Guide
How the National DNCL works for a sales team
The National DNCL is the part of Canada's telemarketing rules that costs money and takes ongoing work: registering, deciding whether your calls are exempt, paying for the area codes you call, and keeping your lists clean every month. This guide covers each step for a sales team, from the operator's and the CRTC's own pages, as of November 7, 2026. For calling hours, identification and automated calls, see our guide to the CRTC telemarketing rules.
What is the National Do Not Call List?
The National DNCL is a registry where people in Canada list their home or mobile numbers to reduce telemarketing calls, and telemarketers making non-exempt calls can't call numbers that have been on it for more than 31 days.
A number is added as soon as it's registered and stays on the list permanently; there's no need to re-register. The 31 days is the time telemarketers have to update their own lists. The list is part of the CRTC's Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, made under the Telecommunications Act, and the CRTC enforces it.
Who has to register with the National DNCL operator, and who has to pay?
Every telemarketer and every business that hires one registers its organization with the National DNCL operator; only organizations whose calls aren't exempt also subscribe to the list and pay for it.
That split surprises many teams. A business that only calls existing customers is exempt from the National DNCL Rules, but it still registers. A business that cold calls consumers registers and subscribes. A call center calling for clients can use each client's subscription rather than buying its own, and keeps records of its clients' registrations and subscriptions for 3 years.
- Register: telemarketers and their clients, exempt or not.
- Subscribe and pay: organizations on whose behalf non-exempt telemarketing calls are made.
- Keep records: telemarketers calling for clients keep records of client registrations and subscriptions for 3 years.
- Keep an internal list: everyone, exempt or not (see below).
How much does a National DNCL subscription cost?
Subscriptions are priced by how much of the list you download and for how long, or you can pay per number to query it; the operator's fee table, last updated September 12, 2025, lists the amounts below.
The table doesn't say which fiscal year it covers, so confirm the price on the operator's site before you subscribe.
- One area code: $3,218 a year, $1,656 for six months, $854 for three months or $290 for one month.
- All area codes in Canada: $62,166 a year, $34,011 for six months, $17,835 for three months or $6,112 for one month.
- Query: $0.50 per telephone number, up to 100 numbers per session.
- Choose the area codes you actually call. Our Canadian local numbers page lists every province's area codes.
Which calls are exempt from the National DNCL Rules?
Calls by or on behalf of registered charities, political parties, riding associations and candidates, survey and market research organizations, and newspapers of general circulation selling subscriptions are exempt, and so are calls to people with whom you have an existing business relationship.
Exempt doesn't mean unregulated. Exempt telemarketers still register with the operator, still keep an internal do-not-call list and honor requests made to them, and still follow the calling hours, identification and ADAD rules. Calls that aren't telemarketing at all, such as product recalls or appointment reminders, aren't covered by the National DNCL Rules.
The National DNCL Rules also don't apply to telemarketing calls made to businesses. If a number could be someone's personal mobile, treat it as a consumer number.
What counts as an existing business relationship in Canada?
An existing business relationship exists when the person bought, leased or rented a product or service from you in the past 18 months, has a written contract with you that's in effect or expired in the past 18 months, or made an inquiry or application about your product or service in the past 6 months.
The clock runs from the purchase, the contract's end or the inquiry, so track those dates on each contact. Once the window closes, a registered number is off limits again for non-exempt calls. Canada's windows differ from the US, where an inquiry creates a relationship for only 3 months.
- Purchase, lease or rental: 18 months.
- Written contract: while in effect, and 18 months after it expires.
- Inquiry or application: 6 months.
- A do-not-call request to you ends the exemption for calls from you, whatever the relationship.
How do you register and subscribe?
You register your organization online on the National DNCL site, then choose a subscription (the area codes and period) if your calls aren't exempt, and download the list or query numbers against it.
- Register your organization at lnnte-dncl.gc.ca and keep your registration details.
- Decide whether any of your calls are non-exempt. If they are, subscribe for the area codes you call.
- Download the list for those area codes, or query numbers individually. The site also offers a public API.
- Remove registered numbers from any list of non-exempt calls before you call it.
- Renew before your subscription period ends, and keep records of each download.
How often do you need to check the National DNCL?
Often enough that you never call a number that's been on the list for more than 31 days, which in practice means downloading a fresh copy at least every 31 days and checking every new list before you call it.
The 31 days is a grace period for updating your lists, not a target. Numbers registered yesterday aren't yet off limits, but they will be within the month, so a monthly routine that refreshes the list and re-checks the contacts you plan to call keeps you inside the rule.
- New list: check it before the first call.
- Existing contacts: re-check against a fresh download at least every 31 days.
- Long campaigns: re-check mid-campaign if it runs past a month.
- Exempt contacts: note the reason (and the date it expires) on the contact, so the exemption is easy to show.
How does the National DNCL work with your internal do-not-call list?
They're two separate lists and you need both: the National DNCL covers people who registered with the government, and your internal list covers people who asked you directly.
When someone asks you not to call, add them to your internal list within 14 days and keep them there for 3 years. That applies even if they're an existing customer and your calls to them are exempt from the National DNCL Rules.
What happens if you call a number on the list?
Consumers can complain through the National DNCL site, and the CRTC can impose penalties of up to $1,500 per violation for individuals and up to $15,000 per violation for corporations.
Each call can count as a separate violation, and the CRTC publishes the citations, penalties and undertakings it issues.
How do you run DNCL checks alongside TopReach?
TopReach doesn't check numbers against the National DNCL. It keeps your team's own do-not-call list, refuses to dial any number on it, and an opt-out reply such as STOP stops every number in your workspace from texting that person.
So the DNCL check happens before the numbers reach TopReach, and the internal list lives inside it:
- Download or query the DNCL for the area codes on your list, and remove registered numbers you have no exemption for before you import.
- Import the registered numbers you find into TopReach's do-not-call list, so nobody on the team dials them by hand later.
- Record any exemption, such as a purchase date, in a custom field on the contact.
- Add do-not-call requests to TopReach's list from the call outcome as they happen, well inside 14 days.
- Repeat the check at least every 31 days for contacts you're still calling.
