Canadian Postal Products Guide

Canadian Postal Products Guide (Census 2011 Geography) Product Guide Canadian Postal Products 1

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 Pitney Bowes Software, 26 Wellington Street East, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1S2. 2000-2016 Pitney Bowes Software. All rights reserved. 2006-2016 TomTom. All rights reserved. This material is proprietary and the subject of copyright protection, database right protection and other intellectual property rights owned by TomTom or its suppliers. The use of this material is subject to the terms of a license agreement. Any unauthorized copying or disclosure of this material will lead to criminal and civil liabilities. Adobe Acrobat is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States. All other products named herein may be trademarks of their respective manufacturers and are hereby recognized. Trademarked names are used editorially, to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intent to infringe on the trademark. Disclaimer The postal code records, six-digit postal code points, and FSA boundaries/points furnished by Pitney Bowes Software, are accepted for use by the recipient on the understanding that Pitney Bowes Software makes no warranties, expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of this information or the supporting data. Pitney Bowes Software shall be under no liability whatsoever resulting from the use of this information. The postal records, points and boundaries contained within the above mentioned files should not be relied upon as the sole basis for solving a problem in situations where an incorrect decision may result in injury to persons or damage to property. Further Information Corporate Headquarters Pitney Bowes Software, One Global View, Troy, New York 12180. Voice: (518) 285-6000 Sales Info Hotline: (800) 327-8627 Technical Support Hotline: (518) 285-7283 Technical Support E-mail: software.support@pb.com www.pb.com/software Canadian Postal Products 2

Table of Contents Chapter 1: Overview of Canadian Postal Products... 4 Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes... 6 Canada Postal Points File... 6 Six-Digit Postal Code Points... 7 Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points... 7 Installation... 8 Sources of Information... 8 Updates... 8 Coverage Area and Geographic Area... 8 Coverage Date... 8 Datum... 8 Chapter 2: Canada Postal Points File... 9 Data Description... 10 Postal and Census Linkage... 10 Caveats... 10 General Caveat... 10 Chapter 3: Six-Digit Postal Code Points... 11 Product Specifications... 11 Caveats... 11 Chapter 4: FSA Boundaries/Points... 12 Product Specification... 12 Caveats... 15 Alternate Assignments of Postal Code FSAs To FSA Boundaries... 16 Chapter 5: Using the Boundaries... 17 Locating a Boundary... 18 Identifying a Boundary... 19 Labeling a Boundary... 20 Combining Boundaries... 21 Canadian Postal Products 3

Chapter 1: Overview of Canadian Postal Products 1 Following a general introduction to Canadian postal codes, this chapter describes the three individual Canadian postal products covered in this guide (Canada Postal Points File, Six-Digit Postal Code Points and Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points). The descriptions are followed by the general installation procedure, and all the other information that is common to all three products (for example, sources and coverage). For the current specifications, and any caveats relating to the individual products, refer as appropriate to Chapter 2: Canada Postal Points File, Chapter 3: Six-Digit Postal Code Points, or Chapter 4: FSA Boundaries/Points. Canadian Postal Products 4

Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes A Canadian postal code consists of a string of six alphanumeric characters, in the format AnA nan (where A is a letter and n is a digit, with a space typically separating the third and fourth characters). An example is K1A 0B1, which is Canada Post's Ottawa headquarters. The first three characters of a postal code are referred to collectively as a Forward Sortation Area (FSA), with the last three characters denoting a Local Delivery Unit (LDU). Pitney Bowes Software Six-Digit Postal Code Points file provides the six-character postal codes both with and without the space separator. Please refer to the table variables in accompanying Excel workbook Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xlsx. Canada Postal Points File The Canada Postal Points File is a nationwide point database of every postal code in Canada, created by Pitney Bowes Software. The Canada Postal Points File includes data inputs from TomTom and Canada Post. The addresses created by TomTom consist of postal codes and their corresponding address ranges. Addresses are then geocoded using TomTom MultiNet North America, Inc. to place the points at street-level accuracy, thereby facilitating the mapping and demographic analysis of customer records. Dissemination Area (DA) codes are assigned to all the geocoded postal codes by Pitney Bowes Software. CAUTION: See Data Description in Chapter 2 for important information regarding DA assignments. The six-character postal codes are linked in the Canada Postal Points File with all levels of the 2011 standard census geography. This is done by establishing a link between the FSALDU and the Dissemination Area (DA). The DA polygon is the lowest level in the census hierarchy, so, once the link to the FSALDU is made, all other census levels can be determined. The address associated with a postal code does not always represent the location of those receiving mail using that postal code. This is particularly the case in rural areas, where rural route service and post office pickup are commonly used to deliver mail (i.e. where Delivery Mode Type (DMT) = H ). Also, postal codes with a DMT of K (group of post office boxes) or M (one post office box) are generally linked to the location of a post office on the Canada Postal Points File, as opposed to the physical location of customers who rent a post office box. Pitney Bowes Software further enhances/reassigns postal codes that were Street-coded, block and/or Forward Sortation Area (FSA) centroids. Canadian Postal Products 6

The 2003 Federal Electoral Districts (FED) are also included as a geographic link in the Canada Postal Points File. 2003 FED boundaries are not a standard level of census geography. The FED geography level has been discontinued from Pitney Bowes Software data offerings but remains in the Canada Postal Points file as a legacy field. The Canada Postal Points File is maintained in a geographic projection under North American Datum 1983 (NAD83), using the Canadian National Topographic (CNT) conversion method. Six-Digit Postal Code Points The following four fields are extracted from the Canada Postal Points File referred to above, in order to create the Six-Digit Postal Code Points file: Fsaldu, Fsa_Ldu, Latitude and Longitude (refer to the table variables in the accompanying Excel workbook Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xlsx.). As a result, the file contains the single most representative points for all Canadian postal codes, and provides the associated latitude/longitude coordinates that facilitate the mapping of customer records. Whilst the Six-Digit Postal Code Points file provides the best location for a particular postal code, it does not contain links to the census hierarchy or postal delivery attributes found in the Canada Postal Points File. Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points A Forward Sortation Area (FSA) corresponds to the first three digits of a Canadian six-digit postal code, designating a postal delivery area. Whilst the file contains both the urban and rural areas, rural areas are commonly identified with zero as the second digit. FSAs are defined by a variety of sources, usually geographic, linking postal geography with Dissemination Area (DA) boundaries. The geographic polygon boundary file supplied by Pitney Bowes Software represents the graphical boundary and centroid files for all of Canada's FSAs. The creation of the boundary file involves snapping FSA boundaries to 2011 DAs where no alternative descriptions are available. This is of particular benefit in rural areas where available postal maps are much more generalized. In order to limit the bias created by overlapping boundaries, the distribution of postal codes and street segments across DAs was used to determine the direction in which a split should take place. FSA boundaries are created from the approximate distribution of the first three digits of postal codes. The centroids were created from the FSA boundary file, with each one constituting a single geographic location identified with an FSA. Canadian Postal Products 7

Installation All of the three data products described in this chapter are supplied in compressed files and can be downloaded from the Pitney Bowes Software e-store. Sources of Information Canada Post Corporation, TomTom, and Pitney Bowes. Updates Semi-annual for all three products. Coverage Area and Geographic Area Canada/National Coverage Date Please refer to the accompanying Excel workbook Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xlsx for specific vintage. Datum Latitude/Longitude - North American Datum 1983 (NAD83). Canadian Postal Products 8

Chapter 2: Canada Postal Points File 2 The Pitney Bowes Canada Postal Points File contains postal code records created primarily from the TomTom Postal Point (PL) Layer File. The Canada Postal Points File continues to: Link each six-character postal code with all levels of the 2011 standard census geography. Provide latitude/longitude coordinates for easy mapping and demographic analysis of customer records. Product Specifications See accompanying Excel document Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for record counts. Postal code Total File contains Unique (most representative) records Multiple (alternate location) records Postal codes assigned to a block face see counts for centroid 41 and 95 2011 Census Geography concordance. Postal Currency see Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls Please refer to Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for a complete list of the variables in this data product. This file is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. If you do not have Microsoft Excel, then you can download the Excel Viewer. Canadian Postal Products 9

