Daylight saving time in Canada, 2026

Clocks go back one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, in Ontario, Quebec, the four Atlantic provinces and most of Nunavut. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and the Northwest Territories leave theirs alone, so the time gaps across the country shift for the winter. Pick your area to see what happens to your clocks.

• Nov. 1Clocks go back at 2 a.m. where they still change
• 6 of 13Provinces and territories that no longer change clocks
• 2 hoursVancouver behind Toronto this winter, down from 3
• March 14Next spring forward, in 2027

Who changes on Nov. 1, and who doesn't

Ottawa doesn't set the clocks. Each province and territory decides its own time, and some leave the choice to towns near their borders.^1,4,7 In 2026 four of them dropped the time change in the space of six months: British Columbia in March, Alberta in June, the Northwest Territories in August and Manitoba in September.^1,5,19 Saskatchewan and Yukon already kept one time all year.

UTC is Coordinated Universal Time. UTC−5 means five hours behind it. Summer 2027 starts with the spring forward on March 14, 2027, the second Sunday of March.⁷

One detail the province's own page has missed: B.C.'s government site, last updated Sept. 17, still says Golden will fall back to UTC−7 on Nov. 1.¹ Golden's council reversed that decision on Sept. 22 and will stay on UTC−6 with the rest of the East Kootenay.²

How the time gaps change this winter

With the West standing still and the East falling back, the distance between cities shrinks. Vancouver will be two hours behind Toronto this winter instead of three. Calgary and Edmonton will be one hour behind instead of two. Winnipeg and Toronto will show the same time from Nov. 1 until March 14.

Gaps are our calculation from each government's offsets.^1,3,4,5,6,8 Highlighted rows changed.

Next summer the old gaps come back for anyone dealing with Ontario or Quebec. From March 14, Vancouver is three hours behind Toronto again, Calgary two and Winnipeg one.

The border shifts too. U.S. clocks fall back on Nov. 1.²³ That puts most of B.C. an hour ahead of Washington state this winter, Alberta an hour ahead of Montana and Manitoba an hour ahead of Minnesota. Ontario and Quebec stay in step with New York.

Darker mornings in the West

Staying on summer time moves winter daylight from the morning to the evening. On Dec. 21, the shortest day of the year,⁸ the sun will rise an hour later than it would have under the old schedule in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Yellowknife, and set an hour later too.

Our calculation for each city centre, using the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's solar equations. Times can differ by a minute or two from other almanacs.

The dark mornings worried people in each place that made the switch. Golden's council chose year-round daylight time despite "concerns regarding darker winter morning conditions" and told staff to work with the school district and the provincial transportation ministry on pedestrian and student safety.² On P.E.I., the head of the teachers' federation raised the same worry about children at bus stops before any decision has been made there.¹⁶

What people are saying

We read the busiest Reddit threads about the changes in r/britishcolumbia, r/alberta and r/ontario. Two themes come up again and again: the darker mornings, and the new gaps between cities.

• "This is where it's going to get weird, we've been used to est being a 3 hour difference all our lives."

  Commenter on r/britishcolumbia, Sept. 17²⁸

  That's right for this winter. Vancouver will be two hours behind Toronto until March 14, then three again.

• "I will like the bit of light at the end of the work day, but I won't enjoy the sun rising at 10am in January."

  Commenter on r/britishcolumbia, Sept. 17²⁸

  Not quite that late in Vancouver. By our calculation, the latest sunrise there this winter is 9:08 a.m., on Dec. 31.

• "I like it. I want the sun later in the day. Adults/kids all trapped at work and school in the mornings anyways. Let us have daylight when we get home."

  Commenter on r/alberta, Sept. 23²⁹

• "In November if you wake up one day and your microwave is 1 hour different than your phone then your phone didn't know it was done with DST changes."

  Commenter on r/alberta, Aug. 12³⁰

  A fair test where clocks aren't changing, as long as you leave the microwave alone. The N.W.T. government tells residents not to reset clocks that aren't connected to the internet.⁶

• "Half the year we are in the same time zone as Thunder Bay and the other half is on Winnipeg time. It makes it very difficult to schedule appointments."

  Atikokan resident on r/ontario, Sept. 18³¹

  Manitoba's decision fixes half of that. Atikokan's year-round UTC−5 now matches Winnipeg all year.

