Canadian Postal Products

Product Guide (Census 2016 Geography)

Canadian Postal Products Product Guide

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the vendor or its representatives. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written permission of Precisely, 2 Blue Hill Plaza, #1563, Pearl River, NY 10965.

© 2006, 2020 Precisely. All rights reserved.

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Disclaimer Postal records, six-digit points, and FSA boundaries/points furnished by Precisely are accepted for use by the recipient with the understanding that Precisely makes no warranties, expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability of this data or supporting information. The postal records, points, and boundaries contained in the products covered in this document should not be relied upon as the sole basis decision-making in situations where an incorrect decision may result in injury to persons or damage to property.

Last Update: 12 November 2020

Table of Contents

1 Getting Started Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes ...... 3 Product Overview ...... 3 Postal Points File ...... 3 Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points ...... 4 Six-Digit Postal Code Points ...... 4 Product Specifications ...... 4

2 Canada Postal Points File Build Methodology ...... 6 Postal and Census Linkage ...... 6 Data Description ...... 7 Additional Information ...... 7

3 Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points Build Methodology ...... 9 Alternate Assignments of Postal Code FSAs to FSA Boundaries ...... 9 Using FSA Boundaries ...... 10 Locating a Boundary ...... 10 Identifying a Boundary ...... 12 Labeling a Boundary ...... 12 Combining Boundaries ...... 14 Additional Information ...... 16

4 Six-Digit Postal Code Points Build Methodology ...... 18 Additional Information ...... 18

Product Feedback and Support ...... 19

Canadian Postal Products Product Guide 1

1 Getting Started

In this section Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes Product Overview Product Specifications

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Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes

Canadian postal codes consist of a string of six alphanumeric characters, formatted as AnA nAn, where A is a letter and n is a numeral. A space typically separates the third and fourth characters. Precisely’s Six-Digit Postal Code Points file provides postal codes both with and without the space separator. Please refer to the table variables in the Canada_Postal_Products_Variables.xlsx spreadsheet for more information.

The first three characters of the postal code indicate a Forward Sortation Area (FSA) and the last three denote a subset of the FSA, known as a Local Delivery Unit (LDU).

The postal code for Corporation’s headquarters in , is K1A 0B1. In this example, K1A identifies the Forward Sortation Area and 0B1 is the Local Delivery Unit.

Each character of the FSA represents a specific piece of information. The province/territory in which the FSA is located is identified by the first character. The numeral in the second position is rural or urban. A zero in this position denotes that the FSA is located in a rural area. Any digit other than 0 denotes that the FSA is located in an urban area.

The third character of the FSA is used in combination with the first two characters to provide regional coverage information.

Visit https://ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br03396.html for more information about Forward Sortation Areas.

Product Overview

Precisely offers the following Canadian postal products:

• Canada Postal Points File • Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points • Six-Digit Postal Code Points

Canada Postal Points File

The Canada Postal Points File is a nationwide point file of all . This enhanced dataset contains points placed with street-level accuracy, and can be used for mapping or demographic analysis. This product provides data linkage with all levels of Canadian census geography.

For more information about the Canada Postal Points File, please refer to Chapter 2 of this product guide.

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Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points

Forward Sortation Area Boundaries/Points contains geographical boundary polygons and centroids. For more information about Forward Sortation Area Boundaries/Points, please refer to Chapter 3 of this product guide.

Six-Digit Postal Code Points

The points in Six-Digit Postal Code Points are created from an extract of data from the Canada Postal Points File. It contains the single most representative points for all Canadian postal codes, along with each point’s associated latitude/longitude coordinates.

While Six Digit Postal Code Points provides the best location for a particular postal code, it does not contain links to census geography or postal delivery attributes, as does the Canada Postal Points File.

For more information about Six-Digit Postal Code Points, please refer to Chapter 4 of this product guide.

