National Highway System (Canada)

The National Highway System in Canada is a federal designation for a strategic transport network of highways and freeways. The system includes but is not limited to the Trans-Canada Highway, and currently consists of of roadway designated under one of three classes: Core Routes, Feeder Routes, or Northern and Remote Routes.
The Government of Canada maintains very little power or authority over the maintenance or expansion of the system beyond sharing part of the cost of economically significant projects within the network. Highways within the system are not given any special signage, except where they are part of a Trans-Canada Highway route.

History

The system was first designated in 1988 by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, a council consisting of the federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Transport. A total of of highway were originally designated as part of the system. Highways selected for the system were existing primary routes that supported interprovincial and international trade and travel, by connecting major population or commercial centres with each other, with major border crossings on the Canada–United States border, or with other transport hubs.
The system was further expanded in 2004, with the addition of approximately of highway that was not part of the original 1988 network. It was in this era that the current "core", "feeder" and "northern or remote" classes of route were established. In September 2006, the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety approved a short set of Engineering Guidelines and Desired Objectives for the National Highway System. The document framed the NHS as critical corridors for Canada’s economy and mobility, and states that new construction on NHS routes should aspire to nationally consistent objectives, while rehabilitation may use more local judgment for cost-effective reconstruction decisions.

Standards

The 2006 engineering guidance identifies desired objectives for geometric design and operations, including access control, minimum design speeds by terrain, and typical minimum cross-section dimensions. The document also references national and pan-Canadian design and traffic-control standards, including the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code for bridge design and the Transportation Association of Canada manual for signing, markings, and traffic control devices. Not all highways within the system are designated in their entirety, but may instead be part of the system over only part of their length; a few highways even have two or more discontinuous segments designated as part of the system. In some locations, the National Highway System may also incorporate city arterial streets to connect highway routes which are part of the system but do not directly interconnect, or to link the system to an important intermodal transport hub; such as a shipping port, a railway terminal, an airport or a ferry terminal; which is not directly on a provincial-class highway.
Routes within the system continue to be maintained, funded and signed as provincial, rather than federal, highways. The only exceptions are highways through national parks and a portion of the Alaska Highway, which are managed by Parks Canada and Public Works and Government Services Canada, respectively. The National Highway System has been criticized for lacking a truly comprehensive expansion plan. In many parts of the country, the system relies on two-lane highways, or expressways which are not fully up to international freeway standards; according to Lakehead University economics professor Livio di Matteo, many parts of the system, even on the main Trans-Canada Highway portion of the network, still leave "the nation's east–west flow of personal and commercial traffic subject to the whims of an errant moose".
American transportation planning academic Wendell Cox has also identified improvements to the system, so that Canada would have a comprehensive national freeway network comparable to the American Interstate Highway System, as an economically critical project for the country to undertake in the 21st century. Cox notes that many Canadians prefer to drive between Western Canada and Eastern Canada by travelling through the United States rather than on Canadian highways; even though the distance may be longer than the Trans-Canada Highway route, as it frequently takes a shorter amount of time due to the US Interstate system's higher speed limits, increased lane capacity, higher number of alternative routes, and reduced likelihood of being delayed by a road accident.

Numbering system

The NHS is a federal designation of existing provincial and territorial highways and connecting links, rather than a separate nationwide route-numbering program. In the 2005 review, the system was organized into three route categories; Core, Feeder, and Northern/Remote; based on agreed criteria and thresholds, while route numbering remained under the existing provincial and territorial highway systems.
Transport Canada summarizes the three-category structure as follows:

Core routes are key interprovincial and international corridors
Feeder routes link other population and economic centres to the core
Northern/Remote routes provide primary access linkages to northern and remote areas and related economic activity.

Signage

The 2006 NHS engineering guidance does not prescribe a unique NHS route marker. Instead, it directs jurisdictions to use national traffic-control device standards for signing and pavement marking.
Where an NHS corridor is also part of the Trans-Canada Highway, jurisdictions may sign the route using Trans-Canada Highway markers in addition to provincial route markers. For example, Ontario’s traffic manual states that the Trans-Canada Highway route marker is installed beside provincial route markers when a provincial highway forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway route.

