The Canadian Shield is an area under which has a Precambrian rock base, and the surface terrain consists of eroded hilly areas and contains many lakes and rivers, many of the rivers which are used for hydroelectric production, especially in northern Quebec and Ontario.

The area covered by the Canadian Shield includes northeastern part of Alberta, northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, all of Labrador and the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, eastern mainland Northwest Territories, most of Nunavut′s mainland and, of its Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Island and significant bands through Somerset, Southampton, Devon and Ellesmere islands.

The Canadian shield also encloses an area of wetlands, the Hudson Bay lowlands. Some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges, including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains.

The Canadian shield does not support intensive agriculture even though there are dairy farms and subsistence agriculture in many of the river valleys and around the lake areas. However, boreal forests, mostly conifers, cover much of the shield, which provide timber resources, particularly in northern Ontario. The shield is also known for the vast mineral reserves including copper, diamonds and emeralds.