Time in Canada

Canada is divided into six time zones: Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern, Atlantic and Newfoundland time. Most areas of the country's provinces and territories operate on standard time from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March and daylight saving time the rest of the year.^[1]

Time zones in Canada

	Standard	DST	Time zone
	UTC−08:00	UTC−07:00	Pacific
	UTC−07:00 (year round)		Mountain
	UTC−07:00	UTC−06:00
	UTC−06:00 (year round)		Central
	UTC−06:00	UTC−05:00
	UTC−05:00 (year round)		Eastern
	UTC−05:00	UTC−04:00
	UTC−04:00 (year round)		Atlantic
	UTC−04:00	UTC−03:00
	UTC−03:30	UTC−02:30	Newfoundland

The divisions between time zones are based on proposals by Scottish Canadian railway engineer Sandford Fleming, who pioneered the use of the 24-hour clock, the world's time zone system, and a standard prime meridian.^[2]

Official time

Main article: National Research Council Time Signal

National Research Council laboratories in Ottawa

The National Research Council (NRC) maintains Canada's official time through the use of atomic clocks.^[3] The official time is specified in legislation passed by the individual provinces. In Quebec it is based on coordinated universal time.^[4] The other provinces use mean solar time.^[5][6][7] The NRC provides both coordinated universal time and mean solar time in its signals.^[8] It makes time servers available for direct synchronization with computers. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a daily time signal, the National Research Council Time Signal, beginning 5 November 1939.^[9] The signal was discontinued on 15 October 2023.^[10]

Time notation

Main article: Date and time notation in Canada § Time

Canadian National timetable from 1975 using the 24-hour clock

The Government of Canada recommends use of the 24-hour clock (e.g. 15:54), which is widely used in contexts such as transportation schedules, parking meters, and data transmission.^[11] Speakers of Canadian French predominantly use this system, but most Canadian English speakers use the 12-hour clock in everyday speech (e.g. 3:54 pm), even when reading from a 24-hour display, similar to the use of the 24-hour clock in the United Kingdom.

Zones

Pacific Time Zone

Pacific Standard Time (PST) UTC−08:00 and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) UTC−07:00:

• British Columbia (most of the province)

Mountain Time Zone

Mountain Standard Time (MST) UTC−07:00 and Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) UTC−06:00:

• Alberta
• British Columbia, southeastern
  • Columbia-Shuswap Regional District east of the Selkirk Mountains
  • Regional District of East Kootenay
  • Regional District of Central Kootenay east of the Kootenay River and some parts east of Kootenay Lake that are south of and including Riondel (but not Creston, which observes MST year-round, and Kootenay Bay)
• Northwest Territories (NWT), except for Cantung Mine,^[a] two fishing lodges in the southeast and a mine site in the southwest^[b]
• Nunavut (see Time in Nunavut)
  • west of 102° West, and
  • all communities in the Kitikmeot Region
• Saskatchewan (see Time in Saskatchewan)
  • Lloydminster and surrounding area (the municipal government chose to unify the entire city with Alberta's time zone)

Mountain Standard Time (MST) UTC−07:00 year-round:

• Yukon
• British Columbia, northeastern
  • Northern Rockies Regional Municipality^[12]
  • most of Peace River Regional District (except Fort Ware), including Dawson Creek
  • Taku River Tlingit First Nation^[13]
  • Atlin, an unincorporated community, is in a state of time flux, with many residents and the cell tower applying Mountain Standard Time year round, but RCMP and BC Services following Pacific Time^[14]
• British Columbia, southeastern
  • Creston

Central Time Zone

Central Standard Time (CST) UTC−06:00 and Central Daylight Time CDT UTC−05:00:

• Manitoba
• Saskatchewan
  • Creighton (unofficial)
• Nunavut
  • between 85° West and 102° West, and
  • Resolute plus all communities in the Kivalliq Region and the west shore of Hudson Bay except Southampton Island (Coral Harbour)
• Ontario, northwestern
  • west of 90° West (except the Atikokan, New Osnaburgh and Pickle Lake areas, and the Shebandowan and Upsala areas)
  • east of 90° West: Big Trout Lake area

Central Standard Time (CST) UTC−06:00 year-round:

• Saskatchewan (most of the province) (see Lloydminster, and Creighton, above)