Funding

Routes within the system continue to be maintained, funded and signed as provincial, rather than federal, highways. However, the federal government provides some funding assistance for important maintenance and expansion projects on designated highways through cost sharing programs. For instance, several recent maintenance projects on National Highway System routes in Saskatchewan were partly funded under the federal government's Building Canada Fund: Major Infrastructure Component, while several four-laning projects in Ontario in the 2000s accessed federal funding under the Strategic Highway Infrastructure Program. There is no single, ongoing program for federal contributions to the National Highway System; rather, these contributions have been made through a variety of separate infrastructure investment programs of defined length and scope. Recent transportation planning proposals have identified public-private partnerships and dedicated fuel taxes as possible mechanisms for providing more stable funding, although no comprehensive program has been implemented to date. There is no NHS-wide toll policy; tolling decisions are made through the authorities responsible for the specific facility.

In Nova Scotia, the province eliminated tolls for Nova Scotia-registered vehicles using the Cobequid Pass highway effective December 16, 2021.
The Confederation Bridge has been subject to federal measures affecting toll levels. Transport Canada briefing material stated that tolls were restrained at the 2022 rate of $50.25 per passenger vehicle under relief measures in the early 2020s. In July 2025, the Prime Minister’s Office announced a reduction of Confederation Bridge tolls to $20 effective August 1, 2025, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer summarized the measure and effective date in later analysis.

Statistics

Network size and composition

Following the 2005 review, the Task Force recommended a restructured NHS totaling 38,021 km. It also reported that the proposed system represented 2.7% of Canada’s highway network by length.
In the NHS Annual Report 2017, the Council of Ministers reported a total NHS length of 38,098 km as of December 2017, and estimated that the NHS comprised about 3.7% of the length of Canada’s public road network.

Traffic and travel

The 2017 annual report reported that in 2016 the NHS carried over 141 billion vehicle-kilometres of travel, including about 20 billion vehicle-kilometres of truck travel, and that total travel on the NHS increased 18% from 2005 to 2016.

Infrastructure and investment indicators

The 2017 annual report reported over $43 billion invested in the NHS since 2006/07, and stated that there were 10,805 bridges on the NHS in 2017.

Routes

In its current form, the National Highway System includes routes in all Canadian provinces and territories except Nunavut, which has no conventional road connections to any other Canadian province or territory.
Officially the system maintains three classifications of road: Core, Feeder and Northern/Remote. Within the core and feeder classes, the system's official register made additional distinctions between conventional core or feeder routes and intermodal links or "anomalies", where a highway that does not meet the normal criteria for inclusion, or a municipal arterial road, has been adopted into the system to fill in a gap in the network. The "intermodal" and "anomaly" classes are not distinct designations, however, but simply represent an additional clarification of why the road holds "core" or "feeder" status. Since 2016, the "anomaly" category has been dropped and the road is simply included in the specific list. The tables below do not include "intermodal" municipal streets which connect major highways to intermodal facilities.
Note that some highways listed here may be designated as part of the National Highway System over only a portion of their total length, rather than over the whole highway. Termini listed below are those of a highway's NHS designation only, and may not necessarily always correspond to the termini of the highway as a whole. Transport Canada publishes a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction summary of NHS route lengths as of September 2005.

Alberta

The system includes of highway in Alberta.