Data Description The Canada Postal Points File contains a field Sng_fsaldu that can assist you in providing a location coordinate for a postal code (FSALDU), and in linking that coordinate to all levels of Canadian census geography. To achieve a unique number of postal code records, you need to select those records where the Sng_fsaldu is equal to 1. Postal codes where Sng_fsaldu is equal to 1 (unique postal codes) are considered the most representative locations for the FSALDUs in Canada. A coordinate that is identified as unique may be either 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. TomTom creates a postal centroid that represents the single "most representative point" for each postal code in Canada. Geocoding software cannot normally distinguish the preferred location when presented with more than one possible match. At best, the first location coordinate might be assigned. At worst, there could be thousands or millions of ungeocoded records in the output database. Check your geocoder's handling of multiple candidate records, or else avoid these problems by geocoding with the unique postal codes - refer to General Caveat below. Postal and Census Linkage The primary goal of using the Canada Postal Points File is to link a postal code point to census geography by establishing a link between the FSALDU and the Dissemination Area (DA). (Refer to Canada Postal Points File in Chapter 1) In some cases, however, a postal code may serve customers in more than one DA. In order to portray all postal-census links, multiple records need to be created in order to maintain all FSALDU- DA relationships. The multiple postal codes provide alternate postal code coordinates and linkages to standard Canadian census geographic codes to supplement the single most representative coordinates (and Census geography linkages) for postal codes in Canada. This is a limitation of linking postal and census geography. There are two examples of this multiple linkage described: Block Face Assignment and Multiple Points Block Face Assignment In most cases, 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 very useful geocoding tool. However, very long block faces may cross DA boundaries. Multiple Points If there are multiple (i.e. non block-face) postal codes associated with individual DA polygons, their positions may also be based on a FSA geographic centroids, which may in turn cause two or more different postal codes to occupy the same coordinates. Caveats General Caveat When geocoding client postal codes, users should be aware that there may be more than one valid delivery location for a particular postal code. Canadian Postal Products 10

Chapter 3: Six-Digit Postal Code Points 3 The Six-Digit Postal Code file is an extract of the unique postal code records from the Canada Postal Points File described in Chapter 2: Canada Postal Points File. Please refer to variables listing workbook for record counts. Product Specifications See accompanying Excel document Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for record counts: Total postal code records New postal codes Please refer to Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for a complete list of the variables in this data product. This file is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. If you do not have Microsoft Excel, then you can download the Excel Viewer from Excel Viewer download page. Caveats When geocoding client postal codes, users should be aware that there may be more than one valid delivery location for a particular postal code.

Chapter 4: FSA Boundaries/Points 4 The Pitney Bowes Software polygon boundary file contains the geographical boundary and centroid files for Forward Sortation Areas in Canada. The Forward Sortation Area (FSA) refers to the first 3 digits of the postal code. Product Specification Please refer to Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for the record counts for: FSA boundaries and centroids. FSAs which have been assigned to one or more DA centroids FSAs which have not been assigned to any DA centroids. These FSAs have zero data links. See Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for a complete list of the variables in this data product. This file is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. If you do not have Microsoft Excel, then you can download the Excel Viewer from Excel Viewer download page. Refer to Secondary DA Assignments for Unlinked FSAs in Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xls for alternative Dissemination Area (DA) assignments. Demographic data that are aggregated from DA level to FSA would show these unlinked FSAs as zero filled records.