Eastern Time Zone

Eastern Standard Time (EST) UTC−05:00 and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) UTC−04:00:

• Nunavut
  • east of 85° West, and
  • all communities in the Qikiqtaaluk Region except Resolute
• Ontario
  • east of 90° West (except the Big Trout Lake area), plus
  • west of 90° West: Shebandowan and Upsala areas
• Quebec (most of province)
  • Areas of Labrador adjacent to Schefferville (in Quebec but very close to the Labrador border) observe EST and DST unofficially

Eastern Standard Time (EST) UTC−05:00 year-round:

• Nunavut
  • entire Southampton Island (Coral Harbour)
• Ontario
  • west of 90° West: Atikokan area and New Osnaburgh / Pickle Lake area

Atlantic Time Zone

Atlantic Standard Time (AST) UTC−04:00 and Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT) UTC−03:00:

• Labrador (all but the southeastern tip)
• New Brunswick
• Nova Scotia
• Prince Edward Island
• Quebec (Magdalen Islands and Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation)^[15]

Atlantic Standard Time (AST) UTC−04:00 year-round:

• Quebec (east of the Natashquan River)^[15]

Newfoundland Time Zone

Newfoundland Standard Time (NST) UTC−03:30 and Newfoundland Daylight Time (NDT) UTC−02:30:

• Labrador (southeastern)
• Newfoundland

This time zone exists because of the location of the island and the fact that it was a separate dominion when time zones were established. Newfoundland lies squarely in the eastern half of the Atlantic Time Zone, with St. John's being exactly three-and-a-half hours from Greenwich. Since the Dominion of Newfoundland was separate from Canada, it had the right to adopt its own time zone when time zones were first created. While the entire province lies west of the standard meridian for a half-hour time zone, 52.5 degrees west longitude, this is also the near exact meridian of St. John's, the province's capital and largest city. In 1935, the Newfoundland Commission of Government adopted a Standard Time Act which set standard time across the Dominion of Newfoundland at 3.5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).^[16]

Former time zones

• The Yukon Time Zone (UTC−09:00) covered most of Yukon from 1900 until 1966. In 1973, the last portions of Yukon switched to Pacific Time, leaving UTC−09:00 unused in Canada.
• In 1988, Newfoundland observed "double daylight saving time" from 3 April until 30 October, meaning that the time was set ahead by 2 hours.^[17] All of Newfoundland and southern Labrador, which observes UTC−03:30 as its standard time zone, observed UTC−01:30.^[18] This only happened in 1988 and the province now only adjusts its time by one hour for daylight saving time.

Daylight saving time

Main article: Daylight saving time in Canada

Four Canadian cities, by local ordinance, observed daylight saving time in 1916. Brandon, Manitoba, adopted it on 17 April. It was followed by Winnipeg on 23 April, Halifax on 30 April, and Hamilton, Ontario, on 4 June.^[19] Port Arthur, Ontario, was the first place in the world to introduce it, on 1 July 1908.

Daylight saving time is currently observed in nine of ten provinces and two of three territories, with exceptions in several provinces and Nunavut. Most of the province of Saskatchewan, despite geographically being in the Mountain Time Zone, observes year-round CST. In 2020, the territory of Yukon abandoned seasonal time change and moved to permanently observing MST year-round.^[20] Under the Constitution of Canada, laws related to timekeeping are a purely provincial matter. In practice, since the late 1960s DST across Canada has been closely or completely synchronized with its observance in the United States to promote consistent economic and social interaction. When the United States extended DST in 1987 to the first Sunday in April, all DST-observing Canadian provinces followed suit to mimic the change.

In 2019, the legislature of British Columbia began the process of eliminating the practice of observing daylight saving time in the province. On 31 October 2019, the government introduced Bill 40 in the legislature, which would define "Pacific Time" as "7 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)".^[21] In a press release, the provincial government stated an intention to maintain alignment of clock time with Washington, Oregon, California, and Yukon.^[22] The move follows a consultation earlier in 2019, in which the province received over 223,000 responses, 93% of which said they would prefer year-round DST as compared to the status quo of changing the clocks twice a year.^[23][24][25] The premier of British Columbia discussed the issue with Yukon premier Sandy Silver, who said in October that he needs more consultation with Yukon stakeholders, and with Alberta and Alaska.^[26]

