canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/gov.bc.ca

# Government of British Columbia APIs

The Government of British Columbia publishes a set of official REST APIs that expose the province's authoritative public data and services. The portfolio spans geospatial tools (address geocoding, road-network routing, live road events, geographic names, and area-of-interest sharing), open government data discovery, groundwater and aquifer records, government news and ministry information, and the WorkBC job posting feed. Together these APIs let applications work with canonical British Columbia locations, routes, datasets, and public-sector content without scraping government websites.

## For AI agents

An agent can geocode and validate British Columbia addresses, plan road and truck routes, check live road closures, resolve official place names, share geographic areas of interest, search open government datasets, look up aquifer and groundwater records, read government news and ministry data, and pull WorkBC job postings. Because several of these APIs cover the same province, an agent can chain them, for example geocoding an address, then routing around a live closure.

## Scope

Use for: Working with authoritative Government of British Columbia data and services: geocoding and routing across the BC road network, live road events, official place names and areas of interest, open dataset discovery, groundwater and aquifer records, government news, and WorkBC job postings.

Not supported:
- locations outside British Columbia
- real-time traffic streaming
- map tile rendering
- job application management
- weather forecasts
- dataset file hosting

## APIs

| API | Category | Endpoints | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BC Gov News API Service 1.0 | media | 27 | Read British Columbia government news releases, newsletters, ministry pages, and social-media references published by the BC newsroom. |
| Groundwater Wells, Aquifers and Registry API | data-enrichment | 24 | Look up British Columbia groundwater wells, mapped aquifers, and registered well drillers and pump installers along with the supporting code lists. |
| BC Data Catalogue API | data-enrichment | 22 | Search and retrieve metadata for British Columbia open government datasets exposed through the CKAN-based BC Data Catalogue. |
| BC Route Planner REST API | maps-geolocation | 22 | Compute distance, optimal routes, and turn-by-turn directions across British Columbia's road network, with a separate truck mode that respects commercial vehicle restrictions. |
| Geocoder REST API | maps-geolocation | 16 | Geocode and reverse-geocode British Columbia addresses, occupants, and intersections, with proximity search around a coordinate. |
| BC Geographical Names Web Service - REST API | maps-geolocation | 14 | Search and retrieve official British Columbia geographical names - features, name histories, and name authority decisions - with no authentication required. |
| GeoMark Web Service REST API | maps-geolocation | 7 | Create reusable geographic areas of interest and serve them in multiple file formats and coordinate systems for cross-tool sharing. |
| WorkBC Job Posting API | hr-recruiting | 5 | Pull a filtered feed of WorkBC job postings and the supporting reference data (job types, regions, industries, major projects) used to filter them. |
| DriveBC's Open511 API | maps-geolocation | 4 | Look up live road events, closures, and construction in British Columbia, filtered by area, jurisdiction, or event type. |

## Which API to use

| Need | API | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Turn a British Columbia address into coordinates | geocoder | The geocoder cleans, validates, and geocodes BC addresses, occupants, and intersections, whereas the route planner and open511 expect coordinates as input. |
| Find where to drive around a British Columbia road problem | router | The route planner computes distance, optimal ordering, and turn-by-turn directions, while open511 only reports the events you would route around. |
| Know what is currently blocking British Columbia roads | open511 | Open511 publishes live accidents, closures, and construction events, which the route planner itself does not report. |
| Resolve or verify an official British Columbia place name | bcgnws | The geographical names service returns the authoritative gazetteer record and feature class, while the geocoder resolves street addresses rather than named features. |
| Find a British Columbia open dataset by keyword | bcdc | The data catalogue searches dataset metadata across the province, whereas gwells only exposes the specific groundwater and aquifer register. |

## Cross-API use cases

### Route around live British Columbia road closures

Pull active accidents, closures, and construction from Open511, then ask the BC Route Planner for directions that avoid the affected road segments. The agent uses the road events to score which alternative route is currently drivable rather than routing blindly.

Example prompt: Fetch active major events from Open511, then call the route planner for directions between two coordinates that avoid the closed segments.

