About the directory

The Free Local Business Directory lists local businesses across Canada by city and category. Listing a business is free, claiming one is free, and the person who runs a business controls what its listing says.

Where the listings come from

Most listings start from open data: municipal and provincial business licence records compiled by Statistics Canada, and OpenStreetMap, the map that volunteers keep up to date. We match the two, keep the most trustworthy version of each detail, and show where it came from at the bottom of every listing. The full list of sources and their licences is on the data sources page.

Public data goes out of date. A listing compiled only from licence records shows when it was last confirmed, and we don't ask search engines to index listings until they carry enough detail to be useful.

Owners

If your business is here, claim it to fix anything that's wrong. Once claimed, data updates never overwrite your changes. If it isn't here, add it.

Corrections and removals

Every listing has a “Report a problem” link. If a listing shows personal information — a home address, a person rather than a business — use it, or see removing a listing. Removal requests are handled first.

What we don't do

• We don't sell listings, rank businesses by who pays, or invent reviews or ratings.
• We don't email businesses that haven't asked to hear from us.
• Featured placements are labelled, and their links are marked as sponsored.

Questions? Get in touch.