Sources & editorial approach

How we choose sources

  • We prefer original public agencies, regulators, and official government pages — for example, Canada.ca, provincial health ministries, IRCC, Service Canada, and 211.ca.
  • We open each source page and confirm the claim is present before citing it. We do not treat search-result snippets as sources.
  • We label each source by organization and jurisdiction, and we record the date we checked it.
  • We do not invent citations, URLs, eligibility rules, or timelines. Where rules differ by province, we say so and link to the provincial source.

How we write guides

  • Plain language for a broad adult audience. We explain what a step is, why it matters, and where to go next.
  • Each guide includes explicit caveats and boundaries — especially where it is not advice (immigration, legal, medical).
  • Provincial examples are conspicuously labelled so readers know which rules apply to them.
  • Guides are reviewed on the date shown and should be re-checked before any public launch.

What we do not do

  • We do not give individual immigration, legal, or medical advice or eligibility determinations.
  • We do not claim universal health, transit, or benefits rules; Canada is covered via official provincial directories.
  • We do not accept advertising or paid placements, and linking does not imply endorsement.

Community information: coverage & maintenance

The assistance finder has Canada-wide tax-clinic and 211 starting points, Ontario-wide utility programs, and selected Greater Toronto Area resources. The food-location directory has 41 selected locations across Toronto and the Durham, Halton, Peel and York regions. Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke are Toronto districts, shown separately to make nearby services easier to find. This is not a complete regional or national directory.

For service locations, we use official nonprofit operator pages and established Canadian community-service directories, including healthline and 211. Address pins use licensed municipal address data or address-matched OpenStreetMap geocoding, with provenance on each record. Government and public-health guidance remains the source for food-safety rules. A provider’s donation rules can be stricter than general date-label guidance. We do not reproduce 211 Ontario’s service-record database or embed third-party maps.

  1. Before adding an entry: open its official source, verify the public service address and purpose, retain an evidence note, record explicit coverage and unknowns. Confirm coordinate-dataset licensing and attribution before plotting a location.
  2. Every 90 days, and before launch: a human must reopen the sources and compare eligibility, access, location, hours and donation rules. Set a new checked date only after that review; a successful link check is not a content review.
  3. Between reviews: run the optional source-link check weekly and whenever a change is reported. Confirm closures or changed access urgently. Remove unverified locations or mark uncertain facts; never fill gaps with guessed details.
  4. Before publishing: run content validation, tests, the build, the internal-link audit and desktop/mobile accessibility checks. Resolve overdue items or remove them. The review-due check fails when a record needs review; it never silently refreshes a date.

Dates are calculated in UTC. Browser review labels advance with today’s date; without JavaScript the label is a build-date snapshot. Records remain visibly marked review overdue when their window expires. A source check is not a site visit, a safety inspection, live inventory or a guarantee of eligibility.

This process is documented and automated validation exists, but a named ongoing reviewer, a monitored correction channel and a weekly review schedule are still launch requirements. No reviewer identity or automatic maintenance service is claimed.

All sources cited

Benefits, food guidance & map sources

58 distinct source pages and dataset/licence references for 45 assistance entries, 4 food guides and 41 food locations.

Newcomer-guide sources

19 unique sources across 11 guides. Each links to its guide.