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 most of the northern territories of modern Canada; these holdings were transferred to the new Canadian confederation in 1869. 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. Northwest Territories is a federal territory encompassing a large portion of the Canadian Arctic between the territories of Yukon on the west and Nunavut on the east (Yukon and Nunavut were separated from Northwest Territories, Yukon in 1898 and Nunavut in 1999). The territory is thinly populated; its population in 2020 was about 45,000. Yellowknife, on the northern coast of Great Slave Lake, is the capital of the territory. The territory is divided into five administrative regions. There are no "traditional" lighthouses in the Northwest Territories but there are many substantial skeletal towers like the range light towers shown at right. 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. CCG numbers are from the Inland Waters list of the List of Lights, Buoys, and Fog Signals of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. For the Arctic Ocean (Beaufort Sea) coast Admiralty numbers are from Volume H of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals and U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 110. None of the lights on this page are listed by ARLHS.
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Great Slave Lake Lighthouses
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Mackenzie River Lighthouses
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![]() Naylor Island Range Rear Light, Mackenzie River Mile 4.4 Microsoft Bing Maps photo by Christopher Treco |
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Inuvik Region (Arctic Coast) Lighthouses
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![]() Swimming Point Range Lights, Mackenzie Delta, February 2015 photo copyright Joseph Pavlic; used by permission |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Nunavut | West: Alaska
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Posted November 15, 2004. Checked and revised June 11, 2024. Lighthouses: 25. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.