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Ontario reviews websites after maps display ‘Lake America’
🇨🇦 Canada /Culture & Society

Ontario reviews websites after maps display ‘Lake America’

From Global News · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Ontario began reviewing government and business websites after mapping applications displayed “Lake America” instead of Lake Ontario.
  • The websites appear to use third-party map data, following Google’s decision to show “Lake America” in the United States after a U.S. government name change.
  • Google says users in Canada will see Lake Ontario, while users elsewhere may see both names.

Ontario moved to correct the name of Lake Ontario on government-linked websites after users noticed that several online maps had adopted the U.S. label “Lake America.”

The issue emerged a day after Premier Doug Ford unveiled a sign declaring that Lake Ontario is “now and forever” called Lake Ontario. Stephen Crawford, Ontario’s minister of public and business service delivery and procurement, said some provincial websites obtain map data directly from Google Maps and that officials were reviewing them.

Following recent changes by Google, we’re actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario

— Stephen CrawfordOntario’s minister responsible for public and business service delivery described the province’s review of affected websites.

People reported seeing “Lake America” on the maps of Hydro One, Metrolinx, Infrastructure Ontario and the LCBO. Global News also confirmed the label on maps connected to Loblaws. The name appeared on services including the LCBO store locator, Hydro One’s outage map and Infrastructure Ontario’s property listings.

incorrectly labeled on our outage map

— Hydro One spokespersonHydro One acknowledged the label appearing on its outage map.

Hydro One said the lake was “incorrectly labeled on our outage map.” A spokesperson said the problem came from a third-party mapping service and that the company was working with its vendor to restore the proper geographic reference. Google Maps is listed as the copyright holder and data provider on the affected websites.

Google said its maps reflect name changes from official government sources, including the U.S. Geographic Names Information Service. After the GNIS changed Lake Ontario’s name to “Lake America,” Google said users in the United States would see that name, while users in Canada would continue to see Lake Ontario. People in other countries would see Lake Ontario with “Lake America” in parentheses.

The issue originates from a third-party mapping service. We are working with our vendor to correct the issue as quickly as possible and restore the proper geographic reference. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion it has caused

— Hydro One spokespersonThe company explained the source of the mapping error and its response.
About this summary

Originally published by Global News in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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