Stephen Smysnuik
Western Canada has killed the time change: Is it worth the hassle?
Western Canada has killed the time change: Is it worth the hassle?
Photo: Unsplash
The Topline
- Most of B.C. will no longer turn its clocks back every fall and will now stay on UTC-7 year-round, under a new time zone called Pacific time.
- Alberta has also stopped changing its clocks and will stay on UTC-6 year-round, meaning it will continue to be an hour ahead of B.C. all year.
- Manitoba also announced it will stop changing its clocks and remain at UTC-5 year-round, which means it will have the same time as Toronto during winter, but one hour behind Toronto during summer.
- Most of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada will turn their clocks back one hour on Nov. 1, although parts of northwestern Ontario won’t so the region can align with neighbouring Manitoba.
- Washington, Oregon and California have passed their own permanent-time laws but still need Congress to act, so for now they’ll fall back one hour to UTC-8 like always, but will sit an hour behind B.C. from November to March.
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Switch sides,
back and forth
Canada shouldn’t have to wait for Congress
Somebody on the West Coast had to go first.
A 2019 consultation conducted for the province of B.C. found 93 per cent of roughly 223,000 respondents preferred observing daylight saving time year-round.
B.C. went ahead and passed its permanent daylight time law that same year, but with the expectation that Washington, Oregon and California would move first.
Everything was on track. California voters approved the idea in 2018 and Washington passed its own law in 2019, but neither state has made the switch.
It’s been seven years now. How much longer can Western Canada possibly be expected to wait?
Some aren’t happy with the choice to go with daylight instead of standard time. But earlier this year, Angus Reid found 53 per cent of Canadians preferred permanent daylight time, versus 33 per cent for permanent standard time and 14 per cent for the status quo.
The Alberta government said making this switch would improve predictability for families and reduce frustrations from changing the clocks twice each year.
Meanwhile, sleep experts have argued that changing the clocks twice a year takes a toll on health, and this decision ends that for good.
And yes, the cross-border cost is real, but arguably overstated.
For about eight months of the year, B.C. and Alberta will be on the same clock as their neighbours in Washington, Montana and Idaho. From November to March, they’ll be an hour ahead.
It’ll be weird, but everyone will adapt, businesses included. Companies that deal with the U.S. will still see the gap shift twice a year, but everyone else, from families to schools to hospitals, can now enjoy never having to change the clocks again.
The plan is still that the U.S. eventually follows suit. Premier David Eby said he was “hopeful” that these states will join B.C. in “ending disruptive time changes.”
Because that’s how change spreads: someone acts, shows the change in action, and others follow suit.
It’s trading one headache for another
Earlier this year, The Globe and Mail editorial board predicted B.C.’s change to daylight time “may not last.”
No longer losing an hour of sleep?
Sounds great.
An extra hour of evening daylight in the winter months?
Fantastic.
But what about morning darkness that goes past 9 a.m.?
Or — according to Microsoft — having to manually update your Outlook calendar events to adjust for two brand new time zones made up just for B.C. and Alberta?
What about the call-centre employees working for the Canada Revenue Agency in B.C. who work until 8 p.m. ET? They’ll now have to work until 6 p.m. local time instead of 5 p.m. — then back to 5 p.m. again in the spring.
That means having to worry about an extra hour of child care, elder care, or other extracurricular activities that take place in the evenings.
Earlier this month, a Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) analysis concluded that the weight of health evidence favours permanent STANDARD time — not the permanent daylight time B.C. and Alberta chose.
Ralph Mistlberger, one of its researchers, explained that permanent daylight time pushes the morning light an hour later during the very part of the year when mornings are already darkest.
This matters because morning light helps set our body’s clock. According to the CMAJ authors, it’s a key signal for sleep and mood.
When sunrise comes later by the clock, fewer people get that signal before work or school. We wake up and commute in the dark, and our body clocks drift out of sync with our schedules.
Alignment was the whole premise, and more than half of respondents in a 2019 survey conducted by the province said staying in step with its neighbours was “important” or “very important.”
And yet, B.C.’s decision seems to have ignored that desire altogether.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade called the move “an unwelcome distraction that will make it more difficult to attract and retain businesses in British Columbia,” noting that support for permanent daylight time has generally depended on key trading partners moving in tandem.
If Western Canada decided that changing clocks is too disruptive, we’re about to find out if trading one headache for another one was worth it.
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