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A Complete Guide to Waze in Canada

Welcome to Waze map editing in Canada and to the editing community!

Since the USA and Canada share the same Waze server, many of the policies and best practices that have been developed for the US also apply to Canada. This page contains information that is unique to Canada. Because some of it is still being developed, please follow the guidance for the US where it is not in conflict with the information here.

This page is always in development and will some day be available in French.

Getting Started

Please see the article Getting Started.

Another great resource for new map editors is the Welcome to WME page.

Help Improve Waze

Please see the article Help Improve Waze.

Forums

Please check out the Canada-specific Waze Canada forum.

Feel free to post questions and ask for advice in your editing. Our region is very different in a number of ways from the United States, so the generic editing guidelines don't always apply.

Area/Country Managers

Senior editors

Please note that the notifications system for the Waze forums and private messages does not currently function, so your message and posts may go unnoticed. Communicating via the Waze Canada Discord server is a better option for the moment.

Username	Primary Areas Managed	Comments	Profile & PM
manoeuvre	Ontario	Country Coordinator Waze Global Champ Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
alexs001	Okanagan Valley, BC Newfoundland and Labrador	Assistant Country Coordinator Waze Global Champ Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
hmarian	Ontario	Waze Global Champ Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
Webs101	Quebec	Waze Global Champ Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
MushyMedic	Manitoba	Waze Local Champ (Canada) Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
restless_in_nb	Atlantic Canada and Gaspe Peninsula	Waze Local Champ (Canada) Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
Dry_B0nes	Alberta	Waze Local Champ (Canada) Rank 6 CM for Canada	PM
Taxy57	Quebec	Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
mtylerb	AB, SK and BC's Eastern "Boot"	Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
de_denis	Quebec	Rank 5 PM for Quebec	PM
YUL_	Quebec	Rank 5 PM for Quebec	PM
YogiJB	Quebec	Rank 5 PM for Quebec	PM
PsstDizel	York Region	Rank 5 PM for Ontario	PM
Harmonious4	British Columbia	Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
kkarkid	Ontario	Rank 4 PM for Ontario	PM
IamtheLexx	Ontario	Rank 4 PM for Ontario	PM
Aztek985	Ontario	Rank 4 PM for Ontario	PM
e-sarge	Durham Region	Rank 4 PM for Ontario	PM
amoyer1974	Hamilton, ON	Rank 4 PM for Ontario and Yukon	PM
GregVA3MGR	Ontario, Canada	Rank 4 PM for Ontario	PM
PeterMuir	Ontario, Canada	Rank 4 PM for Ontario	PM
BryceCampbell	Canada-Wide Closures Western Canada	Waze Closures (Canada) Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
Trexer0	South Coast & Kootenay, BC	Rank 5 CM for Canada	PM
ryanaye	Nova Scotia	Rank 4 AM for Atlantic Canada PM for Nova Scotia	PM

Area/country-manager requests

To request Area Manager or Country Manager access, please fill out this form. Please do not use a permalink to designate the area you want to edit. Go to http://map.wazedev.com and create the polygon you want. Do not includes any part of the US in your polygon, which may require adding nodes to your polygon.

To create your area polygon, zoom out, drag the default quadrilateral to Canada, and shape it to meet your needs. Each side of the polygon has a central point (a shaded node/handle) that you can drag to create a new corner. You can right-click on any corner node to delete it.

Once you have created your desired polygon, copy the text in the "WKT format" box and past that in the appropriate field of the request form linked above.

Unlock/update requests

Canada has its own forum area for unlock/update requests. Please make your requests here. The instructions for posting are in this sticky post.

Road Editing in Canada

We maintain guidance for standards to apply to road editing in Canada on its own page. Please follow the standards.

Turn Instructions and Road Shields

Waze has introduce the ability to modify turn instructions independent from the names of segments. These instructions can also incorporate road shields. The creation and use of road shields is currently limited to editors of rank 4 and higher.

Please look at this Turn Instructions page for guidance. There is a lot of work to be done.

Closures

Please report future planned road closures by posting in the appropriate subforum on the Canada forum page.

The closure system allows for complete (or directional, i.e. A->B only) closures to be reported. Partial closures (e.g. one of two lanes in a direction) should not be reported to editors since editors cannot add those.

If you have a need for an immediate closure (a.k.a. an emergency), whether due to a traffic incident or major road that requires a closure, you can reach out through our Discord emergency-closures channel here.