Product Specifications

The specifications below apply to all three products mentioned in this product guide:

Data Sources Canada Post Corporation, TomTom, Precisely Update Frequency Semi-annual Coverage Nationwide (Canada) Datum Latitude/Longitude – NAD83*

* The Canada Postal Points File uses the Canadian National Topographic (CNT) conversion method.

All Canadian postal products are supplied as compressed files.

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2 Canada Postal Points File

In this section Build Methodology Postal and Census Linkage Data Description Additional Information

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Build Methodology

The Canada Postal Points File is created using inputs from the Canada Post Corporation and TomTom.

Addresses created by TomTom consist of postal codes and their corresponding ranges. These are geocoded using TomTom MultiNet® North America, to place points at street-level precision. These centroids represent the single most representative point for each postal code.

Dissemination Area (DA) codes are assigned to all geocoded postal codes by Precisely.

Postal codes in the Canada Postal Points File are linked with all levels of standard census geography. This is accomplished by establishing a link between the 6-character postal code (FSALDU) and the Dissemination Area (DA). The DA polygon is the lowest level of census geography. Once a link is made between the DA and the FSALDU, all other levels of census geography can be determined.

Precisely further enhances postal codes that were street-coded, or that are block and/or FSA centroids.

Note: The address associated with a postal code does not always represent the location of the individual or individuals receiving mail using that postal code. This is particularly true in rural areas, where rural route service and pickup are common delivery methods. In the Canada Postal Points File, these types of delivery are indicated by a DMT (Delivery Method Type) of ‘H.’ Similarly, postal codes with a DMT of ‘K’ (a group of post office boxes) or ‘M’ (a single post office box) are generally linked to the location of a post office and not to the physical location of the customer renting the post office box.

Postal and Census Linkage

The Canada Postal Points File links postal code points to census geography by establishing a link between the FSALDU and the Dissemination Area (DA).

There are instances where a postal code may serve customers in more than one DA. In order to maintain all postal code-census geography links, multiple records need to be created. These multiple postal code records provide alternate postal code coordinates and linkage to census geography to supplement the single most representative coordinates and geography linkage. This is a limitation of linking postal and census geography. Two examples of multiple linkage are block face assignment and multiple points.

Block face assignment results in a single point location representing all households along an uninterrupted street segment. Dense block face assignments in urban areas follow the familiar grid pattern of streets and provide a useful geocoding tool. Users are advised that very long block faces may cross DA boundaries.

When multiple (i.e. non block-faced) postal codes are associated with individual DA polygons, their positions may also be based on FSA geographic centroids. These, in turn, may cause two or more postal codes to occupy the same coordinates.

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Data Description

The Sng_fsaldu field in the Canada Postal Points File that facilitates linkage of coordinates to all levels of Canadian census geography. To select all unique postal code records, the value of Sng_fsaldu needs to be set to ‘1.’

Postal code records in which Sng_fsaldu has a value of ‘1’ are considered to have the most representative location for their respective postal codes. Coordinates that are identified as unique may either be the only possible location for the point, or the most representative point out of a number of multiple locations that could be identified for the same FSALDU.

Additional Information

• When geocoding postal codes, users should be aware that there may be more than one valid delivery location for a particular postal code.

• Geocoding software cannot normally distinguish a preferred location when presented with more than one possible match. Under ideal circumstances, the first location coordinate might be assigned. In other cases, there may be a significant amount of records in the output database that aren’t geocoded. Users are advised to check how their geocoder handles multiple candidate records. These problems can be avoided by geocoding with unique postal codes.

• Please refer to the Canada_Postal_Products_Variables.xlsx workbook (contained in the product delivery file) for a complete list of variables and record counts.

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3 Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points

In this section Build Methodology Using FSA Boundaries Additional Information

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Build Methodology

Precisely’s methodology focuses on the ability to assign Dissemination Areas (DAs) to the most appropriate FSAs, and to locate and update FSA boundaries that show the greatest degree of change. Degree of change is based on the number of postal codes associated with particular FSAs that fall within different FSA boundaries.