Caveats FSAs were not designed to respect standard geographic boundaries, except at the provincial level. Nevertheless, there are occurrences when FSAs may cross provincial boundaries, such as in Flin Flon, Manitoba/Saskatchewan; Lloydminster, Saskatchewan/Alberta; and Makaoo 120 Indian Reserve, Saskatchewan/Alberta. The Pitney Bowes Software methodology focuses on the ability to assign DAs to the most appropriate FSAs and to locate and update the FSA boundaries that show the greatest degree of change. (This degree of change is based on the quantity of postal codes associated with particular FSAs that fall within different FSA boundaries.) This approach involves some of the following basic compromises: FSAs do not respect Dissemination Area (DA) boundaries, and there are numerous occurrences of DAs that have mail delivered through two different FSAs. In these situations, all of the households in a DA are assigned to one, and only one, FSA within a DA attribute table. Although FSAs are often delineated by street boundaries, there are numerous occasions where a single FSA is used for both sides of the delineating street. Since DAs are more likely to be delineated by a street, the DA will likely be split when creating the FSA boundary, to incorporate the proper distribution of the FSA. FSAs are intended for mail delivery and sorting, and occasionally have no spatial reference. This explains the differences in the number of actual FSAs versus those with boundaries. These non-spatial FSAs are included since some household-based databases aggregate to these FSAs. There are also a number of FSAs that do not dominate the distribution of postal codes within a DA and therefore cannot be assigned by majority rule to any DA. However, they may have a boundary based on overall distribution of the points, and on the fact that the FSA boundary file does not follow a DA boundary. Several of these postal code points not assigned a DA are also found within alternate FSA boundaries. A table of possible matches follows. Canadian Postal Products 15

Alternate Assignments of Postal Code FSAs To FSA Boundaries FSA Assignment FSA Alternate FSA Assignment FSA Alternate FSA Assignment FSA Alternate A1H A1N K1A K1L M5K M5H A1S K1M M5J G1A G1K K1N M5W G1R K1P M5X G7T G7S K1R M5L M5J G7X K1S M5X H4S H4R K1V N6L N0L H4T K1Y N5P H9P K1Z N6C H4Y H4L K2C N6E H9P K2R N6J H4Z H2Y K8B K8A N6K H3C L0J L4H N6P H5A H2L L4L N8V N8W K1A J8X M3N S4Z S0G K1B L5P L4T S4N K1G L5S L4T S7P S0K K1H L5P T3M T2Z K1J L5T V7Y V6C K1K L6P L6T V6Z Whilst this layer may be used as a backup for geocoding, it does not overlay perfectly with streets. Therefore, a street segment with a particular FSA code may not fall into the corresponding boundary Canadian Postal Products 16

Chapter 5: Using the Boundaries 5 The examples given in this chapter highlight some MapInfo Professional functions that relate specifically to Forward Sortation Area (FSA) boundaries. The chapter is not intended, however, to be a tutorial. Canadian Postal Product 17

Locating a Boundary This section describes how to locate a boundary using MapInfo Professional. It uses the location of an FSA boundary as an example. 1. Select FIND from the QUERY menu. One of two dialog boxes displays: Figure: Find (with Search Table) When this dialog box displays, you can select the table in which to search for the FSA. 2. From the SEARCH TABLE drop-down box, select the table within which you want to search. 3. Click OK. A second FIND dialog box displays. Figure: Find (with FSA field) If you have already selected the search table, this dialog box displays first, allowing you to enter a new FSA in the FSA field. To choose another table instead, click RESPECIFY to display the FIND with SEARCH TABLE dialog box shown above. 4. In the FSA field, enter the FSA that you would like to locate, and click OK. 5. MapInfo Professional displays a symbol at the center point of the selected FSA. If the location is not already in the current view on the screen, MapInfo Professional redraws the map with the selected FSA boundary in the center of the Map window. To display a list of all the FSAs in the file: Select FIND and type an asterisk in the FSA field of the FIND dialog box and Click OK. You can also type the first couple of characters of the desired FSA so that the list displays the FSAs that begin with those characters. If one of these FSAs is selected, its boundary is selected on the map. Canadian Postal Products 18