### Geocode an address and plan an optimal multi-stop route

Convert a list of British Columbia street addresses into coordinates with the geocoder, then feed those coordinates to the route planner to compute the optimal stop order and turn-by-turn directions for a field visit.

Example prompt: Geocode six BC addresses, then call optimalDirections with the resulting coordinates and return the reordered stops and total drive time.

### Enrich a geocoded point with the official place name nearby

Geocode a British Columbia address to coordinates, then query the Geographical Names service for the official named features near that point so downstream output uses canonical BC names rather than informal labels.

Example prompt: Geocode a BC address, then call the names near-point search around the returned coordinate and return the closest official feature name and class.

### Discover a dataset then geocode its addresses

Search the BC Data Catalogue for a dataset by keyword and pull its resource download URLs, then geocode any addresses inside the data so the records can be mapped or spatially analysed.

Example prompt: Search the catalogue for a dataset, take an address column from a resource, and geocode each address into coordinates.

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring these APIs by hand means juggling different hosts, output-format path segments, and auth models across nine services. With Jentic you install Jentic One once, then find and add any of the Government of British Columbia APIs from the Jentic directory to your workspace, and your agent calls them through one consistent path.
- **Permission scoping:** You decide which operations each API exposes to the agent, so you can allow read-only lookups such as geocoding, dataset search, or listing road events while leaving out operations like creating a geomark or truck routing. Your own rules in your Jentic One instance scope which operations and credentials the agent may use, so it cannot reach anything you have not included.
- **Credential handling:** Where a service needs a credential, such as the geocoder or route planner apikey, the GWELLS JWT, or a CKAN key, it is stored encrypted by your own Jentic One instance and injected at request time, so it never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context. The anonymous open data APIs need no credential and pass through unchanged.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search the Jentic directory by intent, such as 'geocode a bc address', 'check bc road closures', or 'search bc open data', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its parameter schema typed, so the agent calls the right endpoint across the portfolio without reading each API's docs.

## Related vendors

- **Data.gov** — Exposes the United States federal open data catalogue with a similar CKAN-style surface for teams that need US datasets rather than British Columbia data.
- **TomTom** — Offers global geocoding, routing, and traffic when coverage outside British Columbia is required.
- **GOV.UK** — Provides an API surface over UK central government content and datasets for teams working outside Canada.
- **GraphHopper** — Provides worldwide routing with truck profiles for routing beyond British Columbia or when self-hosting the engine matters.

## FAQ

### What can I build with the Government of British Columbia APIs together?

The APIs combine into province-wide workflows. You can geocode an address, check live road events, and plan a route that avoids closures; resolve official place names for geocoded points; or discover an open dataset and geocode the addresses inside it. Each API covers the same province, so their coordinates, road network, and named features line up.

### Do these APIs all use the same authentication?

No. Several are anonymous open data, including the news, geographical names, geomark, job posting, and Open511 services. The geocoder and route planner require an apikey issued through the BC API directory, GWELLS uses a JWT bearer token for protected operations, and the data catalogue accepts a CKAN API key for restricted reads.

### Is the whole portfolio limited to British Columbia?

Yes. These are provincial government services, so coverage is British Columbia only. The geocoder, route planner, geographical names, and Open511 feeds do not extend to other provinces or countries, and for locations elsewhere you would use a global provider instead.

### Can any developer use every API in this portfolio?

Not entirely. The open data APIs are available to anyone, but the BC Route Planner is currently restricted to B.C. Government Ministries, and the geocoder and GWELLS have credentialed operations that require an issued key or token. Expect the route planner in particular to require a ministry sponsor.

### How current is the data these APIs return?

It varies by service. Open511 road events are near real time, subject to the underlying jurisdictional feeds; news, ministry, and job posting content reflects what the province has published; and the geocoder, geographical names, and GWELLS records are authoritative reference data that changes when the province updates its registers and gazetteer.

### Which APIs work well as a geospatial stack?

The geocoder, route planner, Open511, geographical names, and geomark services share a common British Columbia frame of reference. A typical stack geocodes an address, resolves nearby official names, checks road events, and plans a route, with geomark used to share the resulting area of interest across mapping tools.