Time in Canada

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Short description: Time zones of Canada
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 Mountain
UTC−06:00 (year round) Central
UTC−06:00 UTC−05:00 Central
UTC−05:00 (year round) Eastern
UTC−05:00 UTC−04:00 Eastern
UTC−04:00 (year round) Atlantic
UTC−04:00 UTC−03:00 Atlantic
UTC−03:30 UTC−02:30 Newfoundland

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.[1]

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

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][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The NRC provides both coordinated universal time and mean solar time in its signals.[15] 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.[16] The signal was discontinued on October 15, 2023.[17]

Time notation

Canadian National timetable from 1975 using the 24-hour clock

The Government of Canada recommends use of the 24-hour clock (e.g. 02:50), which is widely used in contexts such as transportation schedules, parking meters, and data transmission.[18] Speakers of Canadian French predominantly use this system, but most Canadian English speakers use the 12-hour clock in everyday speech (e.g. 2:50&2b36p;a.m.), 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) GMT−08:00 and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) GMT−07:00:

  • British Columbia (most of the province)

Mountain Time Zone

Mountain Standard Time (MST) GMT−07:00 and Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) GMT−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[note 1]
  • 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) GMT−07:00 year-round:

  • Yukon
  • British Columbia, northeastern
    • Northern Rockies Regional Municipality[19]
    • most of Peace River Regional District (except Fort Ware), including Dawson Creek
  • British Columbia, southeastern
    • Creston

Central Time Zone

Central Standard Time (CST) GMT−06:00 and Central Daylight Time CDT GMT−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) GMT−06:00 year-round:

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

Eastern Time Zone

Eastern Standard Time (EST) GMT−05:00 and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) GMT−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) GMT−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) GMT−04:00 and Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT) GMT−03:00:

  • Labrador (all but the southeastern tip)
  • New Brunswick
  • Nova Scotia
  • Prince Edward Island
  • Quebec (Magdalen Islands and Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation)[20]

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

  • Quebec (east of the Natashquan River)[20]

Newfoundland Time Zone

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

  • Labrador (southeastern)
  • Newfoundland

Former time zones

  • The Yukon Time Zone (GMT−09:00) covered Yukon from 1900 until 1966. 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.
  • In 1988, Newfoundland observed "double daylight saving time" from April 3 until October 30, meaning that the time was set ahead by 2 hours.[21] All of Newfoundland and southern Labrador, which observes GMT−03:30 as its standard time zone, observed GMT−01:30.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] 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)".[25] In a press release, the provincial government stated an intention to maintain alignment of clock time with Washington (state) , Oregon, California , and Yukon.[26] 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.[27][28][29] 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.[30]

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[31] and Manitoba[32] – October 20, 2005
  • Quebec – December 5, 2005[33]
  • Prince Edward Island – December 6, 2005[34]
  • New Brunswick – December 23, 2005[35]
  • Alberta – February 2, 2006[36]
  • Northwest Territories – March 4, 2006[37]
  • British Columbia – March 31, 2006[38]
  • Nova Scotia – April 25, 2006[39]
  • Yukon – July 14, 2006.[40] Year-round MST as of March 8, 2020.[24]
  • Newfoundland and Labrador – November 20, 2006, but officially announced on January 18, 2007[41]
  • Nunavut – February 19, 2007[42]
  • 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
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked In addition to NS and PE, also includes two areas of Quebec: Magdalen Islands and Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation[43] Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Like America/Halifax, but did not adopt DST until 1972. Likely includes all of Cape Breton Island[44] Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Like America/Halifax, except DST time change happened at 12:01 a.m. rather than 2:00 a.m. prior to 2007. Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Like America/Halifax, except DST time change happened at 12:01 a.m. rather than 2:00 a.m. from 1987–2011. (Also observed Newfoundland Time until 1966.) Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Puerto_Rico

East of 63rd meridian west[43]

Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Toronto as of version 2015c —
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Legally includes all of Ontario east of 90th meridian west but in practice only applied to urban areas until 1974 Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked 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.

Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked –

Created because of a claim that Thunder Bay did not use DST in 1973.