Identifying a Boundary This section describes how to identify a boundary using MapInfo Professional. It uses the identification of an FSA boundary as an example. You can determine the FSA of any displayed boundary by using the Info button window: in a Map 1. Click the INFO button from the Main Toolbar. Figure: FSA Boundary with Cross-Hair Displaying 2. Click within the boundary that you want to identify. An information box appears containing data associated with each layer of the selected boundary. Canadian Postal Products 19

Labeling a Boundary This section describes how to label a boundary using MapInfo Professional. It uses the labeling of an FSA boundary as an example. FSA boundaries can be labeled using several different methods: Use the LABEL button and select the boundary you want to label. The label appears at the boundary or point specified. To change the font and size of individual labels, double-click on the label to display the LABEL STYLE dialog box. You can also type your own map annotations using the TEXT button. You can display labels automatically within FSA boundaries, by proceeding as follows: 1. Open the FSA boundaries table. 2. Click the Layer Control button to display the Layer Control dialog box. Figure: Layer Control 3. Elect the LABEL check box of the FSA layer(s) you want to label. 4. Click OK to label the FSA table entries automatically according to their default label settings. Canadian Postal Product 20

To change the label settings: 1. Select an FSA layer in the LAYER CONTROL dialog box, and click the LABEL button. The LABEL OPTIONS dialog box displays. Figure: Label Options In this dialog box, you can change the: Content Visibility Styles Position of the labels for that layer. 2. When you have completed your changes, click OK to return to the LAYER CONTROL dialog box. 3. Click OK in the LAYER CONTROL dialog box for the changes to become active in the Map window. Combining Boundaries You can make larger districts out of Forward Sortation Area (FSA) boundaries by combining them. This section describes how to combine boundaries using MapInfo Professional. It uses the combination of FSA boundaries as an example. To create districts out of existing boundaries: 1. Run MapInfo Professional and open the FSA boundary table in a Map window. 2. Select VIEW ENTIRE LAYER from the MAP menu, to make sure your boundaries are in view. The View Entire Layer dialog box displays. Figure: View Entire Layer Select All Layers Canadian Postal Product 21

3. Open LAYER CONTROL and click the EDITABLE check box for the layers to make the boundary layers editable. 4. Select the boundaries in the FSA layers that you want to combine into a district (SHIFT-CLICK to add to your selected set). Figure: Selected Boundaries for Combining Make sure not to select the point objects; they will not combine. 5. Select COMBINE from the OBJECTS menu. The DATA AGGREGATION dialog box displays. Figure: Data Aggregation This dialog box allows you to specify whether the combined table entry for these selected polygons should be blank, contain the same value, be summed (i.e. added together), or averaged. The available options depend upon the original data in these columns. Canadian Postal Product 22

6. Click each column entry in this dialog box and specify how the data should be evaluated for the new object. Select from the following options: Blank: Select this option to treat the entries in this column as blank. Value: Select this option to give the entries in this column the same specified value. Type the value for this entry in the field beside the VALUE button. If you select this option and do not specify a value in the field provided, MapInfo Professional assumes that you want to retain the original value in the table. Sum: Select this option to add the values of the original objects together. The original values must not be of type Character. Average: Select this option to average the values contained in the original objects. Weighted by: When you choose AVERAGE, you can also choose a column or the boundary area to be used as a weighting factor. No Data: Select this option when you do not want any data brought over from the original objects. 7. Once you have completed the DATA AGGREGATION dialog box, click OK. MapInfo Professional combines the selected boundaries, displays the new boundary, and erases the common borders. Use the INFO button to view the newly aggregated data (refer to Identifying a Boundary on page 21). Figure: Combined Territory 8. Select SAVE COPY AS from the FILE menu, to save the new boundary and retain the existing FSA table. There are many other operations that can be performed using the FSA boundary data. For example, you can thematically shade FSA boundaries according to population, total sales, or other data that you might have. You can also edit FSAs to reflect current changes in shifting boundaries. These and other functions are fully described in your MapInfo Professional User Guide or Online Help\\= Canadian Postal Product 23