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Montreal has adopted an “open by default” data policy, meaning that data collected by the city is now considered open unless it must be restricted for reasons such as confidentiality and public safety.

The new policy was announced Wednesday by Harout Chitilian, deputy chairman of the city’s executive committee and responsible for information technology.

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“The release of data is an important tool for transparency and a vehicle for economic development contributing to the creation of quality jobs,” Chitilian said. “This new policy will allow the acceleration of release of the data, and pave the way for businesses and organizations who wish to develop new services to citizens, corresponding to their needs.”

In a statement, the city said the new policy “applies to all administrative units of the City of Montreal, including the boroughs. ”

The city, which currently has 184 open datasets, wants to make all its data available by the end of 2018.