The closures method is preferred over adding restrictions - it is nearly immediate and does not rely on a tile rebuild. The closure will also be visible in the app and on the Livemap, in addition to preventing routing through the segment.

Map Editing in Quebec

The province of Quebec has distinct issues to take into account when editing the map. The Montreal Area has unique issues of its own.

Parking-Lot Naming

US guidance recommends that all parking lots be given names and breaks it down into four descriptor categories. Canada uses the same categories but treats them differently. The categories are:

1. Completely Generic
2. Purpose Descriptive
3. Location Descriptive
4. Named

The map clutter associated with parking-lot names on the client is unacceptable to us in Canada. Until the client can suppress parking-lot names from being displayed in the client, guidance for parking lots in Canada is to not include a name. You may add the name in the Description field for clarity.

This parking lot for Chalet Bar-B-Q is at a different location than the business.

In Canada, we do not use the first category of Completely Generic parking descriptors such as  “Parking - Starbucks”, “Parking - Costco”, etc. Free parking lots for single businesses should not be added in Canada. Delete them if you see them. If a business has its own parking lot, go into the More Info tab of the business place and make sure there is a check in the "Parking for customers" box. However, if a business's parking lot is not right at the business entrance, it should remain a separate place (see the image at right for an example).

Purpose Descriptive lots may be used when there is a lot restricted to non-visitors (e.g. an employee-only parking lot) that is separate from one for visitors.  In this case, both parking lots may be named.

Location Descriptive lots are acceptable for large indoor malls (e.g. West Edmonton Mall) where different lots will lead to different entrances nearby certain amenities.

We also do not use the 🅿 [P] parking emoji anywhere in the naming of parking lot areas. Do not use, for example “ [P] lot”, “Red [P] Lot 24”, etc. You may use the emoji in segment names and turn instruction overrides.

City Naming

To save space, only enter the name of the city. For example, "Toronto" not "City of Toronto", or for smaller places use "Springfield" not "Town of Springfield", "Village of Springfield", "Springville Township", "Regional Municipality of Springfield".

NEVER include the province in the City field. For example don't put in "Springfield, Qc" or "Springfield, On".

If you find a city that can't save without the province name (perhaps it changes when you save it, or generates other save error), please post a message in the applicable province's forum.

This applies to both primary names and alternate names - the alternate city is assumed to be in the primary province and country.

Locking Standard

Canada has active "Traffic Locks", these locks are based on usage from users. They are limited to a max rank of 4, but can be any rank below.

Segments that have restricted turns must be locked to a minimum Level 3.

If the current lock or traffic lock is higher than the minimum standards listed below, please don't lower the lock.

Minimum Road Locking Rank Standard

Segment Type	Minimum locks
Freeway	4
Ramp	highest rank of connected segment
	3
Major Highway	4
Minor Highway	3
Primary Street	2
Street	1
:|:|:|:|:Railroad:|:|:|:|:	4

Place Editing

PUR should be reviewed for accuracy, once approved all relevant information pertaining to the place should be entered. Please use each company's website to gather all the information you can. Once a place is complete please lock to rank 3.

This practice will help prevent users and editors from making incorrect changes to places we know are right.

Following are general standards for place locking in Canada:

Place Minimum Locking Rank Standard

Place Type	Minimum locks
Airports	4
Hospitals	4
Major Tourist Attractions/Landmarks	4
Police/Fire Stations	3
Gas Stations	3

Telephone Number Format for Waze Places

+1-NPA-NXX-XXXX

• NPA is the Area Code
• NXX is the prefix
• XXXX is the 4 digit block

This number format allows mobile phones, regardless of their home network, to dial a number without having to modify the number first.

Place naming

Place Naming in Canada should adhere to the following guidelines. Following the government agency naming guide is a list of businesses which are chains or franchises. Please use these name spellings when creating or updating a place.

