Northeast B.C. including Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, & Dawson Creek have held daylight savings time permanently for many years.
The rest of the province follows suit this coming weekend.
The province said Monday that B.C. adopts permanent Daylight Saving Time when the clocks move forward one hour on March 8.
It comes years after B.C. introduced legislation that paved the way for a move to permanent daylight time. The province said in 2019 the change wouldn’t take effect until Washington, Oregon and California are all aligned on the move.
Several U.S. states have enacted legislation or made moves toward maintaining daylight time year-round, but the changes can’t take effect without movement from Congress.
Premier David Eby said Monday B.C. is done waiting.
“This is an unusual time, and we had committed to wait for our American partners. But the reality is that they’re stuck and we want to help give them a push that they need,” said Eby.
Eby said he hopes U.S. Congress “will make the right decision” and allow the Western states to follow B.C.’s lead.
The next time change would have been Nov. 1, 2026, but now the clocks will remain the same instead of “falling back.” The province said people and businesses will have eight months to adjust to permanent DST.
B.C.’s new time zone, Pacific Time, will be set seven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC-7, matching the current offset used during daylight saving time.
The switch means B.C. and Yukon’s time zones will be aligned year-round. From November to March, B.C.’s time zone will match Alberta and other regions observing MST. From March to November every year, it will align with California, Washington, Oregon and other Pacific Daylight Time jurisdictions.
The government said the purpose of the change is to improve people’s overall health, reduce disruptions for families, simplify scheduling and provide an extra hour of evening light during the winter months.
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said it marks the end of a twice-yearly ritual that goes back more than 100 years in B.C.
-with files from Emily Joveski/Vista Radio News
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