Canada Building Permits — Open Data (6 Cities)

Get fresh, normalized building-permit records from Canada's largest cities in one run — pulled straight from each city's official open-data API, not scraped HTML. One consistent schema across Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Surrey.

A building permit means someone is about to spend money on construction. This Actor turns that signal into a clean dataset you can pipe into your CRM, spreadsheet, BI tool, or AI agent.

Quickstart (30 seconds)

1. Click Try for free above — no credit card required for your first run.
2. Leave the default input (all 6 cities, up to 500 permits each) and click Start.
3. Download results as JSON, CSV, or connect via the Apify API.

Typical first run: ~800 permits across 6 cities in under 60 seconds.

For ongoing use, set issuedAfter to last week and schedule weekly — you get only new permits, newest first.

Why this Actor

• Official sources only. Every record comes from a municipal open-data portal (Socrata, CKAN, Opendatasoft, ArcGIS). No proxies, no CAPTCHAs, no ToS grey zones — and near-zero breakage risk.
• One schema, six cities. Field names are normalized across cities (permitId, issuedDate, estValue, contractor, …) so you don't have to reconcile six different formats. The untouched city payload is kept under raw for power users.
• Built for schedules. Set issuedAfter to last week and run it weekly — you get only the newest permits, newest first.

Use cases

• Contractor & trades lead-gen — new permits are pre-qualified leads: roofers, HVAC, electricians, landscapers, and restoration companies can see who just got approval to build, where, and for how much.
• Building-materials & supply-chain targeting — suppliers and distributors can spot high-value projects (estValue) and the general contractors running them the week they're issued.
• Market research & proptech — track construction activity by city, permit type, and project value over time; feed dashboards, models, or investment theses.
• Insurance & risk — monitor renovation and demolition activity at the address level.
• AI agents — a stable, structured feed of Canadian construction activity for agentic workflows.

City coverage

City	Province	Source API	Portal	Typical update cadence
Vancouver	BC	Opendatasoft	Issued building permits	daily
Calgary	AB	Socrata (SODA)	Building Permits	daily
Edmonton	AB	Socrata (SODA)	General Building Permits	daily
Toronto	ON	CKAN Datastore	Building Permits — Active Permits	daily
Winnipeg	MB	Socrata (SODA)	Detailed Building Permit Data	weekly
Surrey	BC	ArcGIS FeatureServer	Issued Building Permits	weekly

More cities are added over time — coverage breadth is the roadmap.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
cities	array	all 6	Which cities to fetch (vancouver, calgary, edmonton, toronto, winnipeg, surrey)
issuedAfter	date	—	Only permits issued on/after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
issuedBefore	date	—	Only permits issued on/before this date
permitTypes	string	—	Comma-separated, case-insensitive substring filter on permitType (e.g. demolition, new house)
maxRecordsPerCity	integer	500	Cap per city, newest permits first

{
    "cities": ["calgary", "toronto"],
    "issuedAfter": "2026-07-01",
    "permitTypes": "demolition",
    "maxRecordsPerCity": 200
}

Output

One dataset item per permit:

{
    "city": "Calgary",
    "permitId": "BP2026-13235",
    "permitType": "Commercial / Multi Family Project",
    "status": "Issued Permit",
    "issuedDate": "2026-07-18",
    "address": "2827 SUNRIDGE BV NE",
    "description": "Fire suppression system upgrade",
    "estValue": 2600,
    "contractor": "SPROUSE FIRE & SAFETY",
    "sourceUrl": "https://data.calgary.ca/d/c2es-76ed",
    "fetchedAt": "2026-07-18T20:15:00.000Z",
    "raw": { "...": "the city's original record, trimmed" }
}

Field notes:

• estValue — estimated construction value in CAD. Winnipeg does not publish it (null).
• contractor — contractor/builder company name as published by the city (Edmonton does not publish one). No personal contact data is collected beyond what appears in the official permit record.
• raw — the city's original payload with geometry blobs and applicant mailing addresses removed and long strings truncated.
• A per-run RUN_SUMMARY object (counts and per-city status) is stored in the run's key-value store.

Pricing

Pay-per-result on the Apify platform:

What	Cost
Per run (start fee)	$0.01
Per record returned	$0.002

Worked examples:

• 500 permits (1 city, 1 run): $0.01 + (500 × $0.002) = $1.01
• 3,000 permits (6 cities, 1 run): $0.01 + (3,000 × $0.002) = $6.01
• Weekly schedule, 500 new permits/week: ~$1.01/week ($4.04/month)

Data quality & limits

• Records are returned newest first; maxRecordsPerCity caps each city.
• Each city publishes on its own cadence (see table). "Issued date" semantics can differ slightly by city; the normalized issuedDate always reflects the city's issued/issue date field.
• If one city's portal is down, the run continues with the remaining cities and reports the failure in RUN_SUMMARY.

FAQ

How often is the data updated? Most cities update daily; Winnipeg and Surrey are weekly. The Actor always fetches the current state of each portal on every run.

Is this legal to use commercially? Yes. All data comes from official municipal open-data programs published under open-government licences designed for exactly this kind of reuse. Business/public data only — no personal data beyond what appears in the official permit record.

What data licence applies? Each city publishes under its municipal open-government licence (variants of the Canadian Open Government Licence). Attribution is appreciated.

I need a city that isn't covered — can you add it? Email manager@agentumgroup.com with the city name and we'll assess whether it has a usable open-data portal.

Who do I contact for support? Email manager@agentumgroup.com — typically replied to within 1 business day.

Legality

All data comes from official municipal open-data programs published under open-government licences for exactly this kind of reuse. Business/public data only.