British Columbia

The system includes of highway in British Columbia.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core		Victoria		Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route; includes ferry between Nanaimo and West Vancouver.	-
	Core		Hwy 97 in Dawson Creek		Dawson Creek-Tupper Highway	Part of CANAMEX Corridor.	-
	Core		Hwy 1 in Hope		Crowsnest Highway	Entire route.	-
	Feeder		Hwy 19 near Qualicum Beach	Port Alberni	Alberni Highway		-
	Core		Hwy 1 in Hope	Hwy 16 at Tête Jaune Cache		Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 7B in Port Coquitlam	Kennedy Road in Pitt Meadows	Lougheed Highway	Segment of the route to the C.P.R. Intermodal Transport Facility in Pitt Meadows. Provincial Highway.	-
	Core		Hwy 7 in Coquitlam	Hwy 7 in Port Coquitlam	Mary Hill Bypass	Entire route. Segment of the route to the C.P.R. Intermodal Transport Facility in Pitt Meadows. Provincial Highway.	-
	Core			Hwy 1 (TCH) in Abbotsford	Abbotsford-Huntingdon Highway		-
	Core			8th Avenue in Surrey	Pacific Highway	Part of corridor connecting the Pacific Highway Border Crossing and Hwy 99.	-
	Core		Prince Rupert			Entire mainland section.	-
	Core		Victoria	Hwy 99 in Delta	Patricia Bay Highway	Includes ferry between North Saanich and Delta.	-
	;	31	19	Hwy 99 in Delta	Hwy 1 / Hwy 15 in Surrey	South Fraser Perimeter Road	Officially not listed part of N.H.S.; Hwy 17 extension.
	Core		Duke Point ferry terminal near Nanaimo	Hwy 4A near Parksville	Inland Island Highway		-
	Feeder		Hwy 4A near Parksville	Hwy 28 in Campbell River	Inland Island Highway		-
	Feeder		Hwy 16 near Terrace	Kitimat	Kitimat-Terrace Highway		-
	Northern / Remote		Hwy 16 at Kitwanga		Stewart–Cassiar Highway		-
	Feeder			Hwy 3 at Yahk	Yahk-Kingsgate Highway	-	-
	Feeder			Hwy 97C at West Kelowna	Okanagan Highway		-
	Core		Hwy 97C in West Kelowna	Hwy 97A near Vernon	Okanagan Highway		-
	Core		Hwy 1 in Cache Creek				-
	Core		Hwy 97 near Vernon	Hwy 1 in Sicamous	Sicamous Vernon Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 97A near Grindrod	Hwy 1 in Salmon Arm	Grinrod-Salmon Arm Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 97 in Peachland	Hwy 5 in Merritt	Okanagan Connector		-
	Core			Whistler		Section through Vancouver is not provincially maintained.	-
	Feeder		Langdale ferry terminal	Powell River	Sunshine Coast Highway		-
8th Avenue	Core		Hwy 99 in Surrey	Hwy 15 in Surrey		Part of corridor connecting the Pacific Highway Border Crossing and Hwy 99.	-

Manitoba

The system includes of highway in Manitoba.

New Brunswick

The system includes of highway in New Brunswick.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Route 2 near Three Rivers		Entire route.	-
	Core				Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Route 1 in Saint John	Route 2 near Fredericton	Vanier Highway		-
	Feeder		Route 2 near Fredericton	Route 11 in Bathurst	Entire route.		-
	Feeder		Route 15 in Shediac	Route 17 near Campbellton			-
	Core		Moncton	Route 16 in Strait Shores			-
	Core		Route 2 at Aulac	P.E.I. border	Trans-Canada Highway	Includes NB portion of the Confederation Bridge.	-
	Feeder		Route 2 at Saint-Léonard	Route 11 near Campbellton			-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Route 2 in Woodstock		Entire route.	-
	Core		Route 1 at Rothesay	Saint John Airport		Intermodule connection.	-

Newfoundland and Labrador

The system includes of highway in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core		Channel-Port aux Basques ferry terminal	Route 30 in St. John's	Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Route 1 in St. John's	Port of St. John's	Pitts Memorial Drive		-
	Core		Route 1 in St. John's	St. John's International Airport	Portugal Cove Road		-
	Core		Argentia ferry terminal	Route 1 at Whitbourne		Ferry connection to Nova Scotia operates seasonally during the summer.	-
	Core		Route 1 near Lewisporte	Lewisporte	Road to the Isles		-
	Core		Route 1 near Bishop's Falls	Botwood			-
	Core		Route 1 in Corner Brook	Riverside Drive		Intermodule link to the Port of Corner Brook.	-
	Feeder		Route 1 in Deer Lake	St. Barbe ferry terminal		Ferry connection to Blanc-Sablon, Quebec	-
	Northern / Remote			Route 510 at Happy Valley-Goose Bay			-
	Northern / Remote			Route 500 at Happy Valley-Goose Bay	Trans-Labrador Highway	Entire route; excludes section of Quebec Route 138; ferry connection to St. Barbe.	-

Northwest Territories

The system includes of highway in the Northwest Territories.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core			Highway 3 near Fort Providence	Mackenzie Highway		-
	Northern / Remote		Highway 3 near Fort Providence	Wrigley	Mackenzie Highway		-
	Core		Highway 1 at Enterprise	Hay River	Hay River Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 3 near Fort Providence	Highway 4 at Yellowknife	Yellowknife Highway	Entire route.	-
	Northern / Remote		Highway 3 at Yellowknife	Tibbitt Lake	Ingraham Trail	Entire route.	-
	Northern / Remote			Inuvik	Dempster Highway	Entire route.	-

