Municipal Amalgamations
Is Your Customer Database Affected by Municipal Amalgamations?
What happens in a municipal amalgamation?
Municipalities across Canada are amalgamating in an effort to reduce costs. When an amalgamation occurs, two or more municipalities will merge into a single entity. Invariably, this will require that addresses change.
While most address changes in an amalgamated region will simply involve the municipality name, street names are often duplicated and must be resolved. If so, the municipality will create new street names and some residents will find they have a new address, without any physical move occurring. In some cases, these changes will also involve new street numbers, while in other areas previously rural areas may be urbanized as part of the amalgamation.
What types of address changes occur in municipal amalgamations?
Many different address elements can be changed as a result of a municipal amalgamation. While the simplest changes involve updates to the municipality name, it is important to note that the municipal amalgamations to date have included thousands of changes that cannot be handled by address accuracy software.
Frequently, amalgamations require changes to street numbers, street names, and postal codes: in fact, it is not uncommon for new amalgamated addresses to bear no resemblance whatsoever to the previous address.
What areas have been affected by municipal amalgamations?
Since 2003, most amalgamation activity has been occurring in Quebec. The following table illustrates some of the larger amalgamations that have taken place:
| AMALGAMATED MUNICIPALITY |
OLD MUNICIPALITY |
GATINEAU
July 2003
12,800 Address Changes |
AYLMER
BUCKINGHAM
HULL
MASSON-ANGERS |
THETFORD MINES
February 2004
6,300 Changes |
BLACK LAKE
PONTBRIAND
ROBERTSONVILLE |
TROIS-RIVIERES
September 2004
12,700 Changes |
CAP-DE-LA-MADELEINE
POINTE-DU-LAC
SAINT-LOUIS-DE-FRANCE
SAINTE-MARTHE-DU-CAP
TROIS-RIVIERES-OUEST |
RIMOUSKI
June 2005
2,500 Changes |
RIMOUSKI-EST
POINTE-AU-PERE
SAINTE-BLANDINE
SAINTE-ODILE-SUR-RIMOUSK |
SALABERRY-DE-VALLEYFIELD
January 2006
1,400 Changes |
SAINT-TIMOTHEE
GRANDE-ILE |
QUEBEC
January 2006
23,000 Changes |
BEAUPORT
CAP-ROUGE
CHARLESBOURG
LAC-SAINT-CHARLES
LORETTEVILLE
SAINTE-FOY
SAINT-ÉMILE
SILLERY
VAL-BÉLAIR |
How many addresses have been changed?
As of January 2006, approximately 89,378 civic address changes and 2,954 post office box changes have occurred in Quebec. This activity is based on 55 municipalities that have been amalgamated to create 18 new cities and towns.
Additional changes are expected throughout 2006 to 2008, as potential amalgamations affect addresses in Levis, Longueuil, Sherbrooke, Montreal, and numerous other municipalities.
How will municipal amalgamations affect my database?
Amalgamations can present a significant challenge for organizations concerned about maintaining address quality and accuracy. Unlike typical address changes, your customer is not physically moving and they may be less likely to inform your organization that their address has changed.
While Canada Post will deliver mail with invalid, pre-amalgamation address information, this mail forwarding period is limited. Once the mail forwarding period ends, your customers may experience mail delivery issues.
How can DataFix solve my amalgamation problems?
To assist organizations affected by municipal amalgamations, Canada Post offers a data product that lists civic address, postal box, and municipality name changes for affected areas.
For most organizations, using the amalgamation data product is not a trivial undertaking. The matching requirements for this data product are very strict, and the consequences of missed or invalid matches can be severe.
With our extensive data matching knowledge and expertise, DataFix can determine your exposure to amalgamation issues and can update your database with correct, post-amalgamation addresses.
What should I do next?
It is important to ensure that your customer database is updated as soon as possible to ensure continued delivery of critical customer correspondence.
For more information on how municipal amalgamations will affect your organization, contact the address experts at DataFix for a free data evaluation and consultation.