Hospitals and other medical services

Hospitals with Emergency Rooms are the only place type permitted to use the Hospital category. All other day clinics, surgical centres, doctors etc must use the Doctor / Clinic category. Other non core medical services services such as Naturopaths, physio-therapists, chiroprators, etc should use the Office category. Emergency Rooms must have a separate Waze Point Place with "ER/Urgence" prefixed in the primary name, for example:

ER - Brampton Civic Hospital

ER - St. Michael's Hospital

Urgence - Hôpital de Verdun

Government agencies

Police stations: City, Agency followed by division name, for example:

Toronto Police 12 Division

Peel Police 22 Division

OPP Collingwood Detachment

Fire stations: City, Agency followed by station number, for example:

Brampton Fire Station 221

Toronto Fire Station 347

Nested places

If a secondary business within another business location has a different category, contact numbers and opening times, it may be added to the map as a new (second) point place with the new primary category and relevant contact details and opening times. Typical examples of this type of nesting would be pharmacies or post offices within supermarkets or superstores.

Place-name harmonization

If you don't find the business you're looking for, please use this form to submit the missing information.

A script is available to assist with place harmonization and has been localized for use in Canada.

View this list full-screen in Google Sheets

Fuel retailers

For modification of fuel retailers in Canada, please use the Gas Stations Brands form.

When to use an area or point place in Canada

We follow American guidance for places, including when deciding whether to use an area or point for a place. As a very rough guide, public buildings (hospitals, schools, police, fire, etc.) and gas stations should be areas and businesses should be points - but consult the rules to make sure.

But we also have specifically Canadian guidance on selecting area or point for places in the Waze Map Editor, as indicated in the Place Name Harmonization table.

Optional area shall only be used after consulting local area managers on regional guidelines. The place must be a significant landmark with navigational value in the community. For example: a Tim Hortons in Hepburn, SK (population 500) is of significance. However, the same sized Tim Hortons is of zero significance in the Greater Toronto Area.

We do not want to impose hard and fast rules for the optional area category. Please use some judgement, we do not want to see wall-to-wall areas for every single building structure on the map.

Optional area shall be landmarked to just the building structure only; do not include the parking lot area.

Fence-line areas shall be landmarked from fence line to fence line to include all parking lots, roads, and anything associated with the property.

The primary category for a place is used to determine whether to use a point or area place in Waze.