Nova Scotia

The system includes of highway in Nova Scotia.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core		Hwy 102 / Trunk 1 in Bedford	Trunk 3 in Yarmouth		Entire route.	-
	Core		Halifax	Hwy 104 in Truro		Entire route.	-
	Feeder		Hwy 102 in Halifax	Yarmouth		Entire route.	-
	Core		New Brunswick border	Hwy 105 / Trunk 19 at Port Hastings	Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 105 / Trunk 19 at Port Hastings	Trunk 4 at River Tillard		Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 125 near Sydney Mines	North Sydney ferry terminal			-
	;	139	86	Hwy 104 / Trunk 19 at Port Hastings	Hwy 125 near Sydney Mines		Officially not listed part of N.H.S.; part of the Trans-Canada Highway.
	Core		Route 15 in Shediac	Caribou ferry terminal		Entire route.	-
	Core		Victoria Road in Dartmouth	Hwy 111 in Dartmouth	Circumferential Highway		-
	Feeder		Hwy 111 in Dartmouth	Pleasant Street in Dartmouth	Circumferential Highway		-
	Core		Hwy 111 in Dartmouth	Hwy 102 near Fall River		Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 105 in Sydney Mines	Trunk 4 in Sydney River	Peacekeepers Way		-
	Core		Hwy 104 at River Tillard	Hwy 125 in Sydney River			-
	Core		Hwy 101 at Conway	Digby Ferry			-

Ontario

The system includes of highway in Ontario.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core		Highway 401 in Toronto	Highway 69 near Carling	Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 3 in Windsor		Macdonald–Cartier Freeway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Highway 401 in London		Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 401 near Woodstock	Highway 401 / Highway 410 in Mississauga		Entire route; includes concurrency with QEW.	-
	Core		QEW in St. Catharines		General Brock Parkway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Pearson Airport	Highway 401 in Toronto	Belfield Expressway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 401 / Highway 403 in Mississauga	Highway 10 north of Brampton		Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 401 in near Johnstown	Highway 417 in Ottawa	Veterans Memorial Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core			Highway 17 near Arnprior		Entire route.	-
	Core		QEW in Niagara Falls	Canada-U.S. border		Entire route; combined with Niagara Regional Road 420.	-
	Core		QEW / Gardiner Expy in Toronto	in Vaughan			-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Highway 427 / Gardiner Expy. in Toronto	Unsigned Highway 451	Entire route	-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Highway 401 in Windsor	Huron Church Road		-
	Feeder		Highway 401 in Windsor	Highway 77 in Leamington			-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Highway 401 in Windsor	Dougall Avenue		-
	Core		Highway 403 in Hamilton	in Guelph			-
	Core		John C. Munro Airport	Highway 403 in Hamilton		Intermodule connection.	-
	Core		Highway 12 in Brock	Highway 417 in Ottawa	Trans-Canada Highway		-
	Core		Highway 8 in Kitchener	Highway 6 in Guelph		Excludes concurrency with Highway 8 between Kitchener and Stratford.	-
	Core		Highway 7 in Stratford	Highway 401 in Cambridge		Includes concurrency with Highway 7 between Kitchener and Stratford.	-
	Feeder		Highway 410 north of Brampton	Highway 26 in Owen Sound		Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 400 in Barrie	Highway 17 in Nipigon	Trans-Canada Highway	Includes concurrency with Highway 17 in North Bay; excludes concurrency with Highway 17 between Nipigon and Shabaqua Corners.	-
	;	280	174	Highway 17 at Shabaqua Corners	Highway 71 in Fort Frances	Trans-Canada Highway	Not part of N.H.S., part of the Trans-Canada Highway; excludes concurrency with Highway 71.
	Core		Highway 7 in Brock	Highway 400 at Severn	Trans-Canada Highway	Excludes concurrency with Highway 400.	-
	Feeder		Highway 400 at Waubaushene	Highway 93 in Midland		Excludes concurrency with Highway 400.	-
	Core			Highway 401 near Johnstown		Entire route.	-
	Core		Highway 417 near Arnprior		Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Highway 17 in Sault Ste. Marie		Possible subject to revision, truck route via Carman's Way and Highway 550.	-
	Feeder		Highway 3 in Tillsonburg	Highway 401 near Ingersoll		Entire route	-
	Feeder		Highway 3 in Simcoe	Highway 403 in Brantford			-
	Core		County Road 19 near Collingwood	Highway 400 in Barrie			-
	Core		Highway 417 near Hawkesbury			Entire route.	-
	Core			Highway 11 / Highway 17 in Thunder Bay		Entire route.	-
	Core			Highway 11 near Swastika	Trans-Canada Highway		-
	Core		Highway 400 in Carling	Highway 17 in Sudbury	Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route	-
	Core		Canada-U.S. border	Highway 17 near Kenora	Trans-Canada Highway	Includes concurrency with Highway 11.	-
	Feeder		Highway 3 in Leamington	Highway 401 in Lakeshore		Entire route	-
	Feeder		Highway 144 in Timmins	Highway 11 in Matheson			-
	Core		Highway 17 near Serpent River	Elliot Lake			-
	Core		Highway 401 near Newcastle	Highway 7 in Peterborough		Entire route; includes concurrency with Highway 7.	-
	Core			Highway 401 near Lansdowne		Entire route.	-
	Feeder		Cornwall	Highway 417 near Casselman		Entire route; connects to Seaway International Bridge and U.S. border.	-
	Feeder		Highway 17 in Sudbury	Highway 101 in Timmins		Entire route.	-
	Feeder		Highway 34 in Hawkesbury	Highway 417 in East Hawkesbury		Former Highway 17.	-
Nicholas Street Rideau Street King Edward Avenue	Core		Highway 417 in Ottawa			Ottawa city streets connecting Highway 417 and Autoroute 5 in Gatineau, QC.	-

