5. Technical specifications

Software formats
Installation instructions
Geographic representation
Record layouts

Software formats

Boundary Files for the 2006 Census are available for download from the Statistics Canada website in the following formats:

• ArcInfo^® format version 9.0;
  File extension: .shp
• Geography Markup Language version 2.1.2;
  File extension: .gml
• MapInfo^® format version 8.0;
  File extension: .tab

Installation instructions

The ArcInfo^®, Geography Markup Language and MapInfo^® files are compressed into WinZip^® files (file extension .zip).

An additional template (.tem) file is included with the Geography Markup Language files for use with the Java Unified Mapping Platform (JUMP) free GIS data viewer.

Some of the 2006 Boundary Files contain attributes with accented characters. These characters can be seen in UNIX and Windows^® versions of ArcInfo^® and MapInfo^®. They were tested on desktop versions of ArcGIS^® 9.0 and MapInfo^® 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5.

Geographic representation

The 2006 Boundary Files are available on the Statistics Canada website in the following geographic representation:

Record layouts

1. Province and Territory

The Province and Territory Boundary Files contain the boundaries of all 10 provinces and three territories. Province and territory refer to the major political units of Canada. From a statistical point of view, province and territory are basic areas for which data are tabulated.

2. Census division

The Census Division Boundary Files contain the boundaries of all 288 census divisions. A census division is an administrative area which is a component of the Standard Geographical Classification and is comprised of census subdivisions. Census division is the general term for provincially legislated areas (such as county, municipalité régionale de comté and regional district) or their equivalents. Census divisions are intermediate geographic areas between the province or territorial level and the municipality (census subdivision).

Domain

CDTYPE is a three-character field indicating the census division type.

CDTYPE	Census division type
CDR	Census division / Division de recensement
CT	County / Comté
CTY	County
DIS	District
DM	District municipality
MB	Management board
MRC	Municipalité régionale de comté
RD	Regional district
REG	Region
RM	Regional municipality
TÉ	Territoire équivalent
TER	Territory / Territoire
UC	United counties

3. Population ecumene mask

The population ecumene mask files contain polygons for each ecumene and non-ecumene pocket in Canada.

4. Supplementary hydrographic layers

The supplementary hydrographic layers are provided to allow for the mapping of inland water, Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. The hydrographic layers were created to be used in conjunction with the boundary files. The record layout in Table 5.4.1 below is for interior water bodies (polygons), and interior rivers (polygons).