We can create dashboards in ENVISION using Census Metropolitan Areas as the level of detail geography. For example, when using the Rank Areas tool, we need to choose a geographic detail level. And when we choose CMA, our output will list Strong, Moderate, Weak, and No MIZ. What do these terms mean?
When a municipality is not included in either a Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) or a Census Agglomeration (CA), it is assigned to one of four categories of Metropolitan Influenced Zone (MIZ) depending on the percentage of its resident employed labour force who commute to work in the urban core of any CMA or CA.
Strong MIZ: at least 30% of the municipality's residents employed labour force commute to work in any CMA or CA.
Moderate MIZ: at least 5%, but less than 30% of the municipality's residents employed labour force commute to work in any CMA or CA.
Weak MIZ: more than 0%, but less than 5% of the municipality's residents employed labour force commute to work in any CMA or CA.
No MIZ: fewer than 40 or none of the municipality's residents employed labour force commute to work in any CMA or CA.
Remember CMA/CAs don’t blanket the country. Map 1 is Alberta showing CMA/CAs in red. All the other parts of Alberta will be assigned either Strong, Moderate, Weak, or No MIZ depending on the percentage of residents travelling to a CMA/CA for work.
Map 2 shows the CMA/CAs and the 4 categories of MIZ for Alberta.
Alberta's MIZs and Southern Ontario's MIZs are available for download below.