Places still deciding

Northwestern Ontario

The part of Ontario west of 90° W, including Kenora, Dryden and Fort Frances, runs on Central time like Manitoba. If it falls back on Nov. 1, it will spend the winter an hour behind both Winnipeg and Thunder Bay.¹¹ Fort Frances council has passed a resolution to switch to permanent daylight time if most of the region's municipalities and First Nations do the same.¹² Kenora ran a public survey that closed Sept. 30.¹⁴ As of Oct. 7 we had not found a final decision from either council. Atikokan and Pickle Lake already keep one time all year.¹³

Nunavut

Nunavut still falls back. That leaves the Kitikmeot region on Yukon's time this winter rather than the N.W.T.'s, and the Kivalliq region an hour behind Manitoba, where many residents fly for medical care. Kitikmeot MLAs want legislation before Nov. 1. Justice Minister George Hickes said a review could take several months and no decision has been made.¹⁵

The Maritimes

P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz plans to survey Islanders. He says the premiers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick agree that if one Maritime province keeps the same time all year, all three should.¹⁶

Quebec and Ontario

In Quebec's 2024 public consultation, 91% of about 214,000 respondents wanted to stop changing the clock and 72% preferred keeping summer time. The government of the day didn't act on it.¹⁷ During the 2026 campaign, Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said the party would "in all likelihood" end the time change once it had consulted experts (our translation).¹⁷ His party won a minority government on Oct. 5.¹⁸ Quebec still falls back on Nov. 1.

Ontario passed the Time Amendment Act in 2020 to keep daylight time all year. It takes effect only on a day the province names by proclamation.¹⁰ The province has said it will wait for Quebec and New York to move as well.¹¹

Check your phone, computer and calendar

Phones and computers take their time zone rules from a shared database maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. It added B.C.'s change in April, Alberta's in July, the N.W.T.'s in September and Manitoba's on Sept. 29.¹⁹ A phone that hasn't installed a recent update can still fall back on Nov. 1 by mistake. Install updates before Halloween night.

• Windows. Microsoft scheduled the B.C. and Alberta changes for recent Windows 11 versions on Sept. 22 and for other versions on Oct. 13. If a computer can't be updated in time, Microsoft's temporary fix after Nov. 1 is to pick "(UTC-07:00) Yukon" for most of B.C. and "(UTC-06:00) Saskatchewan" for Alberta, Yellowknife, Inuvik and southeastern B.C.^21,22
• Calendars. Appointments booked before the change may show up an hour off. The N.W.T. government suggests checking anything you scheduled earlier.⁶
• Odd labels. The time zone database labels B.C.'s new year-round time MST, Alberta's and the N.W.T.'s CST, and Manitoba's EST, because those names already belonged to the same offsets.¹⁹ If a device shows one of these, the clock can still be right.
• Northwestern Ontario. The database's Sept. 29 update assumes the Central-time part of northwestern Ontario will follow Manitoba.¹⁹ If Kenora or a neighbouring town falls back after all, phones set to automatic time there could run an hour fast.

Claims we checked

The rules changed four times this year, and some pages haven't caught up. These are the errors we found most often in the first week of October.

• False
  B.C., Alberta and Manitoba turn their clocks back on Nov. 1.

  A guide on tutorsbot.com, updated Oct. 5, lists B.C. going to UTC−8, Alberta to UTC−7 and Manitoba to UTC−6.²⁴ All three governments say their clocks stay where they are.^1,3,5

• False
  Alberta and the N.W.T. turn their clocks back on Nov. 1, then stay on standard time.

  NOW Toronto published this.²⁵ Both stay on UTC−6, the time they kept all summer. Alberta calls it Alberta Time, "previously called Mountain Daylight Time."^3,6

• False
  Manitoba and the Northwest Territories still fall back on Nov. 1.

  The Canadian Wire's list of places where clocks go back includes both.²⁶ Manitoba announced on Sept. 17 that its clocks won't change, and the N.W.T. says no change will occur on Nov. 1.^5,6

• False
  Clocks spring forward on March 8, 2027.

  Also from the tutorsbot.com guide.²⁴ Clocks go forward on the second Sunday of March,⁷ which is March 14 in 2027. March 8 was the date in 2026.

Questions people ask

How we did this

We took each province's and territory's time from its own government: news releases, official time pages and, for Ontario, the bill itself. For places that decide locally, we used the town or regional district. We checked recent coverage from CBC and local outlets for decisions still under way, and the time zone database's release notes for device updates. Sources were retrieved Oct. 7, 2026.

The time gaps and sunrise times are our own calculations. The tool works out the time from fixed offsets rather than your device's time zone settings, so it stays right even on a phone that hasn't been updated. This page will change as northwestern Ontario, Nunavut and the Maritimes decide. Each change goes in the update log below.

Update log

• Oct. 7, 2026, 9:02 p.m. ETFirst published. Rules checked against each government's sources on Oct. 7, 2026.