Prince Edward Island

The system includes of highway in Prince Edward Island.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core			Wood Islands Ferry Terminal		Entire route; includes PEI portion of the Confederation Bridge.	-
	Core		Route 1 near Albany	Route 2 near Summerside		Entire route.	-
	Core		Summerside	Route 1 in Charlottetown			-
	Feeder		Route 14 / Route 153 in Tignish	Summerside			-
	Feeder		Route 1 in Charlottetown	Souris			-
	Feeder		Route 1 at Cherry Valley	Georgetown		Entire route	-

Quebec

The system includes of highway in Quebec.

Saskatchewan

The system includes of highway in Saskatchewan.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core				Trans-Canada Highway	Entire route.	-
	Core		Hwy 1 in Moose Jaw	Hwy 11 at Chamberlain	Veterans Memorial Highway		-
	Core		Hwy 11 near Prince Albert	Hwy 3 / Hwy 302 in Prince Albert	Veterans Memorial Highway		-
	Northern / Remote		Hwy 3 / Hwy 302 in Prince Albert	Hwy 102 in La Ronge	CanAm Highway		-
	Core		Hwy 39 at Corinne	Hwy 1 in Regina	CanAm Highway	Regina – Weyburn – Estevan corridor.	-
	Core			Hwy 11 / Hwy 16 in Saskatoon		Entire route	-
	Core		Hwy 1 near Balgonie	Hwy 16 in Yorkton			-
	Core		Hwy 1 in Regina	Hwy 2 south Prince Albert	Louis Riel Trail	Entire route	-
	Core					Entire route.	-
	Core			Hwy 6 at Corinne	CanAm Highway	Regina – Weyburn – Estevan corridor.	-

Yukon

The system includes of highway in Yukon.

Route	Class	Length	Length	Southern or western terminus	Northern or eastern terminus	Name	Notes
	Core				Alaska Highway	Entire route.	-
	Feeder			Hwy 1 south of Whitehorse	(South) Klondike Highway		-
	Northern / Remote		Hwy 1 north of Whitehorse	Hwy 5 south of Dawson City	(North) Klondike Highway		-
	Northern / Remote		Hwy 2 south of Dawson City		Dempster Highway	Entire route.	-
	Northern / Remote			Hwy 1 near Upper Liard	Stewart–Cassiar Highway	Entire route.	-

Impact and reception

Government reporting frames the NHS as a set of corridors and linkages that are vital to national mobility and to economic activity, including trade and travel between provinces and across major international border crossings.
The 2005 Task Force review argued that Canada depends heavily on highways for trade, commerce, and mobility, and described the highway system as the primary means of access to and from large regions of the country. The Task Force also noted that the growing connection between NHS designation and eligibility under federal infrastructure programs increased the importance of clarifying route eligibility criteria and thresholds.
The same review documented unresolved policy questions and differing viewpoints during system development, including whether and how to treat major corridors within large metropolitan areas, and how to define “performance characteristics” and minimum service standards across a wide range of operating environments.