B.C. will skip the November clock change: what permanent Pacific time means for Vancouver

On Nov. 1, Ontario and Quebec will turn their clocks back an hour. British Columbia's will stay exactly where they are.

The Province announced on March 2 that B.C. is adopting permanent, year-round daylight saving time. For people in Vancouver, that means the clocks they set ahead on March 8 are the last ones they will touch for the foreseeable future, which gives households, employers and schools about eight months to adjust before the first autumn without a change.

The new year-round zone is called Pacific time, and it is set at UTC-7, the offset the province already uses in summer. The change is not universal across the province, and it does not line B.C. up with its southern neighbours.

A zone that matches the Yukon, but not Cranbrook

According to the province, Pacific time will match the Yukon all year. A regulation will bring the amendments into effect after March 8.

Some communities will follow a different path. Northeastern B.C. towns that already keep mountain standard time all year will stay on it, which effectively puts them on the same clock as the rest of the province. In the southeast, places such as Cranbrook and Golden will remain aligned with Alberta, moving between UTC-7 in winter and UTC-6 in summer. Local governments keep the authority to decide which time zone they observe.

Technology is expected to keep up. Google, Microsoft and Apple have patched their operating systems with the new PCT code.

A 2019 law left on the shelf

The province points to a 2019 public engagement that drew a record 223,000 participants, 93% of whom supported year-round daylight saving time. Attorney General Niki Sharma said the government has heard from an overwhelming majority of people who want seasonal time changes to end. Premier David Eby described the twice-yearly switch as a source of chaos in busy lives.

None of this is entirely new. Daily Hive reports that the late premier John Horgan first proposed the idea, and that Eby made the change official earlier this year. Voters were asked a related question long ago: more than 50 per cent backed introducing daylight time in a 1952 plebiscite.

So why the wait since 2019? Because the government that year chose not to bring the Interpretation Amendment Act into force. Its reasoning was that B.C. should change time in step with neighbouring U.S. states. That approach has now been set aside. B.C. did not hold off for the United States to move first, so a trip to Bellingham will mean going an hour backwards.

Other jurisdictions on the West Coast are working on their own versions. Washington, Oregon and California are creating or enacting similar legislation, so the gap with them could yet narrow.

Darker mornings, and a smaller gap to the east

The most direct public-health warning comes from Vancouver Coastal Health. The health authority is cautioning that the morning commute will be darker than usual. It said the change could discourage people from walking or biking to school or work, Global News BC reported.

The shift also changes the arithmetic with other provinces. Because Ontario and Quebec will keep falling back while B.C. does not, the gap between them and B.C. will shrink to two hours from three, according to earlier coverage of the Nov. 1 change.

B.C. will not be alone in staying put. Alberta and Manitoba will also stick to permanent daylight saving time, although Alberta will use a different time zone code, ABT.

For some workers, the new schedule has a direct effect. Daily Hive reports that hours for B.C.-based Canada Revenue Agency call centre workers will change.

The government has said the aim is to end the disruption of changing clocks, and the permanent arrangement stands unless a future government reverses it.

Checking the clocks in November

IT experts have cautioned that the change could cause missed surgeries, late deliveries and muddled meeting times, according to Vancouver Is Awesome. Those risks are one reason the long lead time matters: the province has set the new time months ahead of the first autumn when B.C. will not move.

UBC Today suggests a short checklist for the first week of November: update your time zone settings, install software updates and double-check the times of any scheduled events. That is the week when Ontario and Quebec will be on a different footing from B.C. for the first time under Pacific time.