Ontario agencies restore Lake Ontario to their websites after Google Maps updated it to Lake America in the U.S.

Ontario government agencies have restored Lake Ontario to their websites after a Google Maps update replaced it with Lake America over the weekend.

Metrolinx, the provincial agency that runs GO Transit, disabled the map on its GO stations page where the label appeared, it told Global News . The agency said in an email to National Post that “the issue has since been resolved, and our maps once again show Lake Ontario.”

Maps on sites run by Hydro One, Metrolinx, Infrastructure Ontario and the LCBO all displayed the American name, Global News reported. Global confirmed the labels itself and found the same on the Loblaws store locator, which CTV News reported was still showing Lake America on Monday morning.

A website that embeds a Google map loads the code from Google’s servers, and unless a developer specifies a region, the map draws American place names. Specifying Canada changes them.

Google’s developer guide says ensuring the correct regional setting for the country where an application is hosted is the developer’s responsibility.

Metrolinx disabled the map rather than change the setting. The LCBO’s store locator specifies Canada, which is what draws Canadian place names. Hydro One blamed a third-party mapping service it did not name. TD said it went to Google Canada.

National Post read the code behind 25 Canadian store and service locators Monday morning. Four exposed the setting. RBC’s specified Canada and so did the LCBO’s. TD’s Canadian branch locator specified nothing until Monday afternoon, when it began specifying Canada.

We can help.

— MapQuest (@MapQuest) August 30, 2026

Hydro One said in an email to National Post that its outage map showed an incorrect label for Lake Ontario for “a brief period” Sunday because of an issue with a third-party mapping service. The problem was identified and corrected Sunday evening, the utility wrote. It apologized for the error in an earlier statement to Global News.

TD said in an email to National Post that it was “working with Google Canada to update” its branch locator. The bank wrote about an hour later that the problem had been resolved.

Loblaw said in an email to National Post that the map on its store locator was showing an incorrect label for Lake Ontario, that the information comes from a third-party mapping service and that it was working to correct it.

The LCBO did not respond to a request for comment. Google did not provide a statement. Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada acknowledged the request and said it would respond. It had not by deadline.

Stephen Crawford, Ontario’s minister of public and business service delivery and procurement, wrote on X that some agency websites pull map data directly from Google Maps and that the province is reviewing them.

Some Ontario government agency websites pull map data directly from Google Maps. Following recent changes by Google, we’re actively reviewing our websites to make sure they all identify Lake Ontario by its correct name: Lake Ontario

As Ontarians, we will always stand up for…

— Stephen Crawford (@stcrawford2) August 30, 2026

Google said Saturday that Maps users in the United States would see Lake America, users in Canada would see Lake Ontario and users elsewhere would see both names.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14420 , “Honoring the American History of the Great Lakes and Renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America,” on Aug. 27. A secretary’s order directed the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to change its database the same day. The record lists Lake Ontario as a variant name alongside the Mohawk Kaniatarí:io, translated as nice lake.

The order says the United States lays claim to most of the lake’s “volume” and is mostly responsible for its security, economic activity and environmental stewardship, Global News reported.

The renaming followed the collapse of trade talks between the two countries this month. Canada and the United States have since announced matching tariffs of up to 50 per cent on some goods, TIME reported .

MapQuest wrote on X that it would not change the name and pointed users to a tool for renaming the lake themselves. Apple had not changed Apple Maps as of Sunday, TIME reported.

Gordon Giffin, U.S. ambassador to Canada from 1997 to 2001, told CTV News Channel the change was “a huge distraction” and would be reversed.

The U.S. Geographic Names Information System, the federal database that now carries the name, files Lake America under seven counties, all of them in New York. Ontario appears only in the written description.

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