Article: Canada's New Government Provides Free Online Access to Digital Mapping Data

[Igor Foox]

http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=290039

"Experts and other users of digital topographic data will no longer  
have to pay to use digital versions of government maps and data...As  
well as waiving access fees, NRCan is lifting all cost and licence  
restrictions on the redistribution of the data. This will help ensure  
that accurate and consistent information is available for users."

That sounds pretty cool, especially being a Canadian. :)
I'm no expert on mapping data, can anyone with more experience  
elaborate whether this is the sort of data that could be useful for  
building open source mapping applications and not have to agree to  
restrictive licenses on the data?

 From the site:
"The geospatial data are grouped in collections and are compatible  
with the most popular geographic information systems (GIS), with  
image analysis systems and the graphics applications of editing  
software."

and

"The collections include raster data, such as satellite images or  
scanned topographic maps, vector data, such as national-scale  
frameworks (grouped by theme), and a database of ground control points."

Igor