By Erin Letson
Ottawa map distributors are criticizing the federal government’s plans to close down a map warehouse next year, saying it could devastate their business.
Natural Resources Canada will close the warehouse — which holds about 1.5 million maps — when the lease expires in January 2007. Map data will then be moved to digital files on the Internet and the government will stop printing maps for the general public.
“It’s not that I’m against digital maps, but I believe the timing and the way this has been done is wrong,” says Brad Green, president of World of Maps Inc. on Wellington Street.
Green’s business is one of 11 regional distribution centres of government-produced maps in Canada.
The federal government’s decision to stop printing maps for distribution centres means these businesses will be forced to shoulder new costs and responsibilities.
“I can tell you from our standpoint, it’s disastrous,” says Peter Andrews of SoftMap Publishing.
He says the government expects businesses like his to buy expensive plotters — devices that draw under the control of computers — to produce maps on-site from digital files. Andrews found a plotter he tested took six minutes to produce one map, meaning a large order would slow down business.
“Quite frankly, the plotter has not yet proven to be very reliable.”
John Dawson, acting director of Natural Resources Canada’s Centre for Topographic Information, says the intent is to make map data on the Internet free to the public. Companies or individuals could either print the maps themselves or pay to have them printed in a large format.
“The public will still be able to buy printed maps, so there is no real effect for the consumer,” says Dawson.
But Green says people will notice a decrease in quality and consistency when the move to digital maps is complete.
“The government will say, ‘it’s all free on the Internet,’ but the reality is most people still want the full-size map and if they buy it from us, it will look one way, if they buy it from someone else, it’ll look another way,” says Green.
Andrews has started selling maps printed from digital files and says he has received complaints from customers that the maps are fuzzy.
Dawson says poor quality shouldn’t be a problem because the map data sent to distributors is the same the government uses.
“The digital information to produce maps is already in place and the private industry has the capacity to print them,” he says.
Aside from the quality, map distributors are worried the move to digital maps will cause a drop in their sales.
“If the government puts maps online for free, then I suppose it’s going to put map people out of business,” says Andrews.
Natural Resources Canada will continue to print maps for government departments and in times of crisis.
Dawson says the money saved from closing the map warehouse will be focused on updating data on the Internet. He adds the government will work with the private industry to figure out the best way to get printed maps to the public.
Green, however, is not convinced the new system will please his customers.
“The government thinks the quality is good enough,” he says. “But it’s sad that it’s the digital age and then the product you get is worse.”