Kitchener's Commitment to Open Data

The City of Kitchener is driven by a commitment to uphold accountability and transparency, both of which are core principles embedded within the framework of Open Government. The city's vision for Open Government is centred on establishing a governmental entity that is transparent and answerable to its constituents and provides avenues for meaningful public engagement through innovation, technology, and collaborative efforts.

This commitment extends to fostering a culture within the city that ensures a comprehensive understanding of accountability and transparency principles among Council members, staff, and citizens. The aim is to collectively uphold these standards of excellence in governance, thereby enhancing public trust and confidence.

To manifest the ideals of accountability and transparency, this policy outlines a series of commitments designed to ensure:

  • The default operational mode of the city is openness while respecting legal, financial, legislative, and privacy constraints.
  • Council decision-making processes are characterized by openness and clarity.
  • The city maintains a robust accountability framework for the delivery and quality of its services.

The policy begins by defining two fundamental terms:

Accountability: Encompassing the city's adherence to defined rules and guidelines that facilitate a transparent explanation of its actions to the public.

Transparency: Signifying the availability of accurate, timely, and accessible city information, along with the open nature of decisions for public scrutiny and discourse.

The policy's scope encompasses all employees and members of Council, recognizing the diverse range of roles and responsibilities across the organization.

Key components of the policy are structured around the themes of Accountability and Transparency:

Accountability Components:

  • Clearly delineating the roles and responsibilities of the city, other levels of government, and stakeholders to ensure transparent service provision and equitable outcomes.
  • Aligning actions with well-defined expectations fostering clarity in the roles of both service recipients and the city.
  • Maintaining a balanced perspective between expectations and practical capacities, acknowledging the dynamic nature of public expectations and the city's resources.
  • Facilitating clear, credible, and timely reporting on undertaken actions, reflecting accomplishments and areas warranting improvement.
  • Enabling regular reviews and adjustments, reinforcing a commitment to adapt in response to outcomes and feedback.

Transparency Components:

  • Ensuring accessibility of city information within legal boundaries, allowing citizens to engage with and influence city activities.
  • Delivering information in clear, uncomplicated language to promote ease of understanding.
  • Periodically updating and proactively providing public-interest information to ensure relevance and alignment with the evolving concept of an 'open by default' city.

The policy sets out specific commitments and actions showing the city's dedication to accountability and transparency. These cover areas like Council meetings, budgets, public services, buying goods and services, handling conflicts of interest, keeping records, sharing open data, and involving citizens. The policy also explains who does what and who's in charge of certain roles.

The policy undergoes periodic review to ensure its continued relevance, accuracy, and effectiveness in promoting accountability and transparency, aligning with the city's broader Open Government Framework.

The City’s Open Government Framework can be read here.

Open data refers to information that is freely available to everyone, without restrictions, and can be used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose. The data showcased here is:
Publicly Accessible: All datasets are available for download in easy-to-use formats, ensuring that anyone can access and analyze them.
Reusable and Redistributable: The data comes with an open license, allowing for free use, modification, and redistribution with minimal restrictions, often requiring only proper attribution.
Machine-Readable: The datasets are provided in formats that can be easily processed by computers, such as CSV, JSON, or XML, to enable efficient analysis and integration into applications.
Non-Proprietary: To ensure broad compatibility, the data is available in non-proprietary formats, meaning it is not tied to any specific software or technology.


Kitchener's collection of open data is being proved to promote transparency, innovation, and collaboration by making valuable information accessible for research, business, education, and public service. Explore the datasets to find insights, create new applications, or contribute to informed decision-making.


Using information under this licence means: You accept the terms below. The information provider grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the information, including for commercial purposes, subject to the terms below. You are free to Copy, modify, publish, translate, adapt, distribute or otherwise use the Information in any medium, mode or format for any lawful purpose. No credit is required where you do any of the above. You are not required to provide credit to the information provider when using information under this licence; however, if you choose to do so, please use this text in a suitable location: Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - The Corporation of the City of Kitchener.


Exemptions: This licence does not grant you any right to use: Personal information or records not accessible under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; Third-party rights the information provider is not authorized to license; the names, crests, logos, or other official symbols of the information provider; and Information subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade-marks and official marks.


Non-endorsement: This licence does not grant you any right to use the information in a way that suggests any official status or that the information provider endorses you or your use of the information. No warranty The information is licensed "as is" and the information provider excludes all representations, warranties, obligations, and liabilities, whether express or implied, to the maximum extent permitted by law. The information provider is not liable for any errors or omissions in the Information, and will not under any circumstances be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other loss, injury or damage caused by its use or otherwise arising in connection with this licence or the Information, even if specifically advised of the possibility of such loss, injury or damage.


Governing Law: This licence is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the applicable laws of Canada. Legal proceedings related to this licence may only be brought in the courts of Ontario. Definitions In this licence, the terms below have the following meanings: "Information" means information resources or records protected by copyright or other information or records that are offered for use under the terms of this licence. "Information provider" means the Corporation of The City of Kitchener. "Personal information" has the meaning set out in section 2 of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. "Records" has the meaning of "record" as set out in the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. "You" means the natural or legal person, or body of persons corporate or incorporate, acquiring rights under this licence.


Versioning: This is version 1.0 of the Canadian Government's Open Government Licence - The Corporation of the City of Kitchener. The information provider may make changes to the terms of this licence from time to time and issue a new version of the licence. Your use of the Information will be governed by the terms of the licence in force as of the date you accessed the information. Link to Open data licence on City of Kitchener website - Kitchener's Open Data Licence