Canadian Building Permits API: Developer Reference

Every Canadian municipality publishes building permit data separately, in its own format. Toronto uses CKAN. Calgary and Edmonton use Socrata. Vancouver uses ArcGIS. Some cities publish Excel files. None agree on field names, date formats, or permit classifications.

BuildData normalizes more than 4.0M permits from 55 cities into a single REST schema, geocodes them with lat/lng coordinates, and refreshes them daily. This is the developer reference: authentication, endpoints, query examples, and design decisions worth knowing before you start.

What’s in the database

Every record shares the same schema regardless of source city. The permit_type_canonical field maps local permit names (building permit, construction neuve, renovation, etc.) to six stable categories:

Renovation dominates at 42.3%, followed by new construction at 26.1%. Additions (10.8%) and demolitions (3.1%) are also covered. 81.7% of records are geocoded using Statistics Canada’s Open Database of Addresses.

Top 10 cities by volume:

• Montreal: 550,842
• Calgary: 487,541
• Toronto: 240,648
• Edmonton: 239,904
• Winnipeg: 158,800
• Laval: 152,632
• Brampton: 142,651
• Sudbury: 114,888
• Victoria: 107,338
• Ottawa: 82,996

Authentication

All endpoints are served from api.builddata.ca. One header is required on every request:

# Required on every request
X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

Free tier: 100 requests/day, records first seen more than 30 days ago. Pro: 10,000 requests/day including the last 30 days, at $29 CAD/month.

Endpoints

The core endpoints are below. The full OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec is at builddata.ca/openapi.json and imports directly into Postman, Insomnia, or any LLM tool-use framework.

Query examples

New construction permits in Toronto since 2024

curl -G "https://api.builddata.ca/permit" \
  --data-urlencode "municipality=toronto" \
  --data-urlencode "permit_type_canonical=new_construction" \
  --data-urlencode "issued_after=2024-01-01" \
  --data-urlencode "sort_by=date" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=20" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H ""

Proximity search (2 km radius)

curl -G "https://api.builddata.ca/permit" \
  --data-urlencode "lat=43.6532" \
  --data-urlencode "lng=-79.3832" \
  --data-urlencode "radius_km=2" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=50" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H ""

Cursor pagination (for pipelines and agents)

Every list response includes a next_cursor field. Pass it as the cursor parameter on the next request. Cursors are stable across requests, even as new records are added.

import requests

BASE = "https://api.builddata.ca"
HEADERS = {
    "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
}

params = {"municipality": "calgary", "permit_type_canonical": "new_construction", "limit": 100}
records = []

while True:
    r = requests.get(BASE + "/permit", headers=HEADERS, params=params)
    data = r.json()
    records.extend(data["results"])
    if not data.get("next_cursor"):
        break
    params["cursor"] = data["next_cursor"]

print(f"{len(records)} permits fetched")

Aggregate stats (for dashboards and summaries)

curl -G "https://api.builddata.ca/permit/stats" \
  --data-urlencode "municipality=calgary" \
  --data-urlencode "group_by=permit_type_canonical" \
  --data-urlencode "period=1y" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H ""

Record schema

{
  "record_id": "23-123456",
  "municipality": "toronto",
  "address": "123 QUEEN ST W",
  "permit_type": "New Construction",
  "permit_type_canonical": "new_construction",
  "status": "Issued",
  "status_canonical": "issued",
  "issued_date": "2024-03-15",
  "work": "Erect 12-storey mixed-use building",
  "lat": 43.6487,
  "lng": -79.3958,
  "entity_type": "permit"
}

Design decisions worth knowing

Use cursors, not offsets

The API does not support offset pagination. Every response returns next_cursor: pass it as the cursor parameter on the next request. Cursors are stable between calls, safe for agents making sequential tool calls across multiple turns.

Use /permit/stats for aggregate questions

To answer “how many new construction permits in Calgary last year,” use /permit/stats rather than paging through all records. The stats endpoint returns aggregated counts in under a second:

/permit/stats?municipality=calgary&permit_type_canonical=new_construction&period=1y

Proximity search works across city boundaries

lat, lng, and radius_km work without specifying a municipality. Useful for queries near administrative borders, along transit corridors, or in metro areas that span multiple cities.

Full-text search on work descriptions

The q parameter runs full-text search across the work and address fields. Use it to find specific project types (“pool,” “demolition,” a developer name) rather than filtering by canonical type alone.

Frequently asked questions