SmartQueryTools
Canada

Canada Open Government Data

Search 30,000+ Canadian federal government datasets and query them with SQL — no downloads.

Browse:

Type at least 2 characters to search open.canada.ca.

Results open in the SQL editor — queries run entirely in your browser, no uploads.

About open.canada.ca

open.canada.ca hosts datasets from every federal department, agency, and Crown corporation in Canada. SmartQueryTools indexes the catalogue and runs your SQL queries against CSV, JSON, and Parquet files entirely in the browser.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I search open.canada.ca datasets?

Type at least two characters into the search box above. Results are pulled live from the Canada Open Government Data API and filtered to datasets with queryable file formats (CSV, JSON, Parquet, and similar). Each result shows the title, organisation, last-modified date, and available files.

Can I query open.canada.ca datasets without downloading them?

Yes — when you click "Load in Editor", the dataset URL is passed to SmartQueryTools' in-browser SQL engine, which fetches the file directly using HTTP range requests. The data never travels through our servers. Some open.canada.ca hosts don't expose CORS headers; in that case you can download the file from the source page and upload it via the "My Files" tab in the SQL editor.

What file formats can I query?

SmartQueryTools supports CSV, TSV, JSON, NDJSON (JSON Lines), Parquet, GeoJSON, and Excel. Search results are pre-filtered to datasets that include at least one of these formats — datasets that only ship PDF or ZIP files are hidden.

What licence is the data under?

Most open.canada.ca datasets are published under the Open Government Licence — Canada, which permits commercial reuse with attribution. Always check the individual dataset page for any dataset-specific licence terms before using the data commercially.

Do I need an account or API key?

No. SmartQueryTools is free to use without an account, and open.canada.ca itself doesn't require an API key for public datasets. The optional $9/month subscription removes daily query limits and unlocks larger result exports.

Other open data sources

How it works: SmartQueryTools searches the live open.canada.ca catalogue and filters results to datasets with queryable file formats. Clicking Load in Editor opens the SQL editor with a pre-populated query that reads the dataset directly via HTTP range requests — only the rows your query touches are downloaded. All processing happens inside your browser using a full analytical SQL engine compiled to WebAssembly.