Question 1

How accurate is the site report?

Accepted Answer

Each sourced value comes from a municipal, provincial or federal government dataset, with the source named so you can check the original record. The report is planning-level: confirm it with the authority and a qualified professional before you rely on it. It is decision support, not a sealed engineering deliverable.

Question 2

What do the labels on each report row mean?

Accepted Answer

A sourced value shows with its source line; every other row carries one of six labels. Sourced: A value matched against an official open-data record at the site. It shows with its source line and needs no badge. Published standard: A design value from a governing manual, statutory table or curated reference shipped with the app, such as ECCC IDF rainfall values. The value you design to, not a site measurement. Confirm: Proximity screening, reference data, an estimate, or a validation guard. Confirm with the issuing authority before relying on it. Searched, nothing found: The source answered and no record touches the site. A real no-hit, not a clearance. Radius searches with no hit read None found. Temporarily unavailable: The source was queried and failed or timed out on this run. Regenerate to retry. On the publisher's site: A source exists, but its licence does not allow commercial reuse, so the report links to the publisher's own page instead of reproducing it. No approved source: No commercially licensed source is integrated for this question here yet. None of these replace professional review.

Question 3

What municipalities are supported?

Accepted Answer

Coverage varies by municipality. CivilProposal reads municipal data where the municipality licenses it for commercial use (currently 230 Canadian municipalities with at least one licence-approved layer, typically zoning first, including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and many more) and province-wide and federal layers everywhere: road authority and class across Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Yukon, parcel fabrics in BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Yukon, provincial flood mapping, heritage registers, and federal screening layers. Only data licensed for commercial reuse is used, so some large municipalities show rows labelled On the publisher's site that link to the official lookup page instead of a value. See the Coverage page for current details and the verification workflow used where municipal data is limited.

Question 4

How do you handle municipalities whose data is not available for commercial use?

Accepted Answer

CivilProposal uses only open data whose licence allows commercial use and redistribution in client reports. Where a municipality publishes no open data, or publishes it under terms that do not allow commercial reuse, the report falls back to province-wide and federal layers and labels each gap (On the publisher's site, or No approved source), with a link to the office to confirm with. The verification workflow makes the gap explicit: your team sees what is sourced, what is a published standard, and what needs to be confirmed with the municipality directly before submission.

Question 5

Can I trust the permit timelines?

Accepted Answer

The report shows only published permit review periods: legislated decision periods, the municipality's own processing targets, or the spread of its past permits from open data. Nothing is estimated. Municipal data shows as a sourced value with its source; legislated periods are labelled Published standard. Use them to plan schedules and flag projects where timing risk is material; confirm specific applications with the authority having jurisdiction before commitments.

Question 6

What happens if the site data is wrong?

Accepted Answer

Every row is labelled and every sourced value links to its record, and every export states the dates the data was read, and lists the items to verify when the report has any. If a source record is wrong, your team sees the underlying record before relying on it. CivilProposal is a decision-support tool, not a sealed engineering deliverable. Professional review of every output is required before client submission.

Question 7

How much time does CivilProposal save?

Accepted Answer

It varies by site, municipality and how much of your existing workflow you keep. An address produces one sourced site report (and, on Pursuits and Enterprise plans, a proposal draft) that your team still checks and refines. We do not promise a specific time saving.

Question 8

Can the report help decide whether to take on a project?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Zoning, floodplain, servicing, permit context and early risk flags show how complex a site is before you invest in a proposal or an offer.

Question 9

Can I upload an RFP document?

Accepted Answer

No. You start from the site address. On Pursuits and Enterprise plans, project details (client, project type, deadline) are added when you continue to the proposal draft.

Question 10

Which plans include scope and fee, plus proposal drafts?

Accepted Answer

The Pursuits plan and Enterprise. They are built for engineering firms bidding work. A pursuit is one live bid: the site report it's built on, the scope and fee, and the AI proposal draft together. Regenerating a section inside an existing pursuit never counts as a new pursuit.

Question 11

How is CivilProposal different from generic proposal software?

Accepted Answer

Generic proposal tools assemble documents. CivilProposal starts from the site: a sourced report of the government data for the address, which then feeds the scope and fee, then the proposal draft on Pursuits and Enterprise plans.

Question 12

Can I use it for public-sector and municipal work?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Where municipal open data is licensed, the report includes zoning, servicing, stormwater and permit context for the site before you write the proposal. Confirm everything with the authority before submission.

Question 13

Is CivilProposal an AI proposal writer for engineers?

Accepted Answer

On Pursuits and Enterprise plans it drafts proposal sections with AI, from the sourced site facts. The site facts themselves come from government data, not AI. Every draft includes assumptions, exclusions and items your team must verify, and it does not replace professional judgment.

Question 14

What is CivilProposal?

Accepted Answer

CivilProposal gathers the government data for a Canadian site (zoning, floodplain, IDF rainfall curves, soils, seismic, servicing, permits and more) into one sourced report for engineers, land developers, planners, architects, surveyors and environmental consultants. Where data isn't open, it links to the right office. Pursuits and Enterprise plans add scope and fee, then a proposal draft for consulting engineers.

Question 15

Is this a replacement for engineering judgment?

Accepted Answer

No. CivilProposal is a decision-support tool, not a replacement for licensed professional engineering judgment. The site report is sourced from government data and rules, not generated by AI. Proposal drafts require independent verification by qualified professionals before use in any professional capacity.

Question 16

What types of projects does it support?

Accepted Answer

Any project tied to a Canadian site address: land development, site servicing, stormwater, infrastructure, industrial, commercial and residential work.

Question 17

Where does the municipal data come from?

