So if I want to learn some GIS skills, it would be helpful if I had some data to work with. Here are two data sources I have slight familiarity with:
Shapefiles, comprising:
- Municipal Address Points – Toronto One Address Repository (November 2009 – MTM 3 Degree Zone 10, NAD27)
- Business Improvement Areas (BIA) (2009 – MTM 3 Degree Zone 10, NAD27)
- Toronto Centreline (TCL) (2009 – MTM 3 Degree Zone 10, NAD27)
- Food Banks (October 2009 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- Neighbourhoods (October 2009 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- Parks (October 2009 – MTM 3 Degree Zone 10, NAD27)
- Priority Investment Neighbourhoods (October 2009 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- Places of Worship (2006 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- Rent Banks (2007 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- Rent Bank Zones (2007 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- Solid Waste Management Districts (October 2009 – MTM 3 Degree Zone 10, NAD27)
- Transit City (October 2009 – UTM 6 Degree Zone 17N NAD27)
- City Wards (2009 – MTM 3 Degree Zone 10, NAD27)
The mixed map projections are a bit of a pain, and there are reports that some of the data is skewed from the rest of the Canadian data, but there’s much to love about this data.
GeoGratis, from Natural Resources Canada
An absolute tonne of data, in vector and raster formats. Services I’ve used are CanVec (vector data covering almost every feature) and Toporama (raster topographic maps; it has an associated Toporama Web Map Service).