The nation of Canada was created by the British North America Act in 1867 with Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia as the four original provinces. At that time the Hudson's Bay Company controlled the northern territories of modern Canada; these holdings were transferred to the new Canadian confederation in 1870. After creation of new provinces and many boundary adjustments, Canada today is a federation of ten provinces and three large federal territories in the north of the country. Nunavut is a territory encompassing the eastern portion of the Canadian Arctic. Separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999, Nunavut is thinly populated; its population in 2023 was estimated to be a little over 40,000. Iqaluit (formerly called Frobisher Bay) is the capital of the territory. Commercial navigation began in these northern waters after a railroad was completed in 1929 to Churchill, Manitoba, on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay. This allowed Canadian farmers to ship grain to Europe via Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. In 1932 a series of skeletal lighthouses were built to improve the safety of navigation through the strait. Also included on this page are several lights of Nunavik, Québec's northern territory, which faces Nunavut across the Hudson Strait. Aids to navigation in Canada are maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard. In 2008, Parliament passed the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to designate and protect historic lighthouses. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. CCG numbers are from the Inland Waters list of the List of Lights, Buoys, and Fog Signals of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Admiralty numbers are from Volume H of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 110.
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Nunavut Lighthouses
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![]() Resolute Bay Range Front Light, Resolute, July 2007 ex-Panoramio Creative Commons photo by tadilman |
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Northern Québec (Nunavik) Lighthouses
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![]() Cape Hopes Advance Light, Quactac Mapcarta Creative Commons photo by Golgo12 |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Greenland | Southeast: Labrador | West: Northwest Territories
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted August 13, 2014. Checked and revised June 18, 2024. Lighthouses: 25. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.