The latest United States change (Energy Policy Act of 2005) to daylight saving time, adding parts of March and November to when daylight saving time is observed, which began in 2007 was adopted by the various provinces and territories on the following dates:

• Ontario^[27] and Manitoba^[28] – 20 October 2005
• Quebec – 5 December 2005^[29]
• Prince Edward Island – 6 December 2005^[30]
• New Brunswick – 23 December 2005^[31]
• Alberta – 2 February 2006^[32]
• Northwest Territories – 4 March 2006^[33]
• British Columbia – 31 March 2006^[34]
• Nova Scotia – 25 April 2006^[35]
• Yukon – 14 July 2006.^[36] Year-round MST as of 8 March 2020.^[20]
• Newfoundland and Labrador – 20 November 2006 but officially announced on 18 January 2007^[37]
• Nunavut – 19 February 2007^[38]
• Saskatchewan – No official action was taken, as almost all of the province remains on CST year-round. However, the few places in the province that do observe daylight saving (Lloydminster and the surrounding area, which straddles the Alberta border and observes Alberta's Mountain Time – and Creighton, which observes daylight saving on an unofficial basis due to its proximity to the border with Manitoba) follow the aforementioned March–November schedule just like the other provinces and territories.

IANA time zone database

Data for Canada from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself.

C.c.*	Coordinates*	TZ*	Comments*	UTC offset	UTC offset DST	Notes	Map
CA	+4734−05243	America/St_Johns	Newfoundland, Labrador (SE)	−03:30	−02:30	Areas that use UTC−03:30 with daylight savings time.
CA	+4439−06336	America/Halifax	Atlantic – NS (most areas), PE	−04:00	−03:00	Areas that use UTC−04:00 with daylight savings time. In addition to NS and PE, also includes two areas of Quebec: Magdalen Islands and Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation[39]
CA	+4612−05957	America/Glace_Bay	Atlantic – NS (Cape Breton)	−04:00	−03:00	Areas that use UTC−04:00 and adopted daylight savings time in 1972. Now in sync with America/Halifax. Likely includes all of Cape Breton Island.[40]
CA	+4606−06447	America/Moncton	Atlantic – New Brunswick	−04:00	−03:00	Areas that use UTC−04:00 with daylight savings time but prior to 2007 started and ended daylight savings time at 12:01 am rather than 2:00 am. Now in sync with America/Halifax.
CA	+5320−06025	America/Goose_Bay	Atlantic – Labrador (most areas)	−04:00	−03:00	Areas that use UTC−04:00 with daylight savings time but from 1987–2011 started and ended daylight savings time at 12:01 am rather than 2:00 am. Now in sync with America/Halifax. Until 1966, it observed Newfoundland Time.
CA	+5125−05707	America/Blanc-Sablon	AST – QC (Lower North Shore)	−04:00	−04:00	Redirects to America/Puerto_Rico.	—
PR	+182806−0660622	America/Puerto_Rico	AST – QC (Lower North Shore)	−04:00	−04:00	Areas that have used UTC−04:00 year-round since the IANA cutoff date in 1970. Legally defined as east of 63rd meridian west.[39]
CA		America/Montreal		−05:00	−04:00	Redirects to America/Toronto as of version 2015c.	—
CA	+4339−07923	America/Toronto	Eastern – ON & QC (most areas)	−05:00	−04:00	Areas that use UTC−05:00 with daylight savings time. Legally, its western boundary is the 90th meridian west but in practice, it is not observed by Big Trout Lake. Adoption of daylight savings time in Ontario may have been patchy until 1974.
CA		America/Nipigon		−05:00	−04:00	Redirects to America/Toronto as of version 2022f. Created for places using Eastern time that allegedly did not observe DST 1967–1973, but this was not well sourced.	—
CA		America/Thunder_Bay		−05:00	−04:00	Redirects to America/Toronto. Created because of a claim that Thunder Bay did not use DST in 1973.	—
CA	+6344−06828	America/Iqaluit	Eastern – NU (most areas)	−05:00	−04:00	Areas that use UTC−05:00 with daylight savings time but observed Atlantic Time until 1995. Now in sync with America/Toronto.
