I'm planning to build a Geocoding database for Canada. The goal is that – the database should be able to provide latitude and longitude for any given street level address in Canada. A similar implementations for USA (Geocoder::US 2.0, jGeocoder ) uses US Census Data (Tiger).
Provincial Base Mapping Data Sources in Canada provides a list of data sources for Canada (both nation wide and provincial based). I couldn't find anywhere is a discussion about the quality of these sources. Also I don't have much time to go through all of them in detail and pick the best.
If anyone had done similar research before about various geo-spatial/geo location sources of Canada for similar implementation. Or if found any similar implementations/attempts some where on web. Guide me please. Any suggestions regarding my goal are also appreciated.
Note: I don't want any suggestions for services that can help like Google API, yahoo place finder etc.
Best Answer
As dassouki mentions this is not going to be done cheaply.
The GeoPinpoint Suite is geocoding millions of records each year and is applying an advanced address-parsing technology ensuring superior match rates even with the most incomplete data. GeoPinpoint Suite's innovative modular design allows the software to encompass future enhancements without jeopardizing its performance or usability. GeoPinpoint’s foundation is built from Canada's most comprehensive and complete street address network - CanMap® Streetfiles.
(recently purchased this dataset - $10's thousands).