This approach involves making some basic compromises:

• Forward Sortation Areas do not respect Dissemination Area boundaries. There are numerous cases of DAs receiving mail delivery from two different FSAs. In these cases, all of the households in the DA are assigned to one – and only one – FSA within a DA attribute table.

• Although FSAs are often delineated by street boundaries, there are occasions where a single FSA is used on both sides of a delineating street. Since DAs are more likely to be delineated by a street, the DA may be split when creating an FSA boundary in order to incorporate the proper distribution of the FSA.

• Since FSAs are intended for mail sorting and delivery, they may not have a spatial reference. This explains the difference in the number of actual FSAs versus those with boundaries. Non-spatial FSAs are included because some household-based databases aggregate to these FSAs.

Alternate Assignments of Postal Code FSAs to FSA Boundaries

A number of FSAs do not dominate the distribution of postal codes within a DA and therefore cannot be assigned to any DA by the principle of majority. However, they may have a boundary based on the overall distribution of points and on the fact that the FSA boundary file does not follow a DA boundary. Postal code points not assigned to a DA may also be found within alternate FSA boundaries.

The table on the following page illustrates examples of matches between assigned and alternate FSAs.

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FSA FSA FSA FSA FSA FSA Assignment Alternate Assignment Alternate Assignment Alternate A1N K1R P3L A1A A1C K1N P0S A1B K2P P0M A0L K1T P0T A8A A0K K1Y P0H K1L R2J R2L G7T G7S K1A R2C K1H R3W R2K H2G K1K S7T H2S H2R K1Y S7P H2V S7C K2L S7W H4Y H9P S7K

H9A K8B K8A S7S H8Y H8Z L8E H9B L8G K1M L8J S0G S4Z K1V L5P L4T S4N K2C M1C S7P S0K K1A K1P M1X T3M T2Z M1B J8X V6C M1S V7Y K1S V6Z

The Canadian_Postal_Products_Variables.xlsx workbook contains an expanded list of alternate FSAs that fall within other primary FSA boundaries.

Using FSA Boundaries

This section highlights some MapInfo Pro functions that relate specifically FSA boundaries. These functions are provided as examples only and are not intended as a comprehensive tutorial.

Locating a Boundary

The following instructions describe how to locate an FSA boundary using MapInfo Pro.

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1. In MapInfo Pro, click Table > Find and select the Mark option, or press CTRL+F.

2. In the Find dialog box (below), select the table you wish to search using the Search Table dropdown.

Figure 1 - Find dialog

3. Click OK. A second Find dialog will be displayed:

Figure 2 - Second Find dialog

If you have already selected a search table, only the second Find dialog will appear. To choose a different table, click Respecify. Doing so will display the Find dialog shown in Figure 1. Use the Search Table dropdown in that dialog to specify a new table.

4. Enter the FSA you wish to locate in the FSA field and click OK.

5. MapInfo Pro will display a symbol at the center point of the selected FSA. If the location is not in the current screen view, MapInfo Pro will redraw the map with the selected FSA centered in the map display.

To display a list of all FSAs in the file, select Find, type an asterisk (*) in the FSA field of the Find dialog, and click OK.

You can also type the first few characters of the FSA in the FSA field to display a list of those FSAs beginning with these characters.

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Identifying a Boundary

The following instructions describe how to identify a boundary using MapInfo Pro.

1. Click Home > Tool Window > Info:

Figure 3 - Info button

2. The cursor will change to a small crosshair:

Figure 4 - FSA boundary selection

3. Click within the boundaries of the FSA you want to identify. An information box will appear with the data associated with each layer of the selected boundary.

Labeling a Boundary

This section describes how to create and modify FSA boundary labels in MapInfo Pro.

To automatically generate labels:

1. Open the FSA boundaries table.

2. Click Home > Tool Window > Layers.

Canadian Postal Products Product Guide 12

Figure 5 - Layers panel

3. Click the check box(es) for the FSA layer(s) you want to label.

4. Click the Automatic Label icon:

Figure 6 - Automatic Label icon

The selected FSA layers will be labelled automatically according to their default label settings.

