Highlight: PRPS

Provincial Real Property System (An Ontario GeoPortal Solution)

The Ontario government has a huge, valuable and strategic real estate portfolio.  There’s provincial land, property, and buildings in hundreds of communities.  And, for the first time, it’s being integrated - through PRPS.

The Provincial Real Property System (PRPS) is enabling the Ontario Realty Corp. (ORC) to capture and maintain information about the large number of real property assets outside its direct control.  The major land holding Ontario ministries – the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR); the Ministry of Transportation (MTO); the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH); the Ministry of the Environment (MOE); and, the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) – use it to collect, maintain and share their real property information with ORC and each other.

PRPS is helping create a unified view of all Ontario govt. real property in a way that is accessible, accurate and able to meet both operational and strategic management needs.

“Understanding the province’s complete property asset picture is something we’re taking very seriously at ORC because it’s in everyone’s best interest”, explains Joseph Lin, the project director and the Manager of the ORC Geomatics Section. 

A lot of thought goes into making a system easy to use and yet able to capture data in a complete and accurate way.  Some of the key design features:

  • A logical flow of information on the input forms;
  • Drop down menus and pick lists where possible;
  • A keyword search to find assets;
  • A good help system; and,
  • A map-based interface – the award-winning Ontario GeoPortal.