EDMONTON—Councillors are demanding administration release whatever collision data they can on the city’s Open Data Portal to help advocates identify spots in the city that could be improved to help reduce the number of fatal traffic collisions.

The community and public services committee made the recommendation Wednesday after councillors were provided with a report from the city insisting that they cannot make collision data — including time, date, location and other details, like speed and the type of vehicle involved — public because that data belongs to the province, which cites privacy concerns under the Traffic Safety Act as the reason for not releasing the data.

“We respect their authority,” said city clerk Linda Sahli.

The committee also asked Mayor Don Iveson to write a letter to the province, on behalf of city council, to urge policy changes that could help “increase transparency” and make collision data available to the public.

Despite the city’s protests about not releasing the data, many councillors remained firm that there had to be other ways that collision details could be made public.

“I’m puzzled by that. I mean, it’s public information. There would be a record of every collision. You can go to the courts and you can find out all this information. You can find out everybody involved. Find out who is at fault,” Councillor Ben Henderson said.

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“This is not private information,” Henderson said.

The issue of the city not releasing collision data was brought forward by advocates in 2017 when their request for information was denied by the city.

The request was sent by members of Paths for People, who were trying to identify intersections that see a higher number of collisions. The idea was to identify those areas and see how urban design could help make them safer.

Councillors asked city administration in October to look into making details of injury and fatality collisions part of the city’s Open Data Portal — a platform launched in 2010 that provides access to hundreds of databases to the public, including traffic disruptions, bylaw violation, calls to 311, building permits, and information on the municipal elections.

At the committee meeting, councillors also pointed to Calgary, which publishes the data, location and number of vehicles involved on its Open Data Portal, to which administration replied that Calgary uses “data sources other than strictly collision data that is from the Alberta collision report.”

Calgary publishes collision details on its city website with data provided by the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

Emma Poole, a spokesperson for CPS, told StarMetro that they consulted with their lawyer, who gave them the green light on publishing the collision data.

“The way that he reads both the Traffic Safety Act and FOIP (Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) is that the facts don’t identify individuals, so they don’t constitute personal information under FOIP,” Poole said.

“So when we do the aggregate release of the data ... it’s ‘this many collisions, this particular intersection and this date and time,’ then that information would not lead to the identification of a specific person.”

Poole said they do not use identifying factors, like whether a person was in a wheelchair.

She said the police work with the city as well as councillors and use the data to make roads and walkways safer for Calgarians.

The Government of Alberta does put out collision data of its own that includes total numbers for the entire year. It is released annually and does not mention specific intersections or roads in specific towns or cities.

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StarMetro reached out to the province to clarify why Calgary was able to find a way to publish collision data on its website but Edmonton was not, and John Archer, press secretary to the Minister of Transportation, said in an email that the province is “reviewing Calgary’s policies and will continue to work with them toward a more consistent approach to reporting.”

Archer wrote that the province only releases data when it’s “a matter of compelling public interest and not just be of interest or of curiosity to the public.”

He pointed out that collision data was not similar to issues that needed public attention, like a public body that has been alerted about a contagious disease, a violent or dangerous offender release, or corruption or misuse of public funds.

The recommendation made by the community and public services committee will be brought forward at the next city council meeting for debate and a decision.

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