Parent	Category	Type	Comments
Car Services	Car Wash	Point
Car Services	Charging Station	Point
Car Services	Garage / Automotive Shop	Point
Car Services	Gas Station	Fence-line Area	Many gas stations also have convenience stores and ATMs. Remember to use Gas Station as the primary category and the add any others which are relevant.
Car Services	Parking Lot	Both	There are very few parking lots which should be mapped at all. Please see the Parking-Lot Naming section above on this page.
Transportation	Airport	Fence-line Area	Special handling.
Transportation	Bridge	Area	Should only be use for bridges with significance: Peace Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, etc.
Transportation	Bus Station	Point
Transportation	Ferry Pier	Point
Transportation	Junction / Interchange	Area	Will not be used in Canada.
Transportation	Seaport / Marina / Harbor	Area	Size-dependent.
Transportation	Subway Station	Point
Transportation	Taxi Station	Point
Transportation	Train Station	Point
Transportation	Tunnel	Area
Professional and public	Cemetery	Fence-line Area
Professional and public	City Hall	Point
Professional and public	College / University	Area
Professional and public	Conventions / Event Centre	Area	Size-dependent
Professional and public	Courthouse	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Professional and public	Doctor / Clinic	Point
Professional and public	Embassy / Consulate	Area
Professional and public	Factory / Industrial	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Professional and public	Fire Department	Area
Professional and public	Government	Optional Area
Professional and public	Hospital / Urgent Care	Area	ONLY Hospitals, emergency rooms, and places offering Urgent medical care should use this category. ERs encompassed in a hospital place area should be points. Clinics, and medical offices which do not offer urgent medical care for walk-ins should use the Doctor/Clinic place category and any other appropriate category as discussed above regarding hospitals.
Professional and public	Information Point	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Professional and public	Kindergarten	Point
Professional and public	Library	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Professional and public	Military	Area
Professional and public	Offices	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Professional and public	Organization or Association	Point
Professional and public	Police Station	Area
Professional and public	Prison / Correctional Facility	Area
Professional and public	Post Office	Point
Professional and public	Religious Centre	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Professional and public	School	Fence-line Area
Shopping and services	Arts & Crafts	Point
Shopping and services	ATM	Point
Shopping and services	Bank / Financial	Point
Shopping and services	Bookstore	Point
Shopping and services	Car Dealership	Point
Shopping and services	Car Rental	Point
Shopping and services	Convenience Store	Point
Shopping and services	Currency Exchange	Point
Shopping and services	Department Store	Point
Shopping and services	Electronics	Point
Shopping and services	Fashion and Clothing	Point
Shopping and services	Flowers	Point
Shopping and services	Furniture / Home Store	Point
Shopping and services	Gifts	Point
Shopping and services	Gym / Fitness	Point
Shopping and services	Hardware Store	Point
Shopping and services	Jewelery	Point
Shopping and services	Laundry / Dry Cleaning	Point
Shopping and services	Market	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Shopping and services	Music Store	Point
Shopping and services	Personal Care	Point
Shopping and services	Pet Store / Veterinarian	Point
Shopping and services	Pharmacy	Point
Shopping and services	Photography	Point
Shopping and services	Shopping Centre	Area
Shopping and services	Sporting Goods	Point
Shopping and services	Supermarket / Grocery	Point
Shopping and services	Swimming Pool	Point
Shopping and services	Toy Store	Point
Shopping and services	Travel Agency	Point
Food and drink	Bakery	Point
Food and drink	Bar	Point
Food and drink	Coffee shop	Point
Food and drink	Dessert	Point
Food and drink	Fast Food	Point
Food and drink	Food Court	Point
Food and drink	Ice Cream	Point
Food and drink	Restaurant	Point
Culture & entertainment	Art Gallery	Point
Culture & entertainment	Casino	Area	Large hotel-casinos perhaps could be Area Places.
Culture & entertainment	Club	Point
Culture & entertainment	Game Club	Point
Culture & entertainment	Movie Theater	Point
Culture & entertainment	Museum	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Culture & entertainment	Music Venue	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Culture & entertainment	Performing Arts Venue	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Culture & entertainment	Racing Track	Area
Culture & entertainment	Stadium / Arena	Area
Culture & entertainment	Theme Park	Area
Culture & entertainment	Theater	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Culture & entertainment	Tourist Attraction / Historic Site	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Culture & entertainment	Zoo / Aquarium	Area	Size-dependent.
Other	Construction Site	Area	Do not map in Canada.
Lodging	Bed & Breakfast	Point
Lodging	Camping / Trailer Park	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Lodging	Cottage / Cabin	Point
Lodging	Hostel	Point
Lodging	Hotel	Point
Outdoors	Beach	Area	Do not map without a name.
Outdoors	Golf Course	Area
Outdoors	Park	Area	Do not map without a name.
Outdoors	Playground	Area	Do not map without a name.
Outdoors	Plaza	Point	Unsure about mapping these at all.
Outdoors	Promenade	Point	Unsure about mapping these at all.
Outdoors	Scenic Lookout / Viewpoint	Point
Outdoors	Ski Area	Area
Outdoors	Sports Court	Point	Optionally, this can be an area place. See notes above.
Natural features	Farm	Area	Do not map without a name.
Natural features	Forest / Grove	Area	Only map official provincial/national forests, not every stand of trees.
Natural features	Island	Area
Natural features	River / Stream	Area	Use only if water itself is visually obvious to drivers on nearby roads. Do not remap features already present in the built-in Waze water layer unless that layer is incomplete or inaccurate. Map only the typical extent of visible water, not adjacent open space, greenbelt, culvert, meadows, or flood plain. If the river/stream is too narrow to map conveniently with an Area Place, it should not be mapped at all.
Natural features	Sea / Lake / Pond	Area	Use only if water itself is visually obvious to drivers on nearby roads. Do not remap features already present in the built-in Waze water layer unless that layer is incomplete or inaccurate. Map only the typical extent of visible water, not adjacent beaches or land. If the feature is too small to map conveniently with an Area Place, it should not be mapped at all.

Update Requests

Update requests are also known as URs ( and sometimes as "user reports" although that is technically wrong).

Where appropriate, reply to users with the standard replies provided by the URC-E script. If 4 days pass without a reply from the user, send the reminder message and close the UR with "Mark as Not Identified". We call this approach "4+0". Note that the standard URC-E reply may no longer be appropriate. We recommend a message like "We have archived your report but you can still reply with more information." That avoids the final-sounding use of "close" and leaves the user with a sense of potential future discussion.

We always try to get a response from the reporter to try to fix the issue whenever possible.

Technical Information

Please see the article Technical Information.