Item - 2017.CD22.11

The Community Development and Recreation Committee:

1.  Referred the item to the Fire Chief and General Manager, Toronto Fire Services, with a request that he work with the Chief Information Officer to work toward placing additional data sets on the City of Toronto Open Data portal.

City Council on July 4, 5, 6 and 7, 2017, referred Administrative Inquiry IA31.2 from Councillor Paul Ainslie, Ward 43, Scarborough East, regarding Toronto Fire Services - Open Data, and Answer IA31.2a from the Fire Chief and General Manager, Toronto Fire Services, to the Community Development and Recreation Committee for consideration.

This report responds to the Community Development and Recreation Committee's request for the Fire Chief and General Manager, Fire Services to provide an update on the Open Data initiative including comprehensive implementation of Open Data usage, response times for all responding vehicles, and the feasibility of identifying all vehicle numbers in Open Data sets.

Toronto Fire Services (TFS) is committed to transparency in data reporting. Toronto Fire Services has adopted the City's Strategic Action #13, Open Government by Design, in the 2015-2019 Master Fire Plan and is in compliance with the City's Open Data Policy.

As of November 2016, all incident response data is available on the Fire Services Incident Data page on the Open Data portal. Comprehensive annual incident data is provided for 2010 through 2015, which includes incident details, classifications, time-stamps and unit response details. This also includes vehicle numbers and response time data for all responding vehicles. Toronto Fire Services updates the Open Data portal with new data once per year. The 2016 annual data set was released at the end of July 2017.

Toronto Fire Services also publishes live emergency incident information, drawn directly from the Toronto Fire Services Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD) system in five minute intervals. Toronto Fire Services Annual Reports provide comprehensive response time performance data. In 2015, the Annual Report was expanded to include GIS data. For 2016, the Annual Report was further expanded to include comprehensive response time metrics for each ward, with annual data provided from 2013 through 2016 inclusive. Performance metrics are also reported annually in Fire Rescue and Emergency Response Service Levels as part of the annual Operating Budget review.

Toronto Fire Services will continue to explore additional opportunities to increase the release and access of data through the City's Open Data portal, including fire prevention inspection and investigation data.