—
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Iqaluit

Places that switched from Atlantic Time to Eastern Time in 1995

—
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Places in Central Time that skipped DST in 2007 Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Panama

Legally Central Time but in practice observes EST year-round.

Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked In practice includes Big Trout Lake and Denare Beach, though by law they should be in America/Toronto and America/Regina, respectively. Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Winnipeg as of version 2022f

Created for places using Central Time that allegedly did not observe DST 1967–1973.

—
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Western Saskatchewan towns that observed Mountain Time until 1972. Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Edmonton

East of 120th meridian west[45]

—
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked West of 120th meridian west[45] Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Redirects to America/Phoenix

Places in Pacific Time that have not observed DST since the database cut-off date (1970)

Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Places in Mountain Time that stopped using DST in 1973 Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Places in Mountain Time that stopped using DST in 2015. Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked East of 138th meridian west[46] Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap
Template:Time zone/zone.tab cols linked West of 138th meridian west[46] Template:OSM on OpenStreetMap

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. ↑ 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]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 5 December 2019 to 0901Z 30 January 2020.
  2. ↑ Creet, Mario (1990). "Sandford Fleming and Universal Time". Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine 14 (1–2): 66–89. doi:10.7202/800302ar. 
  3. ↑ "NRC time services". https://nrc.canada.ca/en/certifications-evaluations-standards/canadas-official-time/nrc-time-services. 
  4. ↑ National Assembly (1 January 2007). "Legal Time Act 2006". http://canlii.ca/t/52mxx. 
  5. ↑ Minister of Justice (26 February 2015). "Interpretation Act R.S.C., 1985". http://laws.justice.gc.ca/PDF/I-21.pdf.  This Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21, section 35(1) refers to 'standard time' for the several provinces, defining each in relation to 'Greenwich time', but does not use the expression 'Greenwich mean time'.
  6. ↑ Alberta Queen's Printer (1 January 2007). "Daylight Saving Time Act, RSA 2000". http://www.canlii.org/en/ab/laws/stat/rsa-2000-c-d-5. 
  7. ↑ Queen's Printer (5 April 2016). "Interpretation Act, RSBC 1996". http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/laws/stat/rsbc-1996-c-238/latest/rsbc-1996-c-238.html. 
  8. ↑ Manitoba (1 February 1988). "The Official Time Act". http://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/_pdf.php?cap=O30. 
  9. ↑ Queen's Printer for New Brunswick (1 September 2011). "Time Definition Act 2011". http://laws.gnb.ca/en/ShowPdf/cs/2011-c.229.pdf. 
  10. ↑ Queen's Printer, St John's (2012). "Standard Time Act RSNL 1990". http://www.assembly.nl.ca/legislation/sr/statutes/s23.htm.  By §2(1) "Time in the province shall be reckoned as 3 1/2 hours later [sic] than Greenwich mean solar time."
  11. ↑ Office of the Legislative Counsel (22 September 1998). "Time Definition Act". http://www.nslegislature.ca/legc/statutes/timedefn.htm. 
  12. ↑ Queen's Printer for Ontario (31 December 1990). "Time Act, R.S.O. 1990". http://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90t09. 
  13. ↑ Legislative Counsel Office (2 December 2015). "Interpretation Act 1988". http://www.princeedwardisland.ca/sites/default/files/legislation/i-08-interpretation_act.pdf. 
  14. ↑ The Queen's Printer (26 February 1978). "The Time Act 1978". http://www.canlii.org/en/sk/laws/stat/rss-1978-c-t-14/latest/part-1/rss-1978-c-t-14-part-1.pdf. 
  15. ↑ National Research Council (28 July 2020). "DUT1 announcement". http://time5.nrc.ca/timefreq/bulletin_tf-b.html. 
  16. ↑ Bartlett, Geoff (5 November 2014). "'The beginning of the long dash' indicates 75 years of official time on CBC". https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/the-beginning-of-the-long-dash-indicates-75-years-of-official-time-on-cbc-1.2823599. 