Accepted Answer

Commercially licensed open data from Canadian municipal portals (Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and others), provincial and federal GIS services, conservation authorities, transit agency GTFS feeds, climate data, and published regulatory standards. Sources whose licence does not allow commercial reuse are not used.

Question 18

Is there a free plan?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Try it includes 1 free site report, one time (sourced from open data), 1 person, print, PDF and DOCX export, client share links, and no pursuits. Upgrade to Site Reports for reports every month, or to Pursuits and Enterprise plans for pursuits. No credit card is required.

Question 19

What is a pursuit?

Accepted Answer

A pursuit is one live bid: the site report it's built on, the scope and fee, and the AI proposal draft together. Regenerating a section inside an existing pursuit never counts as a new pursuit.

Question 20

Can I switch plans at any time?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period.

Question 21

What happens when I run out of reports or pursuits?

Accepted Answer

Everything you have already made stays available to view, edit and export. On Try it, your free report is one time and does not reset: buy a single report for $99 or choose a plan. On a paid plan, buy an extra report for $35, upgrade, or wait for your allowance to reset at the start of your next billing cycle. Pursuits can't be bought one at a time: upgrade for more.

Question 22

How does annual billing work?

Accepted Answer

Annual billing gives you 2 months free (10x the monthly price). For example, Pursuits is $349/mo CAD billed monthly, or $3490/yr CAD billed annually, versus $4188/yr if you paid month to month. You pay once per year and your subscription renews automatically. You can cancel at any time in the billing portal (Settings, then Billing).

Question 23

What happens to my price if pricing changes?

Accepted Answer

Price changes apply to new subscriptions. Existing subscribers are told before any change to their price.

Question 24

What payment methods do you accept?

Accepted Answer

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) through Stripe, our payment processor. All payment information is handled securely by Stripe. We never store your card details.

Question 25

Is my data stored in Canada?

Accepted Answer

Yes for core application data and authentication. The application runs on Fly.io in Toronto and stores project and sign-in data in Supabase Canada Central (Montreal). Some subprocessors, including OpenAI, Stripe, PostHog, and Google Analytics, may still process limited data in the United States. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Question 26

Is my proposal data used to train AI models?

Accepted Answer

No. Under OpenAI's API data-usage policy, API inputs are not used to train their models. Data submitted through the API may be retained only transiently (up to 30 days) for abuse and misuse monitoring before deletion, unless a zero-retention arrangement applies. Your proposal data, client information, and project details are not sold or shared with third parties for their own purposes.

Question 27

How do you handle data privacy?

Accepted Answer

We comply with PIPEDA and BC PIPA. We collect only necessary data, encrypt in transit and at rest, and respond to data access requests within 30 days. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Question 28

Can I delete my data?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Under PIPEDA and BC PIPA, you may request deletion of your personal information. Email privacy@civilproposal.com and we will delete or anonymize your data, except where we are legally required to retain it.

Question 29

Where can I find a floodplain map for my site in Canada?

Accepted Answer

CivilProposal's site report includes floodplain status drawn from municipal and provincial flood layers where an open-data source is confirmed for that location, each shown with its source. Where no confirmed municipal or provincial layer covers the site, the report says so and links to the relevant conservation authority or provincial flood-mapping portal instead of guessing. See the Coverage page for which municipalities have a live flood layer today.

Question 30

How do I get IDF (rainfall intensity-duration-frequency) curves for a Canadian site?

Accepted Answer

The site report names the nearest Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) IDF station and its distance from the site, and shows that station's published rainfall intensities (mm/hr) and depths across durations from 5 minutes to 24 hours for the 2- to 100-year return periods, labelled Published standard (the ECCC station tables are a published reference, not a measurement at the site). These are planning-level reference values; confirm the design storm, and any climate-change adjustment, with the authority having jurisdiction.

Question 31

Is there a zoning lookup tool for Canadian municipalities?

Accepted Answer

Yes. CivilProposal resolves zoning classification, category, and key zone standards (minimum lot area, frontage, maximum height and density) from municipal open-data zoning layers for covered municipalities, shown with a link to the underlying municipal record. Where a municipality's zoning data is not commercially licensed for reuse, the report links directly to that municipality's official zoning lookup page rather than showing an unverified value.

Question 32

How do I find the soil type for a project site in Canada?

Accepted Answer

The site report surfaces regional soil series, order, great group, and screening-level texture from federal and provincial soil survey data where mapped at the site. This is a desktop screening reference, not a geotechnical investigation. It is labelled Published standard or shown as a sourced value depending on the underlying map, and a site-specific geotechnical investigation is still required before design.

Question 33

What is the seismic site class for a location in Canada?

Accepted Answer

CivilProposal reports the National Building Code seismic hazard values and site-class table (X_A through X_E) applicable to the site's location, sourced from the published federal seismic hazard model. This supports early structural and geotechnical scoping; final site classification still requires a geotechnical investigation per the applicable building code edition.

Question 34

Is there a servicing or water main map for my site?

Accepted Answer

Where a municipality publishes commercially licensed servicing GIS, the report shows distance to the nearest water main and, where available, main size, material and ownership, shown with its source. Municipal servicing data is one of the least commonly open-licensed layers in Canada; where it is not available, the report states that explicitly and links to the municipality's engineering department or one-call locate service rather than showing an estimate.

Question 35

How do I get my first report?

Accepted Answer

Sign up for a free account, enter the site address and generate the report. Review it, export a PDF or share a link. On Pursuits and Enterprise plans you can then add project details, confirm scope and your fee and generate a proposal draft.

Question 36

Is there a demo or trial?

Accepted Answer

View a read-only sample at /sample-output before signing up. The free plan is your trial: 1 site report to start (one time). No credit card required. Paid plans start at $149/mo CAD, or buy a single report for $99.

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