Time in Canada

Map of time zones in Canada

Canada is divided into six time zones, based on proposals by Scottish Canadian railway engineer Sir Sandford Fleming, who helped pioneer the world's time zone system.^[1] Most of Canada operates on standard time from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March and daylight saving time the rest of the year.^[2]

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)
  • Yukon ^{[notes 1]}
• Pacific Standard Time PST UTC−08:00 year-round
  • Northwest Territories
    • Tungsten and the associated Cantung Mine^[2]

Mountain Time Zone

• Mountain Standard Time MST UTC−07:00 year-round
  • British Columbia, northeastern
    • Northern Rockies Regional Municipality^[3]
    • most of Peace River Regional District (except Fort Ware), including Dawson Creek
  • British Columbia, southeastern
    • Creston
• 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 parts east of Kootenay Lake that are south of and including Riondel (but not Creston)
  • Northwest Territories, except for Tungsten (see above), two fishing lodges in the southeast and a mine site in the southwest^{[notes 2]}
  • 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.)

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 (no DST)
  • 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) use EST and DST unofficially.
• Eastern Standard Time EST UTC−05:00 year-round (no DST)
  • 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 year-round (no DST)
  • Quebec (east of the Natashquan River)^[4]
• 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)^[4]

Newfoundland Time Zone

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

Former time zones

• The Yukon Time Zone (UTC−09:00) covered Yukon until 1975. In 1983, the zone (then covering only a small portion of Alaska) was restructured to cover most of Alaska and renamed the Alaska Time Zone.

Daylight saving time

Four Canadian cities, by local ordinance, used Daylight Saving Time in 1916. Brandon, Manitoba on April 17 became the first place in the world to use it. It was followed by Winnipeg on April 23, Halifax on April 30, and Hamilton, Ontario on June 4.^[5]

Daylight saving time is now observed in most regions of all provinces and territories, except Saskatchewan (although, since Saskatchewan is in the Mountain Time Zone and observes CST time it is effectively on DST year round). 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.

The latest United States change (Energy Policy Act of 2005), adding parts of March and November starting in 2007, was adopted by the various provinces and territories on the following dates:

• Ontario,^[6] Manitoba^[7] – October 20, 2005
• Quebec – December 5, 2005^[8]
• Prince Edward Island – December 6, 2005^[9]
• New Brunswick – December 23, 2005^[10]
• Alberta – February 2, 2006^[11]
• Northwest Territories – March 4, 2006^[12]
• British Columbia – March 31, 2006^[13]
• Nova Scotia – April 25, 2006^[14]
• Yukon – July 14, 2006^[15]
• Newfoundland and Labrador – November 20, 2006, but officially announced on January 18, 2007^[16]
• Nunavut – February 19, 2007^[17]
• Saskatchewan – no official action taken, as the province does not change their clocks back in winter.

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.

See also

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

Notes

References

External links

• It's about TIME
• Saskatchewan time system
• Canadian time zone maps
• Official Times across Canada
• North American Time zone maps and border data

Time in Canada (by province or territory)
Provinces	Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan
Territories	Northwest Territories Nunavut Yukon
Book Category Portal WikiProject

Time in the Americas
North America South America
Sovereign states	Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela
Dependencies and other territories	Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Falkland Islands French Guiana Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Turks and Caicos Islands US Virgin Islands