BURST
This will be the last year clocks spring forward after the B.C. government announced Monday it was making daylight time permanent.
The change will take effect on Sunday, when clocks move ahead an hour. Permanent daylight time will mean that the typical falling back of clocks by an hour in November will not take place.
“Every parent knows that changing clocks twice a year causes a significant amount of chaos on already busy lives. British Columbians have been clear that seasonal time changes do not work for them,” Premier David Eby said in a statement. “This decision isn’t just about clocks. It’s about making life easier for families, reducing disruptions for businesses and supporting a stable, thriving economy.”
The announcement comes seven years after the B.C. government passed legislation allowing it to end the twice-yearly time changes.
The 2019 legislation followed a public consultation that found 93 per cent of British Columbians were in favour of moving to permanent “daylight saving time,” but over half of British Columbians also said they would prefer to wait until the U.S. followed suit.
To that end, then premier John Horgan and then attorney general David Eby said they would wait to make the changes.
“Operating at a different time zone from our neighbours to the north and south could create uncertainty and unnecessary confusion for business, consumers and travellers,” said Eby in 2019 while debating the legislation. “That’s why the change proposed would not come into effect immediately. Instead, it would happen by regulation so that we can synchronize our time change with those in Yukon and in neighbouring U.S. states on the Pacific coast: Washington, Oregon and California.”
But that has not happened, meaning B.C. could be in the awkward position of being an hour ahead of Washington state, California and Oregon for half the year. The change would also mean B.C. would be the same time as Alberta for half the year and an hour behind for the rest of the time.
Eby said in the statement that he hoped Americans would soon join B.C. in ending “disruptive time changes.”
More to come …