Data that is freely available for anyone to access, use, modify, and share, typically published by governments or institutions.
For data to be truly open, it must be freely accessible (no cost, no registration), machine-readable (not just a PDF), and licensed for reuse. The Open Government Licence is the most common licence for Canadian government open data.
Open data drives transparency, innovation, and better public services. Canada has open data portals at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels.