Is my data stored in Canada?

Yes. BrokerDam customer data is hosted in Canada, in the ca central 1 region.

In practical terms, that means the database holding your contacts, your deals and the documents your clients upload sits on infrastructure physically located in Canada, rather than in a United States region or somewhere further afield. It is a deployment decision made once, at the infrastructure level, not a setting a broker has to remember to switch on.

Canadian brokers ask about this more than almost anything else, and the reason is straightforward. A mortgage file contains some of the most sensitive information a person will ever hand to a business: income, employment, banking, debts, identification and often a social insurance number. Clients are entitled to ask where that ends up, and brokerages are increasingly expected to have an answer that is more specific than the name of a vendor.

There is also the compliance layer. PIPEDA governs how private sector organisations in Canada collect, use and disclose personal information, and while it does not by itself forbid storing data outside the country, it does hold you responsible for information you transfer to a third party for processing. Some provincial rules, lender agreements and brokerage policies go further and set explicit expectations about location. Keeping the data in Canada removes an entire category of question from your compliance conversations.

It also simplifies the answer you give clients. When someone asks where their pay stubs and bank statements are being kept, being able to say the data is hosted in Canada, in the ca central 1 region, is a clearer answer than a description of a vendor's global network.

This is general information, not legal advice. Your brokerage's own obligations depend on your province, your lenders and your policies, and your compliance officer is the right person to confirm what applies to you.

Related reading: how BrokerDam handles SINs and sensitive documents and the privacy policy.