The symbol that delimits a routing number on MICR-encoded paper documents is the E-13B transit character (Unicode value U+2446): ⑆ Each branch in a financial institution is assigned a unique transit number for identification.
BMO and TD do not consider the fifth digit of the transit number to be part of the branch number and will not create five-digit codes for different branches which differ only in the final, fifth digit.
[c] If Montreal is 00011-001 then the next site (First Canadian Place Toronto) is 00022-001, with 00012-001 remaining permanently unassigned.
While the province may be embedded in the transit number, the info is superfluous; a small Ontario credit union will be XXXX2-828 regardless of its location in-province.
The FIF is updated weekly and is operated as a fee-based subscription service to member institutions of Payments Canada.