How the List works
You can check every word of it.
The Kootenay List is a free list of every business in the Kootenays. Today it has 5,707. Nearly every listing names the public source it came from, so you can look at the same page I did. The few that do not were sent in by their owners, and the listing says so. Last updated 15 SEP 2026.
Who keeps it
My name is Brett Faucher, and I live in Castlegar. I keep this list myself, by hand. I also run a web studio here, Kootenay Made Digital. The studio pays for the List, so the List can be free. I keep the two apart. Buying from me does not change where your business shows up on the List, or whether it is on it at all. Neither does never buying a thing.
Where the businesses come from
Every business here comes from a page anyone can look up. The biggest source is businesses' own websites. The rest come from chamber of commerce and tourism directories, trade and professional directories, the local papers, and the business licence lists the towns publish. I keep the link for each one, and you can find it at the bottom of the listing. Nothing here came from Google, or from any site whose rules say not to. It is all things people in this region already made public.
The date on every listing
Every listing shows a date. Most say “Last checked”. That is the day I last found the business in a public source. If an owner sent the listing in, it says “Filed by the owner” instead, with the day they sent it. Those details came straight from the owner. If they gave me a website, I checked the listing against it before it went up. I go back through the sources regularly and update the date when I do. If six months pass without a check, the listing says “Due for a check”. When a business closes, I take its listing off the List.
When the business is somebody's own name
Plenty of businesses here are named after the person who runs them. When one person works alone, the business address is often their kitchen table. So for those businesses, I only show what they have published on their own website. If they print a phone number on their own home page, I show it. If I could only find a number or address on a licence list or a professional register, I leave it off. People have to be on those lists. That is not the same as choosing to be in a directory.
What I will never do
- Nobody can pay to be listed, to show up higher, or to be featured.
- I do not sell your details. That goes for everything on the List, and for the email of anyone who writes to me. I have no mailing list, so being here does not sign you up for anything.
If something is wrong, tell me
Any business can have its listing fixed or taken off the List, for any reason. You do not have to explain why. It is free, and one email does it. Write to hello@kootenaylist.ca. I read every email myself.