An open record, traced to public sources.

Who keeps it

The List is kept by Brett Faucher, from Castlegar. I also run a web studio here, Kootenay Made Digital, which is how the List stays maintained by someone who actually maintains things. The List is a public good first; the studio is a separate business, and the two never sort or price your listing.

Where the data comes from

Every entry starts from something public: municipal business licence rosters, chamber directories, local newsrooms, and the businesses' own websites. I keep the source for each entry on file. The List never uses data scraped from Google or any platform that forbids it; the record is built from the region's own open information.

The stamp, and how often it turns

Every listing wears a stamp: the date it was last seen in a public source. The record gets swept on a regular cadence, and when an entry has gone too long without a check it says “due for a check” rather than pretending to be current. The monthly Ledger is where the openings, closings, and moves get written down. Nothing is ever silently deleted: when a business closes, its entry is marked closed and kept.

The consent posture, in plain words

Some businesses are named after the person who runs them. For those, the List shows only what the business has published about itself, on its own website. A phone number they print on their own homepage is a front door and we show it. A phone number or an address we could only find in a licence roll or a professional register is not, because appearing in a mandatory register is not the same as choosing to be listed. Very often that address is a house. If any business wants a correction, or wants to be removed entirely, they only have to ask, and it happens. Write to hello@kootenaylist.ca.

What the List refuses

• No ads. The List does not run advertising.
• No paid placement. Nothing is sorted or featured by who paid, because nobody pays.
• No selling data. Your details are not a product, and they are not for sale.