The Township of Ramara manages real estate and property‑related records across multiple programs and systems, including an enterprise records management system (Laserfiche), GIS, legacy files, and externally held land registry documents. Currently, these records are organized primarily by program or function, making it difficult and time‑consuming to reconstruct a complete historical picture of a property, including past ownership, easements, unregistered interests in land, and related agreements.
This innovation‑related project focuses on designing a property‑centric records framework, referred to as a “property passport,” that enables staff to more easily discover and trace all relevant records associated with a specific parcel of land, while allowing records to remain in their existing systems. The innovation challenge is to improve discoverability and traceability of real estate records without migrating data or replacing core systems.
The project would advance municipal records management by exploring how file structures, metadata standards, parcel identifiers, and GIS linkages can be aligned to support consistent, property‑based access to records. It will also examine which record types are essential to a defensible property history and how externally held documents (such as land registry records) can be logically referenced and connected.
Overall objectives include documenting current practices and gaps, defining a standardized property‑centric framework, and identifying feasible integration points between records management systems and GIS.
End goals are the development of a documented property‑centric records model, recommended Laserfiche file and metadata structures, a GIS connection concept, and an implementation roadmap to support future phased improvements.
Students with backgrounds or coursework in records management, information management, GIS, planning, public administration, or related fields would be a strong fit. Experience with research, process documentation, data analysis, or systems thinking would be considered an asset.