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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.

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.

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

In Canada, we do not use the first category of completely generic parking descriptors such as  “Parking - Starbucks”, “Parking - Costco”, etc.

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

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 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.

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
Permitted green u-turn 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

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

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. Close the UR if a further 4 days pass without a reply from the user. 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.