CA		America/Pangnirtung		−05:00	−04:00	Redirects to America/Iqaluit.	—
CA	+744144−0944945	America/Resolute	Central – NU (Resolute)	−06:00	−05:00	Areas that use UTC−06:00 with daylight savings time and skipped daylight savings time in 2007. Now in sync with America/Winnipeg.
CA	+484531−0913718	America/Atikokan	EST – ON (Atikokan), NU (Coral H)	−05:00	−05:00	Redirects to America/Panama Created because it is legally in Central Time but in practice observes EST year-round.	—
PA	+0858−07932	America/Panama	EST – ON (Atikokan), NU (Coral H)	−05:00	−05:00	Areas that have used UTC−05:00 year-round since the IANA cutoff date in 1970.
CA	+624900−0920459	America/Rankin_Inlet	Central – NU (central)	−06:00	−05:00	Now in sync with America/Winnipeg.
CA	+4953−09709	America/Winnipeg	Central – ON (west), Manitoba	−06:00	−05:00	Areas that use UTC−06:00 with daylight savings time. In practice, includes Big Trout Lake and Denare Beach, though by law they should be in America/Toronto and America/Regina, respectively.
CA		America/Rainy_River		−06:00	−05:00	Redirects to America/Winnipeg as of version 2022f. Created for places using Central Time that allegedly did not observe daylight savings time from 1967–1973, but this is not well sourced.	—
CA	+5024−10439	America/Regina	CST – SK (most areas)	−06:00	−06:00	Areas that have used UTC−06:00 year-round since the IANA cutoff date in 1970.
CA	+5017−10750	America/Swift_Current	CST – SK (midwest)	−06:00	−06:00	Areas that use UTC−06:00 year-round but used Mountain Time until 1972. Now in sync with America/Regina.
CA	+5333−11328	America/Edmonton	Mountain – AB, BC(E), NT(E), SK(W)	−07:00	−06:00	Areas that use UTC−07:00 with daylight savings time.
CA	+690650−1050310	America/Cambridge_Bay	Mountain – NU (west)	−07:00	−06:00	Now in sync with America/Edmonton.
CA		America/Yellowknife		−07:00	−06:00	Redirects to America/Edmonton.	—
CA	+682059−1334300	America/Inuvik	Mountain – NT (west)	−07:00	−06:00	Areas that use UTC−07:00 with daylight savings time but observed Pacific Time until 1979. Now in sync with America/Edmonton. Defined as areas in NWT west of 120th meridian west.[41]
CA	+4906−11631	America/Creston	MST – BC (Creston)	−07:00	−07:00	Redirects to America/Phoenix.	—
US	+332654−1120424	America/Phoenix	MST – AZ (most areas), Creston BC	−07:00	−07:00	Areas that have used UTC−07:00 year-round since the IANA cutoff date in 1970.
CA	+5546−12014	America/Dawson_Creek	MST – BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John)	−07:00	−07:00	Areas that use UTC−07:00 year-round but used daylight savings time until 1973. Now in sync with America/Phoenix.
CA	+5848−12242	America/Fort_Nelson	MST – BC (Ft Nelson)	−07:00	−07:00	Areas that use UTC−07:00 year-round but used daylight savings time until 2015. Now in sync with America/Phoenix.
CA	+4916−12307	America/Vancouver	Pacific – BC (most areas)	−08:00	−07:00	Areas that use UTC−08:00 with daylight savings time.
CA	+6043−13503	America/Whitehorse	MST – Yukon (east)	−07:00	−07:00	Areas that use UTC−07:00 year-round but used daylight savings time until 2019. Now in sync with America/Phoenix.
CA	+6404−13925	America/Dawson	MST – Yukon (west)	−07:00	−07:00	Areas that use UTC−07:00 year-round but observed Pacific Time until 1973 and used daylight savings time until 2019. Now in sync with America/Phoenix. Includes all of Yukon west of 138th meridian west.[42]

See also

• Lists of time zones
• Newfoundland's Daylight Saving Act of 1917
• 1972 British Columbia time plebiscite
• Effects of time zones on North American broadcasting
• National Research Council Time Signal
• Date and time notation in Canada

Notes

1. Tungsten (Cantung) Airport is shown as observing PST/PDT^[1]
2. Prairie Creek Airport, operated by Canadian Zinc, in southwest NWT, is shown as observing PST/PDT. North of Sixty Fishing Camps (Obre Lake/North of Sixty Airport) and Kasba Lake Lodge (Kasba Lake Airport) are shown as operating on CST/CDT.^[1]