Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has made its geospatial data available online for free. Users around the world can access 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 through NRCan's Earth Sciences Sector (ESS) portal, GeoGratis.

This new initiative builds on an earlier initiative, which in 2003, provided free access to various co-owned federal, provincial and territorial topographic data. As well as waiving access fees, NRCan has lifted all cost and licence restrictions on the redistribution of the data.

To find data in the GeoGratis portal, you can search by keywords or products. You can also browse the entire collection. A number of the collections meet international geomatics standards. Users will need to have a geographic information system or image analysis system and the graphics applications of editing software to view the data.

If you're interested in keeping up with the latest information from GeoGratis, you can subscribe to their online users' list.