What are the biggest lakes in Canada?

The biggest lakes in Canada are the Great Lakes, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake. The Great Bear Lake is the largest lake that is found entirely within Canada. Lake Huron and Lake Superior, which straddle the US-Canada border, are larger.

The Great Bear Lake is the 7th largest in the world and the 4th largest on the North American continent. It is found on the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories. Its total volume is 536 cu mi or 2,236 km3, and its surface area is 12,028 sq mi or 31,153 km2. The Great Bear Lake empties into the Mackenzie River through the Great Bear River and is surrounded by taiga or boreal forest. It has the shape of a large amoeba with five arms – Smith, Dease, McTavish, McVicar, and Keith – meeting in a common centre. The lake lies between the Interior Plains and the Kazan Uplands. The only community that lives on the Great Bear Lake is the Charter Community of Deline, and the area is accessed by Deline Airport. Commercial fishing is prohibited because the lake is the home to relic species that regenerate slowly in ice-cold water.

The Great Slave Lake is the world’s 9th largest lake, the deepest lake on the North American continent, and the 2nd largest in the Northwest Territories. It covers an area of 10,502 sq mi or 27,200 km2 and is 300 miles (480 kilometres) long. The Great Slave Lake is named after Slavey (also Deh Gah Got'ine, Slave, or Awokanak), a group of Athapaskan-speaking people that lives in the Canadian Subarctic. The Great Slave Lake, along with Athabasca and the Great Bear, are remnants of a postglacial pool. The lake is very deep and is frozen 8 months a year. It is a water reservoir for many streams and rivers, including Snowdrift, Snare, Yellowknife, Beaulieu, and others. The Dettah ice road is an ice road on the lake, connecting Dettah with Yellowknife. Towns situated on the Great Slave Lake include Fort Resolution, Hay River Reserve, Hay River, and Yellowknife. The first people to settle around the lake are North American Aboriginal peoples.


The Great Lakes are a group of lakes that connect to the Atlantic through the Great Lakes Waterway and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. They are situated on the Canada-United States border and form the world’s largest group of lakes. The group consists of Lakes Huron, Michigan, Superior, Ontario, and Erie and comprises 21 percent of the surface fresh water in the world. The drainage basin of Lake Ontario covers a small portion of Pennsylvania and parts of New York and Ontario. Toronto, Hamilton, and other industrial centres are located on the shores of Lake Ontario. The US shore is less intensely farmed and less urbanized than the Canadian shore. Lake Michigan is the only lake from the group that is entirely within the US. The drainage basin of Lake Michigan includes portions of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois.



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