To change label settings:

1. Double-click the FSA layer in the Layers panel.

2. The Layer Properties dialog is displayed:

Figure 7 - Layer Properties dialog

Using this dialog box, you can change label content, visibility, style, and position.

3. Make the required changes and click OK.

4. Click OK again to make your changes active in the map display.

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Combining Boundaries

This section contains instructions for creating larger districts by combining FSA boundaries using MapInfo Pro.

1. Open the FSA boundary table in the map display window.

2. Right click Layer View and select View Entire Layer.

3. In the View Entire Layer dialog, select the layers you want to combine and click OK. (Note: The All Layers option is selected by default.)

Figure 8 - View Entire Layer dialog

4. Click the Editable icon (shown below) next to the selected layers in the Layers panel to make them editable.

Figure 9 - Editable icon

5. Press SHIFT and right click to select the FSA layers that you want to combine into a district. Note: Do not select point objects, as they will not combine.

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Figure 10 - Boundary selection

6. Click Spatial > Combine > Combine Selected Objects to display the Data Aggregation dialog.

Figure 11 - Data Aggregation dialog

The Data Aggregation dialog allows you to specify whether the combined table entry for the selected polygons should be blank, contain the same value, or be summed or averaged. Available options depend on original data.

7. Click each entry and specify how the data should be evaluated for the new object. The following options are available –

• Blank: Select this option to treat the entries for this column as blank

• Value: Select this option to give all entries for this column the same specified value. The value is entered in the field to the right of the Value button. If you select this option and do not specify a value, MapInfo Pro will retain the original value.

• Sum: Select this option to sum the values of the original objects. When using this option, original values must not be of the type CHARACTER.

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• Average: Use this option to average the values of the original objects. When selecting this option, you can also choose a column or boundary area to be used as a weighting factor in the Weighted by: dropdown.

• No Data: Select this option if you do not wish to have any data from the original objects brought over.

8. Click OK. MapInfo Pro will combine the selected boundaries, erase common borders, and display the new boundary. You can use the INFO button to view information about the newly aggregated layer (see Identifying a Boundary in this chapter).

Figure 12 - Combined boundary

9. Click Home > Save > Save Copy As to save the new polygon and retain the existing FSA table.

These are not the only operation that MapInfo Pro can perform on FSA data. For information about other MapInfo Pro functions, consult the MapInfo Pro User Guide or online help.

Additional Information

• FSAs were not designed to respect standard geographic boundaries, except at the provincial level. However, there are instances where FSAs may cross provincial boundaries, as in the case of , /, which spans a correction line in the boundary between the two provinces.

• The Postal Code layer may be used as a backup for geocoding, but it does not overlay perfectly with streets. Therefore, a street segment with a given FSA code may not fall within the corresponding boundary.

• Please refer to the Canada_Postal_Products_Variables.xlsx workbook (contained in the product delivery file) for a complete list of variables and record counts.

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4 Six-Digit Postal Code Points

In this section Build Methodology Additional Information

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Build Methodology

Six-Digit Postal Code Points is an extract of the following fields from the Canada Postal Points File:

• Fsaldu • Fsa • Ldu • Latitude • Longitude

This file contains the single most representative points for all Canadian postal codes and provides associated coordinates to facilitate geocoding.

While Six-Digit Postal Code Points is extracted from the Canada Postal Points File, it does not have the former’s links to census geography or delivery attributes.

Additional Information

• When geocoding postal codes, users should be aware that there may be more than one valid delivery location for a postal code.

• Please refer to the Canada_Postal_Products_Variables.xlsx workbook (contained in the product delivery file) for a complete list of variables and record counts.

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Product Feedback and Support

Contact our Support team for product support and additional product information. You can also submit your innovative ideas or comment on existing submissions in a way that is visible to all participants. Our Support site also includes information about our complete portfolio of Data products.

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Copyright © 2006, 2020 Precisely. All rights reserved.

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