Canada's official time

The CBC has discontinued the broadcast of the NRC's official time signal on its English and French radio networks as of October 10, 2023.

The NRC's official time can still be found in the following ways:

Learn about the timekeeping systems used by the NRC and the science behind time measurement

Get the time

Web clock

The official time in your time zone, according to the NRC's atomic clocks

Sunset and sunrise calculator

Sunrise and sunset times and hours of illumination for a given date for select Canadian cities

Radio time signal broadcast (CHU)

Information about the NRC's continuous shortwave radio broadcasts of the time, system status updates

Computer time and date

NRC time codes to keep your computer's time and date current

Network time protocol (NTP)

Information on using network time protocol to get the most accurate time information for your computer

Telephone talking clock

Access to the NRC's telephone talking clock

Science behind time measurement

NRC time services

Satisfy the requirements for time at all levels of precision

Time zones and daylight saving time

Information about Canada's 6 time zones

Leap seconds

Learn about the significance of the leap second in accurate time keeping

Leap years

Learn why leap years exist

Seasons

Learn when the seasons begin each year

Cesium atomic clocks

Learn why they exist and how they work

Global Positioning System (GPS) data

How the NRC uses GPS to intercompare frequency standards with those of other national laboratories