Teranet's Province of Ontario Land Registry Information System (POLARIS) property boundaries data

Description

These datasets were provided to the Geospatial Centre by Teranet in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2023. Ownership parcels are based on title records from the Ministry of Government Services, reflecting the ownership boundaries of each property.

The library has assessment parcels (not assessment values) which are based on records from Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and reflect assessment boundaries of each property. While these are typically one-to-one in urban areas, they are not always. An example could be a farmer who owns a single large parcel that is assessed for tax purposes as two properties – one at an agricultural rate and a second at a residential or industrial rate.

Please note that we do not have access to any property values, prices, sale history, etc.

In October 2007, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo provided to the Geospatial Centre a parcel-based file of coded land use information for the Region. This record has been joined to Teranet's ownership parcels for Waterloo in order to create a property parcel land use map of the Region of Waterloo.

Region of Waterloo: land use 2020

This unique product was created by Geospatial Centre staff by combining: Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) 3.0 (2000 - 2015) with Teranet's Waterloo Assessment (2018).

Spatial reference and data type

These data sets are available in both geographic (lat/long) and Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) co-ordinates; horizontal datum is North American Datum (NAD) 83. The data for Halton is in decimal degrees. These data are stored as Esri shapefiles. Other data formats can be accommodated, as the Geospatial Centre has access to a number of conversion utilities.

Data access

In order to access this data set, please visit the Geospatial Centre reference desk during reference hours. Library reference staff are available to provide further information about these data sets and to deliver data upon request. Under the terms of the library's license agreement, these data sets are for use by students, faculty, and staff at the University of Waterloo only.

Data manipulation

There are public workstations in the Geospatial Centre that provide access to ArcGIS software programs, program extensions and data manipulation utilities. Patrons may use the Geographic Information System (GIS) and image processing software in the library to view and manipulate the data. UWaterloo faculty, students and staff may copy these data for use elsewhere.

Data output

This image may be exported from ArcGIS in a choice of bitmapped formats (also known as raster graphics) including JPG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP or in a choice of vector graphics formats including Adobe Illustrator (AI), Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Yet another option is PDF.

Use restrictions/licensing/copyright

These data are provided for personal use for academic, research, and/or teaching purposes. A data release agreement must be agreed to before these licensed data can be released. Teranet must be acknowledged on any derivative product, whether printed or electronic, including for example, a printed map, a raster or vector graphic, a web-based application, etc. Patrons are advised to fully respect the provisions of Canada's Copyright Act as well as terms and conditions imposed by the data provider.