2. Overview

This guide covers the content, coverage and quality of the 2006 Road Network File created from the road layer coverage in Statistics Canada's digital geographic database, the National Geographic Database. The file reflects the National Geographic Database road layer content as it existed on January 1, 2006. Only road features were selected from this database to create the Road Network File.

The National Geographic Database road layer was constructed as a tool to support data collection and dissemination of the Census of Population. Only road features were selected from this database to create the 2006 Road Network File. This file represents the official road network for the 2006 Census and is the base for 2006 geographic products and services.

The 2006 Road Network File contains roads, road names and address ranges. Address ranges are dwelling-based and occur mainly in large urban centres of Canada.

The 2006 Road Network File provides digital line coverage for Canada. There are 14 standard road network files:

• Canada
• 10 provinces and three territories

The 2006 Road Network File's digital coordinates are in latitude/longitude and are based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). The road network file standrad products are available in ArcInfo^® format, MapInfo^® format and Geography Markup Language format. See Technical specifications for more details on record layouts and file formats.

Reference date

The geographic reference date is a date determined by Statistics Canada to finalize the geographic framework for which census data are collected, tabulated and reported. The geographic reference date for the 2006 Census is January 1, 2006.