For purposes of the Moody's Analytics estimated and forecast data products, we have adopted the 33 census metropolitan areas officially defined by Statistics Canada.

References:

• Statistics Canada: Census metropolitan area detailed definition
• Statistics Canada: Census metropolitan area subdivision components

A Canadian Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is an aggregate of municipalities (Census Subdivisions).  The components must have a combined population of at least 100,000, including an "urban core" with a population of at least 50,000.  To be included, each contiguous municipality must meet one of three requirements: Either falling into the urban core partly or completely, having at least 50% of its employed commuters traveling to the urban core for work, or having at least 25% of employed urban core residents employed in the municipality.  The CMA designation is permanent, regardless of any decline in population.

Hence, Canada's definition of metropolitan areas is similar to that of the U.S. (CBSAs as defined by the OMB).

Table 1 of 2. Metropolitan Areas in Canada.  There are 33 CMAs across nine provinces. The Ottawa-Gatineau metro area crosses a provincial border and is listed twice, under both Ontario and Québec.

Table 2 of 2. Sample listing of metropolitan area and constituent municipalities. Canada defines each of its metropolitan areas as an aggregate of municipalities, otherwise known as Census Subdivisions.  Canada has a national geo code of ICAN, all codes for its geographic subdivisions use ICAN as a prefix, and all Moody’s Analytics metro area codes feature the letter “M.” Each of the 33 areas is identified as ICAN(underscore)M(three letters), and may be retrieved in bulk with the basket geo wild card ICAN_M^^^.

At this time, Data Buffet does not have geography codes or data for individual Census Subdivisions; Statistics Canada reports at a high frequency only for the metropolitan areas.  Statistics Canada provides a full listing of components (see reference above).  For example: