Guide to the Place Location Search

The 47 000 feature names stored in the database are current to the year 1997. However, with the creation of Nunavut in 1999, names of features found in this new territory use Nunavut rather than Northwest Territories as their location. The boundaries that demarcate place features (shown in red on the map) delimit the 1996 geostatistical boundaries (from Statistics Canada). Feature names are of three types:

• Current names: For most geographical names there is only one official form. However, certain geographical names require presentation in both official languages of Canada. The following lists provide you with a quick reference for some categories of such names:

1. Pan-Canadian names: 81 large and well-known Canadian features and areas designated in Treasury Board Circular 1983-58 (for example, Lake Winnipeg / Lac Winnipeg);
2. Dual names: (a) for Canadian federal lands (for example names of National Parks, Indian Reserves and Military Areas); (b) for some places approved in both languages within one province (for example, Grand Falls / Grand-Sault, New Brunswick); (c) names of features shared by more than one province. Pan-Canadian names differ from dual names in that either the French or English version is used on the appropriate language version of a map, whereas with dual names, both versions are normally used on a map, whether the version selected is English or French.

• Historical names: Some names have in the past been given official status, but are no longer the approved forms. These may have been replaced by other ("Current") names or may simply have been withdrawn from use.
• Undersea names: Some official names of undersea features relevant to Canada are found . The type of feature, latitude and longitude and chart or map are provided here for each entry.

Table 1: Province and Territory Symbols

There are 37 feature entity types, which are listed below:

Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) Entity Terms

• Province, Territory
• City
• Town, Village, Hamlet
• Indian Reserve
• Other municipal district area - major agglomeration, Other municipal district area - miscellaneous, Geographical Area, Military Area
• Unincorporated Place
• Conservation Area (Entity code name is "Parks")
• River
• Lake
• Sea, Channel, Bay
• Cape, Peninsula
• Island
• Mountain
• Beach, Cliff, Valley, Plain, Cave, Crater, Forest, Low Vegetation
• Glaciers
• River Feature, Falls, Spring, Rapids, Sea Feature, Shoal, Undersea Feature, Miscellaneous
• Census Metropolitan Area, Census Agglomeration

The feature type determines the geostatistical type. Thematic data in the Atlas of Canada is geo-referenced to a geostatistical area. Below is a list of the geostatistical types used:

• Census Division (CD) - is the general term applied to areas established by provincial law which are intermediate geographic areas between the municipality (census subdivisions) and the province level. In certain cases, Statistics Canada has worked in co-operation with the provinces to create census divisions where none exist.
• Census Subdivision (CSD) - is a general term applying to municipalities (as determined by provincial legislation) or their equivalent (as created by Statistics Canada).

Coordinates are provided in degrees, minutes and seconds at the centre of a feature, except for flowing-water features where coordinates are at the mouth.

In most cases, this is a National Topographic System (NTS) map at the 1:50 000 scale. Where this is not applicable, a 1:250 000 NTS map or a Canadian Hydrographic Service Chart (for example C.4803) is shown.

Geographical names data provided here uses the 8-bit ASCII character set ISO 8859, which includes all accents used in French-language geographical names.

Some Canadian Aboriginal language geographical names include diacritics which have not yet been incorporated into international data standards. Until that time, we are representing these "hard-to-construct" characters by numbers surrounded by brace brackets. Examples:

• {1}utselk'e where {1} represents a barred L (that is an L with a forward slash (/) superimposed). To search for this name, enter an 'L' in place of the {1}.
• Dél{10}ne where {10} represents an i with a reversed cedilla immediately below the letter. To search for this name, enter an 'i' in place of the {10}.

The information contained in this document is in part derived from The Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) Web site. Through the Internet at http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/english/Home.html you may access nearly 320 000 currently approved geographical names stored in the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base.