# Time in Canada

Canada is divided into six time zones. 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.
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.

## Official time

The National Research Council (NRC) maintains Canada's official time through the use of atomic clocks. The official time is specified in legislation passed by the individual provinces. In Quebec it is based on coordinated universal time. The other provinces use mean solar time. The NRC provides both coordinated universal time and mean solar time in its signals. 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 November 5, 1939. The signal was discontinued on October 15, 2023.

## Time notation

The Government of Canada recommends use of the 24-hour clock (e.g. 15:48), which is widely used in contexts such as transportation schedules, parking meters, and data transmission. Speakers of Canadian French predominantly use this system, but most Canadian English speakers use the 12-hour clock in everyday speech (e.g. 3:48 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)
* Northwest Territories, the community of Tungsten

### 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 Tungsten (see above), two fishing lodges in the southeast and a mine site in the southwest
* 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
** most of Peace River Regional District (except Fort Ware), including Dawson Creek
** Taku River Tlingit First Nation
** 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
* 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)
Atlantic Standard Time (AST) UTC−04:00 year-round:
* Quebec (east of the Natashquan River)

### 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 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 April 3 until October 30, meaning that the time was set ahead by 2 hours. All of Newfoundland and southern Labrador, which observes UTC−03:30 as its standard time zone, observed UTC−01:30. This only happened in 1988 and the province now only adjusts its time by one hour for daylight saving time.

## Daylight saving time

Four Canadian cities, by local ordinance, observed daylight saving time in 1916. Brandon, Manitoba, adopted it on April 17. It was followed by Winnipeg on April 23, Halifax on April 30, and Hamilton, Ontario, on June 4. Port Arthur, Ontario, was the first place in the world to introduce it, on July 1, 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. 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 October 31, 2019, the government introduced Bill 40 in the legislature, which would define "Pacific Time" as "7 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)". In a press release, the provincial government stated an intention to maintain alignment of clock time with Washington, Oregon, California, and Yukon. 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. 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.
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 and Manitoba – October 20, 2005
* Quebec – December 5, 2005
* Prince Edward Island – December 6, 2005
* New Brunswick – December 23, 2005
* Alberta – February 2, 2006
* Northwest Territories – March 4, 2006
* British Columbia – March 31, 2006
* Nova Scotia – April 25, 2006
* Yukon – July 14, 2006. Year-round MST as of March 8, 2020.
* Newfoundland and Labrador – November 20, 2006, but officially announced on January 18, 2007
* Nunavut – February 19, 2007
* 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 | | 9610196 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +4439−06336 | America/Halifax | Atlantic - NS (most areas), PE | −04:00 | −03:00 | In addition to NS and PE, also includes two areas of Quebec: Magdalen Islands and Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation | 10441414 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +4612−05957 | America/Glace_Bay | Atlantic - NS (Cape Breton) | −04:00 | −03:00 | Like America/Halifax, but did not adopt DST until 1972. Likely includes all of Cape Breton Island | 10438273 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +4606−06447 | America/Moncton | Atlantic - New Brunswick | −04:00 | −03:00 | Like America/Halifax, except DST time change happened at 12:01 am rather than 2:00 am prior to 2007. | 10432327 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +5320−06025 | America/Goose_Bay | Atlantic - Labrador (most areas) | −04:00 | −03:00 | Like America/Halifax, except DST time change happened at 12:01 am rather than 2:00 am from 1987–2011. (Also observed Newfoundland Time until 1966.) | 2049110 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +5125−05707 | America/Blanc-Sablon | AST - QC (Lower North Shore) | −04:00 | −04:00 | Redirects to America/Puerto_Rico East of 63rd meridian west | 15097517 on OpenStreetMap |
| 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 | Legally includes all of Ontario east of 90th meridian west but in practice only applied to urban areas until 1974 | 6483867 on OpenStreetMap |
| 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. | 6483867 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | | America/Thunder_Bay | | −05:00 | −04:00 | – 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 | | 6451459 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | | America/Pangnirtung | | −05:00 | −04:00 | Redirects to America/Iqaluit Places that switched from Atlantic Time to Eastern Time in 1995 | — |
| CA | +744144−0944945 | America/Resolute | Central - NU (Resolute) | −06:00 | −05:00 | Places in Central Time that skipped DST in 2007 | 6446190 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +484531−0913718 | America/Atikokan | EST - ON (Atikokan), NU (Coral H) | −05:00 | −05:00 | Redirects to America/Panama Legally Central Time but in practice observes EST year-round. | 16602909 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +624900−0920459 | America/Rankin_Inlet | Central - NU (central) | −06:00 | −05:00 | | 6446189 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +4953−09709 | America/Winnipeg | Central - ON (west), Manitoba | −06:00 | −05:00 | In practice includes Big Trout Lake and Denare Beach, though by law they should be in America/Toronto and America/Regina, respectively. | 6442822 on OpenStreetMap |
| 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 DST 1967–1973. | — |
| CA | +5024−10439 | America/Regina | CST - SK (most areas) | −06:00 | −06:00 | | 6442821 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +5017−10750 | America/Swift_Current | CST - SK (midwest) | −06:00 | −06:00 | Western Saskatchewan towns that observed Mountain Time until 1972. | 10424167 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +5333−11328 | America/Edmonton | Mountain - AB, BC(E), NT(E), SK(W) | −07:00 | −06:00 | | 6442820 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +690650−1050310 | America/Cambridge_Bay | Mountain - NU (west) | −07:00 | −06:00 | | 6446170 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | | America/Yellowknife | | −07:00 | −06:00 | Redirects to America/Edmonton East of 120th meridian west | — |
| CA | +682059−1334300 | America/Inuvik | Mountain - NT (west) | −07:00 | −06:00 | West of 120th meridian west | 10553994 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +4906−11631 | America/Creston | MST - BC (Creston) | −07:00 | −07:00 | Redirects to America/Phoenix Places in Pacific Time that have not observed DST since the database cut-off date (1970) | 6446092 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +5546−12014 | America/Dawson_Creek | MST - BC (Dawson Cr, Ft St John) | −07:00 | −07:00 | Places in Mountain Time that stopped using DST in 1973 | 6483979 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +5848−12242 | America/Fort_Nelson | MST - BC (Ft Nelson) | −07:00 | −07:00 | Places in Mountain Time that stopped using DST in 2015. | 10424947 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +4916−12307 | America/Vancouver | Pacific - BC (most areas) | −08:00 | −07:00 | | 6483981 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +6043−13503 | America/Whitehorse | MST - Yukon (east) | −07:00 | −07:00 | East of 138th meridian west | 10465808 on OpenStreetMap |
| CA | +6404−13925 | America/Dawson | MST - Yukon (west) | −07:00 | −07:00 | West of 138th meridian west | 10441037 on OpenStreetMap |