Under the Canadian Constitution, laws related to timekeeping are a provincial and territorial matter.[3] In the regions of Canada that use daylight saving time, it begins on the second Sunday of March at 2a.m. and ends on the first Sunday in November at 2a.m. As a result, daylight saving time in Canada lasts for a total of 34 weeks (238 days) every year, about 65 percent of the entire year.
History
Port Arthur, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay) was the first municipality in the world to enact daylight saving time, on July 1, 1908.[4][5] (Germany later became the first country to adopt the time change, on April 30, 1916.)[6]
In practice, since the late 1960s, DST across Canada has been closely or completely synchronized with its observance in the United States to facilitate consistent economic and social interaction. When daylight time became standardized across the US in 1966 when its Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, Canada soon followed.[6] DST ended in October until 1986, when the end of the period was changed to November. When the United States extended DST in 1987 to the first Sunday in April, all DST-observing Canadian jurisdictions followed suit.[5]
In 2005, the United States passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which added parts of March and November to the period during which DST is observed, starting in 2007. The new transition dates were adopted by each of Canada's provinces and territories (except Saskatchewan) between 2005 and 2007, resulting in Canada and the US remaining synchronized.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
Beginning in the late 2010s, many regions in Canada began to consider ending the practice of clock changes by adopting daylight saving time year-round. In 2019 and 2020, British Columbia[24] and Ontario passed legislation to enable such a change, although the implementation was delayed to allow coordination with neighbouring US states. In 2020, Yukon made the change, choosing not to "fall back" in November and remaining on UTC−7 year-round.[25] Despite no changes on the American side of the border, British Columbia enacted their 2019 bill in 2026,[26] joining Yukon in observing UTC−7. Later in 2026, Alberta and the Northwest Territories adopted UTC−6 year-round,[27][28] while Manitoba adopted UTC-5 year round.[29]
By province and territory
Time zones of Canada. Pale coloured areas observe daylight saving time and dark coloured areas do not.
The provinces and territories that observe DST in Canada are:[10]
Although Alberta and Saskatchewan are geographically within the Pacific Time Zone and Mountain Time Zone, both provinces officially observe Central Time year-round. Alberta characterizes its timezone as permanent Mountain Daylight Time, which in effect is the same as permanent Central Standard Time.[30][31]
The Saskatchewan Time Act of 1966 designated the use of CST year-round for eastern Saskatchewan and allowed western parts of the province to use MST year-round. By 1972, most western regions of the province had switched from MST to CST. The exception was the area around city of Lloydminster, which is bisected by the Saskatchewan–Alberta boundary, which kept in sync with time in Alberta until Alberta itself changed its time observance practice to match Saskatchewan's. An unofficial exception also existed in the east of the province where the small, remote Saskatchewan towns of Denare Beach and Creighton observed Central Daylight Time during the summer to keep the same time as larger neighbouring Manitoba communities, until Manitoba itself changed its time observance practice to one hour ahead of Saskatchewan year-round.
Until 2026, Alberta observed Mountain Time, switching between Mountain Standard Time (UTC−7) in winter and Mountain Daylight Time (UTC−6) in summer. In 2021, the provincial government held a referendum on permanently adopting daylight saving time, which was narrowly defeated (50.2% against, 49.8% in favour).[32] The referendum did not offer permanent Mountain Standard Time as an option, a limitation critics noted as skewing the framing of the question.[33] The 2026 public consultation formally offered permanent Mountain Standard Time as an alternative, but the government proceeded with permanent MDT – an offset equivalent to Central Standard Time.[34] Following British Columbia's move to permanent Pacific Daylight Time in March 2026,[35] the Alberta government conducted public consultations on eliminating biannual clock changes.[34] In April 2026, Premier Danielle Smith acted to permanently adopt Mountain Daylight Time (UTC−6) year-round, characterizing this as Alberta Time.[27] Chronobiologists argue that Alberta's misalignment with solar noon compounds the health effects already associated with permanent summer time, including elevated risks to cardiovascular health, sleep, and metabolic function.[33][36]
In March 2021, the Northwest Territories passed legislation to eliminate daylight saving time, pending a public consultation which was held in 2022.[37] Respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of eliminating DST with a slight majority in favour of adopting permanent daylight time.[38] In 2026, Premier R.J. Simpson announced that the territory would adopt UTC−6 year-round. A key motivation for the change was remaining in sync with Alberta due to close economic and cultural links.[28] The change took force on August 21, 2026.[39]
Atlantic Canada
In 2022, the premiers of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia discussed the possibility of adopting permanent daylight time.[40] Their discussion followed the US Senate passing a bill to make DST permanent; this bill died in the US House of Representatives. In 2026, the premier of Nova Scotia stated that adopting permanent DST was a possibility but only in conjunction with the other Atlantic provinces.[41]
In 2020, Yukon abandoned seasonal time changes, moving to year-round UTC−7.
On March 2, 2026, British Columbia premier David Eby announced the end of daylight saving time for the majority of the province, which will see the bulk of the province observe permanent UTC−7, a time observance identical to the Peace River region and neighbouring Yukon.[35]
Manitoba
Time in Manitoba, all of which runs on Central Time, is dictated by the province's Official Time Act.[42]
On September 17, 2026, Manitoba announced they would stay on permanent daylight time and no longer change their clocks twice a year,[43] resulting in an offset equivalent to Eastern Standard Time (UTC–05:00).
Ontario was the site of the first municipality in the world to enact DST: Port Arthur on July 1, 1908.[4] Similarly, Hamilton subsequently became one of seven cities in Canada to use daylight saving time before 1918, by local ordinance.[11]
In November 2020, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed Bill 214, the Time Amendment Act, 2020, which will establish year-round observation of daylight saving time. However, the act does not come into force immediately but takes effect on a day to be named by proclamation of the Ontario lieutenant governor under the advisory of the province's attorney general.[46] That is intended to avoid moving to a different time zone from the one that is used in Quebec or New York.[47]
Quebec
Most of Quebec is on Eastern Time and observes DST. However, there are three exceptions, all of which are legally accommodated by the province's Time Act of 2006:
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