B.C. finally adopts permanent daylight saving time, but how about the rest of the West Coast?

Two times a year again, there comes a minor inconvenience.

All around the world, people get ready to shift their times, either gaining or losing an hour.

However, if you live in British Columbia, there’s no going back — both in time and participating in daylight saving.

Last month, Premier David Eby announced the province will adjust its clocks one last time. Going forward, B.C. will share a time zone with places along the West Coast — including across our southern border to Washington, Oregon, and California — from March to November. However, during the rest of the year, B.C. will then be one hour ahead of those states, instead sharing a time zone with our neighbouring Alberta. 

An interesting fact — with how the time will now play out in the province — is that B.C. will join a similar scenario as the Yukon, which abandoned daylight saving time clock changes back in 2020. 

As for the rest of Canada, the only other province to not acknowledge daylight saving time as of writing is Saskatchewan. None of the other provinces have any known plans to abolish daylight saving time. 

I’m happy not to go through the minor inconveniences that come with the time changes anymore. Like many others, there’s more negatives than positives to experiencing the clock going up or down an hour. But I do wish the rest of the West Coast would’ve joined B.C. in abandoning doing these time changes semi-annually.

For anyone who has followed provincial politics for a while, this was something brought up by B.C.’s previous premier, the late John Horgan. In a provincewide survey from 2019, an overwhelming majority of participants voted in support of permanent daylight saving time.

Horgan’s government introduced legislation, with no firm timeline, on introducing permanent daylight saving time, but expressed the shift would only happen if West Coast jurisdictions like California and Washington state were on board. However, multiple attempts to stop the time-flipping along the American West Coast failed.

While I do understand the idea of permanent daylight saving time is more complex than it looks on the surface, it’s a lot easier to adjust to it if more people could join in on the plan.

Of course, it’s difficult to get something going if few are involved at the start, but I do hope at some point in the future the states of California, Oregon, and Washington can join us in not participating in the time changes. I think it would help make the transition easier if they joined now or soon, but I can’t blame them for being cautious with all the logistical changes they’d also have to make.

At least the Yukon has something for B.C. to follow in terms of adjusting to this new era without the time changes.

I can’t deny it’ll be a rough adjustment for B.C. with the sudden change of moving to permanent daylight saving time — at least at first. But I think when history looks back on this change, it’s going to be considered something positive.