The list of regions of Canada is a summary of geographical areas on a hierarchy that ranges from national (groups of provinces and territories) at the top to local regions and sub-regions of provinces at the bottom. Administrative regions that rank below a province and above a municipality are also included if they have a comprehensive range of functions compared to the limited functions of specialized government agencies. Some provinces and groups of provinces are also quasi-administrative regions at the federal level for purposes such as representation in the Senate of Canada. However regional municipalities (or regional districts in British Columbia) are included with local municipalities in the article List of municipalities in Canada.
The provinces and territories are sometimes grouped into regions, listed here from west to east by province, followed by the three territories. Seats in the Senate are equally divided among four regions: the West, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes, with special status for Newfoundland and Labrador as well as for the three territories of Northern Canada ('the North'). This is the only regional scheme that has any legal status or function. Regional representation on the Supreme Court of Canada is governed more by convention than by law. Quebec is the only region with a legally guaranteed quota of three judges on the bench. The other regions are usually represented by three judges from Ontario, two from Western Canada (typically but not formally one from British Columbia and one from the Prairie Provinces) and one from Atlantic Canada. The three territories do not have any separate representation on the Supreme Court.
Statistics Canada uses the six-region model for the Geographical Regions of Canada.[1] Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada uses the five-region model, while seven regions are commonly used for polling. The various models are derived from the three-region scheme by progressively subdividing the western and eastern regions (the northern region is the same for all models) into smaller and smaller units consisting of provinces or groups of provinces. If the models are not treated as mutually exclusive, eight distinct national regions can be identified when the three western regions of the seven region scheme are combined with the two Atlantic regions of the Senate method and the Ontario, Quebec, and Northern regions common to both schemes.
| All provinces and territories | Senate divisions | Seven-region model[2] | Six-region model | Five-region model[3] | (HTML). Retrieved 9 April 2018. | Four-region model | Three-region model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | Western Canada (24 seats) | British Columbia | British Columbia | West Coast | Western Canada | Western Canada | |
| Alberta | Alberta | Canadian Prairies | Canadian Prairies | ||||
| Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan and Manitoba | ||||||
| Manitoba | |||||||
| Ontario | Ontario (24 seats) | Ontario | Ontario | Central Canada | Central Canada | Eastern Canada | |
| Quebec | Quebec (24 seats) | Quebec | Quebec | ||||
| New Brunswick | The Maritimes (24 seats) | Atlantic Canada | Atlantic | Atlantic Canada | Atlantic Canada | ||
| Prince Edward Island | |||||||
| Nova Scotia | |||||||
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Newfoundland and Labrador (6 seats) | ||||||
| Yukon | The North (3 seats) | Northern Canada | Territories (Northern Canada) | Northern Canada | Northern Canada | Northern Canada | |
| Northwest Territories | |||||||
| Nunavut |
An inter-provincial region includes more than one province or territory but does not usually include the entirety of each province or territory in the group. However, the geographic or cultural features that characterize this type of region can sometimes lead to the relevant provinces or territories being seen as regional groups like British Columbia-Yukon and Alberta-Northwest Territories.
See also: Geography of Canada.
The provinces and territories are nearly all sub-divided into regions for a variety of official and unofficial purposes. The geographic regions are largely unofficial and therefore somewhat open to interpretation. In some cases, the primary regions are separated by identifiable transition zones, particularly in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. The largest provinces can be divided into a number of primary geographic regions of comparatively large size (e.g. southern Ontario), and subdivided into a greater number of smaller secondary regions (e.g. southwestern Ontario). The primary and secondary regions in Ontario are mainly non-administrative in nature. However, they tend to be defined as geographic groupings of counties, regional municipalities, and territorial districts, so that the regions are defined by a system or collection of borders that have local administrative importance.
In other large provinces, the primary and secondary geographic regions are defined more strictly by topographical and ecological boundaries. In geographically diverse provinces, the secondary regions can be further subdivided into numerous local regions and even sub-regions. British Columbia has a much greater number of local regions and sub-regions than the other provinces and territories due to its mountainous terrain where almost every populated lake, sound, and river valley, and every populated cape and cluster of small islands can claim a distinct geographical identity. At the other extreme, Prince Edward Island is not divided into any widely recognized geographic regions or sub-regions because of its very small size and lack of large rivers or rugged terrain. New Brunswick's small size renders it dividable into local geographic regions only.
Several provinces and territories also have supra-municipal administrative regions. Their borders mostly do not harmonize with the geographic regions, so they are not considered subdivisions or groupings of the latter.
See also: List of communities in Alberta and List of municipalities in Alberta.
These regions are not officially considered subdivisions of the larger primary natural regions.
See also: List of regions of Manitoba.
See also: List of regions of the Northwest Territories.
Administrative regions of Northwest Territories.[8]
See also: List of municipalities in Nova Scotia.
See also: List of regions of Nunavut.
Most geographic regions in Ontario defined by grouping counties and other administrative units
See also: List of counties in Prince Edward Island. Not subdivided into geographical regions or sub-regions
See also: List of regions of Quebec.
See main article: List of regions of Saskatchewan.