  17. ↑ Taekema, Dan (October 10, 2023). "The end of the long dash: CBC stops broadcasting official time signal". CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cbc-stops-broadcasting-national-research-council-long-dash-time-signal-1.6988903. 
  18. ↑ Collishaw, Barbara (2002). "FAQs on Writing the Time of Day". Terminology Update 35 (3): 11. https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/favart/index-eng.html?lang=eng&lettr=indx_titls&page=9qo3G9wQtvTo.html. Retrieved 2018-07-20. 
  19. ↑ Buckle, Anne (21 September 2015). "New Time Zone in Fort Nelson". http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/fort-nelson-canada-time-zone.html. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Legal time in Québec , Ministry of Justice of Quebec, April 20, 2015.
  21. ↑ Benesh, Peter (1988-06-21). "Daylight Almost Until Midnight: Newfoundland Tries out Double Daylight-Saving Time". Orlando Sentinel. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1988-06-21-0050050237-story.html. 
  22. ↑ Order re: Newfoundland Double Daylight Savings Time, 1988. O.C. 1404/87. Newfoundland Gazette, 1988-02-19, page 67.
  23. ↑ Doris Chase Doane, Time Changes in Canada and Mexico, 2nd edition, 1972.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Government of Yukon (March 4, 2020). "Yukon to end seasonal time change". https://yukon.ca/en/news/yukon-end-seasonal-time-change. 
  25. ↑ "Bill 40 – 2019: Interpretation Amendment Act, 2019". Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. 2019. https://www.leg.bc.ca/content/data%20-%20ldp/pages/41st4th/1st_read/gov40-1.htm. 
  26. ↑ "Interpretation amendment act sets stage for year-round daylight time" (PDF) (Press release). British Columbia Office of the Premier / Ministry of Attorney General. 2019-10-31. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  27. ↑ Chan, Cheryl (2019-09-11). "B.C. survey shows overwhelming support for permanent Daylight Saving Time". Vancouver Sun. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-survey-shows-overwhelming-support-for-permanent-daylight-time. 
  28. ↑ "Daylight Saving Time Public Consultation: Final Report". 2019. https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/502/2019/09/Daylight-Saving-Time-Final-Report.pdf. 
  29. ↑ "B.C.'s daylight saving survey gets more public engagement than marijuana regulation". 2019-07-05. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/daylight-savings-poll-engagement-1.5200828. 
  30. ↑ Plonka, Gabrielle (2019-10-01). "B.C. premier meets with Silver, grand chief". Whitehorse Daily Star. https://www.whitehorsestar.com/News/b-c-premier-meets-with-silver-grand-chief. 
  31. ↑ "Time Act". http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90t09_e.htm. 
  32. ↑ Province Introduces Legislation that Would Extend Daylight Saving Time in Manitoba (The Official Time Amendment Act ,The Official Time Act )
  33. ↑ "Bill n°2 : Legal Time Act". http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-2-37-2.html. 
  34. ↑ "An Act to Amend the Time Uniformity Act". http://assembly.pe.ca/bills/pdf_chapter/62/3/chapter-41.pdf. 
  35. ↑ "Changes to daylight saving time in New Brunswick in 2007 (05/12/23)". http://www.gnb.ca/cnb/news/pre/2005e1737pr.htm. 
  36. ↑ Alberta sees the light with a timely announcement
  37. ↑ Daylight Saving Time Regulations
  38. ↑ "New Daylight Saving Time Takes Effect in 2007". http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2006AG0014-000330.htm. 
  39. ↑ "Nova Scotia to Change Daylight Saving Time". https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20060425004. 
  40. ↑ Yukon To Adopt Extended Daylight Saving Time Starting March 2007
  41. ↑ "An Act Respecting Standard Time and Daylight Time in the Province". http://assembly.nl.ca/Legislation/sr/statutes/s23.htm. 
  42. ↑ "Nunavut News/North "Nunavut to follow new seasonal time standard"". http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2007-02/feb19_07tm.html. 
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Legal Time Act, CQLR c T-5.1, s 2.
  44. ↑ Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. "tzdb data for North and Central America and environs". https://data.iana.org/time-zones/tzdb/northamerica. 
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Interpretation Act, SC 1967–68, c 7, s 28, "standard time".
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 Interpretation Ordinance, YCO 1967/59.

External links



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