temporary), rail; and
• Marine shipping routes.

The geospatial data must include any options that the proponent is considering, in relation to proposed location, routes or components.

For linear projects under the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, the proponent may provide information on the specific proposed route, or on the corridor within which a specific right-of-way will be determined at a later date.

Proponents are not required to submit the electronic geospatial data files for background layers from publicly available sources that show, for example:

• Federal, Provincial or Indigenous lands
• Locations of communities or other defined areas;
• Existing provincial or municipal roads or other linear projects; or,
• Natural features (e.g. water bodies, forest cover).

Proponents must complete the IPD Geospatial Data Submission Requirements Checklist and include it within the zipped folder of the data submission.

Proponents may, however, choose to provide this additional information to IAAC, for release to the public, under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Canada.

Impact Statement

Where information is required or is provided as a map in the Impact Statement (IS), the proponent must also provide IAAC with the corresponding electronic geospatial data file(s), which may include:

• Maps related to the project location.
• Baseline data or data used in analysis, where shown on a map,
• Results of analysis, where shown on a map.

Data submission instructions:

1. Submit one zipped package per chapter or annex:
   1. Each package should contain all relevant geospatial data for the chapter/annex (e.g., geospatial data for the “Closure Plan” analysis).
   2. Ensure metadata is embedded within each shapefile or geodatabase.
2. Include a completed IS Geospatial Data Submission Requirements Checklist for each package.
3. Include a summary listing the contents (IS Geospatial Data Summary Spreadsheet) of the shapefiles and figures in each package.
4. Zip the relevant data, checklist, and spreadsheet together in one folder, and submit through the proponent portal as one of many submissions.

Note: To streamline future submissions, proponents are encouraged to submit a sample package for IAAC’s Geomatics Team to review and provide feedback.

If the Tailored Impact Statement Guidelines require submission of other data types not covered in this guidance (e.g. non-geospatial data file or database, analytical script or workflow), please contact IAAC’s regional office in your area for additional guidance.

Data submission requirements

• Proponents must complete the appropriate Geospatial Data Submission Requirements Checklist and include it in the data submission via the proponent portal.
• Files should be zipped, given an appropriately descriptive title, and submitted through the proponent portal.
• Proponents are required to provide site maps to IAAC as electronic geospatial data file(s). This would include:
  • Point, line or polygon data layer - as appropriate to the type of project - preferably as shape file.
  • Raster data types such as raw satellite imagery as supplied in the vendor specific format.
• Proponents are strongly encouraged to make data available in one of the following data projections:
  • Lambert Conic Conformal (EPSG: 3979);
  • Geographic NAD83 CSRS;
  • The Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM);
  • Web Mercator WGS84 (EPSG: 3857).
• Proponents are strongly encouraged to select a projection that is best suited to the geographic region and / or scale of the dataset. Please note the Web Mercator WGS84 projection is not suitable for areas in the far North (e.g. north of the 60^th parallel).
• Proponents must provide metadata or "information about the data" compliant with ISO 19115: 2003 (19139) standard embedded within each data layer including, at a minimum, the following information:
  • Title
  • Abstract or summary of what is contained in the data layer
  • Source of the data
  • Date of creation for the data
  • The point of contact and originator
  • Confirmation that there are no restrictions or limitations on sharing the data
• IAAC intends to make the geospatial data files available to the public under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Canada. By providing data to IAAC, the proponent is confirming that:
  • There are no known legal, licensing, or copyright restrictions to prevent the data or information from being released by IAAC under the terms of the Open Government Licence – Canada.
  • The data or information resource does not contain any:
    • personal information about yourself or others, such as home addresses, telephone numbers, or medical history;
    • information that could cause economic harm or advantage to a commercial third party, such as confidential business information, or manufacturing or trade secrets;
    • information provided in confidence by a province or international government;
    • information that could affect the security of an individual;
    • information that could affect the integrity and availability of data, systems and facilities; and
    • confidential Indigenous knowledge
  • The data or information can be released without a fee.
  • IAAC has permission to publish the data or information resource under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

If the proponent has concerns about potential data restrictions, they should contact IAAC.