Vision

We created the LOUIS Toolkit because we recognised that small communities and Indigenous communities needed tools that match their size and available resources. We strongly believe that good data are essential to good decision making and so we are driven to ensure that our solution supports good data management practices so our users can make informed decisions. Lastly, we created the LOUIS Toolkit because we believe that these local voices need to be heard for local, regional and large scale planning to be effective and to meet larger societal needs.

The LOUIS Toolkit provides a broad scope of capabilities and continues to be developed and refined. Ongoing development is guided by careful consideration of user needs, practicality and the need to share information securely and easily.

Team

Trevor and Hiroko Wiens - Founders

Trevor has advocated for data driven decision making across sectors and disciplines for more than30 years with private companies, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, universities, and Indigenous communities. Hiroko worked as a teacher in Japan for over 10 years and is strong advocate for clear communications and has a good eye for detail. Together they are dedicated to using the best available knowledge with effective technology to make decisions that consider both immediate effects as well as long-term and indirect effects.

Bram Wiebe - Full Stack Developer

Bram has a BSc. and has 10+ years of development experience and is skilled with Python, Django, GeoDjango, Bootstrap, JQuery, Javascript, Leaflet, PostgreSQL, and many other tools. Bram is dedicated to developing reliable, efficient, clean, well documented, and maintainable code.

Cody Ingram - Full Stack and Mobile Developer

Cody graduated from the University of Alberta Computer Science program. Cody has strong listening and problem solving skills as demonstrated in the solutions he proposes to meet client needs. Cody is a skilled developer with Python, Django, Bootstrap, JQuery and Javascript.

Candace Cummings-Hanni - Training & Enablement Associate

Candace is a Mount Royal University graduate that brings close to two decades of experience in learning design, training delivery, and program development to the Apropos team. A natural problem-solver and collaborator, she’s led large-scale learning initiatives across corporate, academic, and technical environments—always with a focus on making learning practical, engaging, and impactful.

Platform History

A solution like the LOUIS Toolkit was conceived by our founder, Trevor Wiens, in the early 1990s because of the challenges he observed with First Nations often losing control of their own information. In 2011, Apropos Information Systems was founded and the first part of the LOUIS Toolkit we created was LOUIS Heritage. From 2016 to 2018 we developed the first version of LOUIS Assets with guidance from a small group of Alberta First Nation's housing and public works staff. In 2021 we released LOUIS Planner to provide a flexible and effective solution for consultation.

Since 2021 we've continued to make updates to our platform based on user needs and requests. We think of all our clients as partners in making our platform better so we carefully consider their feedback to guide ongoing development.

For more information on how the LOUIS Toolkit might be beneficial to you and your organization, contact us and we will happily provide a demonstration and put you in touch with existing users for their perspective.