Keeping Canada’s digital services on time
This weekend, we spring forward for daylight saving time. It’s a small shift, but it raises a bigger question: How does Canada keep time?
Accurate time is more than what you see on a watch. It helps keep digital services working properly, including secure networks, online transactions and computer systems that need to “agree” on the exact time.
Today, time is kept using atomic clocks—highly precise instruments that help keep systems in sync.
Behind the scenes, Government of Canada organizations work together to share a trusted time signal across federal IT systems.
Canada’s official timekeeper
“The demand for secure and accurate time has been growing in recent years in telecommunications, infrastructure, navigation and finance, with these sectors requiring traceable time with sub-microsecond precision.”
To meet this demand, the National Research Council (NRC)—Canada’s official timekeeper—developed NRC TimeLink™, a system with precision down to the nanosecond level that delivers an extremely precise time signal to remote locations. It keeps systems aligned to Canada’s official time and includes safeguards to help protect the signal from interference.
Always on time with SSC’s Enterprise Time Service
SSC delivers the Enterprise Time Service (ETS), which provides a reliable and trusted source of time for Government of Canada IT infrastructure. ETS uses the NRC TimeLink™ and time servers in federal data centres to help keep systems synchronized and continuously monitored.
Over the past year, SSC has enabled ETS so that departments and agencies connected to the federal enterprise network can access a trusted source of time.
The NRC can also monitor SSC’s time servers and provide real-time reports on how closely they match Canada’s official time.
By sharing a secure, consistent time signal across federal systems, SSC helps support reliable digital services for Canadians and the businesses that depend on them. When we all gain an extra hour of daylight this weekend, the Government of Canada won’t lose a nanosecond of accuracy.
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