Sources
Where every business here came from
The List has 5,707 businesses, last updated 15 SEP 2026. All but 11 of them name the public source they came from. They also show the day I last checked that source. The other 11 were sent in by their owners, and their listings say so. Those details came straight from the owner. Where the business has a website, I checked them against it. Below are all 3,333 websites the listings come from, grouped by who runs them. Each group shows how many businesses it covers.
The sources, biggest first
Businesses' own websites
The business said it in its own words, on its own website. Each one is a different website, and this is the source I trust most.
Chambers of commerce and tourism groups
Member lists from the chambers of commerce in Cranbrook, Trail, Fernie, Sparwood, Elkford, Kaslo, Castlegar, and the Columbia Valley. Also lists from tourism and regional groups. These are Nelson Kootenay Lake, Tourism Fernie, Tourism Rossland, and Destination Castlegar. They also include Discover Nelson, Nakusp and Area, South Country, the Slocan Valley, and Central Kootenay Food.
Town business licence lists
Towns publish lists of who holds a business licence. Cranbrook, Castlegar, Kimberley, Elkford, Sparwood, and Montrose each publish a list or a directory. If a business also has its own website, I go with what its website says.
OpenStreetMap
A free map of the world, made by volunteers. Its licence, and the credit it asks for, are below.
Provincial agencies and professional bodies
Technical Safety BC, BC Housing's list of home builders, the BC Data Catalogue, and the province's liquor licence list. Also the public lists kept by BC's professional bodies. These cover accountants, dentists, vets, notaries, and financial services.
Interior Health's food business listings
Food businesses from Interior Health's public listings. That means restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and more.
Other public listings
Better Business Bureau profiles, local papers, and business magazines. Also pages owners made on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. And a few one-offs, like the Co-op's public list of the farms it buys from.
These numbers count businesses, not links. They add up to more than 5,707, because 3,201 businesses show up in more than one kind of source. I count each of those in every group it appears in. The line for businesses' own websites covers 3,265 different websites.
OpenStreetMap and the Open Database Licence
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL).
788 businesses on the List use OpenStreetMap as a source. For 201 of them, it is the only source I have. OpenStreetMap is a free map of the world, made by volunteers who map their own towns. Its licence asks for two things in return. One is credit, which is right here and at the bottom of every page. The other is to share the data under the same licence.
Every listing keeps its sources, so I can pull out the ones that came from OpenStreetMap. I share that list under the same licence, free for anyone to use. You can download the OpenStreetMap-sourced businesses (ODbL, rebuilt every time I update the List).
BC open data and the Open Government Licence
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia.
That covers the businesses that come from the BC Data Catalogue. It also covers the other lists the province publishes, such as the places licensed to serve liquor.
What all of it has in common
Every source on this page is public. Many are businesses' own websites. Some are records from public bodies, like a town's list of business licences or a health inspection page. Some are directories that a chamber of commerce or tourism office publishes for its members. One is an open map anyone can download. Nothing on the List came from Google, Google Maps, or any site whose rules say not to. I do not buy data, and I have never paid for a list.
Every listing keeps the link to its source and shows the day I last checked it. If a source is wrong about you, the List will be too, until someone tells me. One email fixes it. The corrections page shows you how.
What I do with it, and what I never do
- The List is free to search and free to be on. Nobody pays to be listed.
- No paid placement. Nobody can pay to show up higher, or to be featured.
- I do not sell the data. That goes for everything on the List, and for the email of anyone who writes to me.
- I have no mailing list, so being on the List does not sign you up for anything.
If you want out, or want it fixed
Any business can have its listing fixed or taken off the List, for any reason. You do not have to explain why. I handle each one myself, by hand, and quickly. Write to hello@kootenaylist.ca. To see how it works first, use the button below.