Street View in Canada began on October 7, 2009. On this day, Street View was made available for several large Canadian cities, as well asBanff National Park andWhistler, British Columbia (one of the sites from the2010 Winter Olympics).[1] This was after long anticipation of the feature in the country. Street View cars had been spotted as early as 2007.[2]
On February 10, 2010, many more areas of Canada (barring extremely northern and rural areas) were added.[4] Of note, ski runs onWhistler Blackcomb Resort is also covered in this update.[4] As of 2013, the northernmost community imaged is the Arctic island community ofCambridge Bay,Nunavut. As of April 2014, the only Canadian urban areas whose images have not been uploaded are the urban areas within theLabrador region ofNewfoundland and Labrador.
On October 10, 2012, street view images in many parts of Canada were updated and some new images of parks, trails, university campuses, and zoos were added.[5]
Google Trike in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, August 23, 2012
On March 19, 2013, the Nunavut city ofIqaluit was imaged. Rather than shipping a car or using a trike, the city was imaged using backpack-mounted cameras for three days. One of the people involved, Chris Kalluk, was responsible for Google mapping Cambridge Bay, his home town.[6] Iqaluit officially appeared on Street View on July 9, 2013, coinciding withNunavut Day.[7] With the inclusion of Iqaluit, all provincial/territorial capitals have been imaged and are available on Street View.
In 2013,Parks Canada began a 2-year collaboration with Google to provide street view images of the most iconic parks and heritage places in Canada.[8] In November 2013, the first set of images were released.[9]
Canada was one of the first countries following the introduction in the United States where the prospect of introducing Street View was known to the public. In 2007, following the debut ofStreet View in the United States, concern was brought up that the same in Canada may not be legal. Canada's laws regarding privacy differ from those of the United States. Images of the streets in Canada were taken early on byImmersive Media Company, the contractor used by Google at the time that took most of the early images. But it would be a long time before Street View would be seen in Canada, and Street View in several other countries would predate that of Canada.[12]
Google responded by agreeing to respect privacy laws in Canada and other countries.[13]
Ultimately, Google agreed to blur faces and license plates that appeared in images taken. Google has since done the same in other countries, including the United States, regardless of whether or not it is legally compelled to do so.[14]
Note: Below locations available in a newer high-quality view, exceptitalic indicates locations partially available in the high-quality view. Almost all of Canada can be seen in a high-quality street view.
While Canada, like other jurisdictions, has raised the issue of privacy concerns regarding Google Street View, the presence of Google cameras in one Canadian city in March 2009 gave rise to a different complaint. Les MacPherson, a columnist withThe StarPhoenix inSaskatoon, complained in a March 28, 2009, column that the timing of the imaging, at the end of a protracted winter season and before the true onset of spring would cast an unfavourable image of Saskatoon and other cities. "What worries me more than any loss of privacy is the prospect of presenting to the world a highly unflattering impression of Canadian cities. With the possible exception ofVictoria, they do not show off well in the spring. Google could not have picked a more inauspicious time to do its scanning. Saskatoon is unfortunately typical. For Google to record its images of the city at this most visually unappealing time of year is like photographing a beautiful woman who has just awakened from a six-month coma," he wrote.[20] In early October 2009, the first Canadian cities began to appear on Street View; several, including Saskatoon, were not included in the initial roll-out. One city that was included, Calgary, included images taken in both summer and winter. Images of Saskatoon were rolled out on December 2, 2009.
In October 2010, Stoddart said that Google violated the privacy of thousands of Canadians when the cars inadvertently collected personal data about them while filming Street View in the country. Google apologized for the breach.[21]
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