British Columbia: Should B.C. keep or drop daylight time? The province wants your input

Celebrate the Vernal Equinox and the Start of Spring!
We're almost there folks! After a very gloomy winter, this is very exciting!
Thursday, March 17, 2022 (PDT) Sunrise in Nanoose Bay: 7:25am
Thursday, March 17, 2022 (PDT) Sunset in Nanoose Bay, BC 7:24pm
Official beginning of Spring 2022 - March 20, 2022
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No one likes the disruption of one-hour time adjustments twice a year. Whether we should opt for continual standard time or continual daylight savings time is less cut and dried.

If we choose year-round daylight savings time, consider that in December and January, for example, many schoolchildren in BC would be arriving at school before sunrise. Depending on how they travel to school, that could be a real safety hazard.

If, on the other hand, we choose to stay with standard time all year, ask how we'd like the sun rising around 4am during June and July.

Neither alternative suits everyone. Now that the US Senate has passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, it seems we will not be allowed the opportunity to debate the pros and cons of all options.

 

Why does what they do in the USA affect what BC can or can't do?

 

The reason is that our lives and economies are so intertwined along the NA west coast; having different time zones would be an enormous headache.

 

Shoudn't be too much of a problem? Arizona gets by with not having summer 'daylight saving' ('Mountain' time in winter, 'Pacific' time in summer) even though its neighbouring states do (actually, it varies even within Arizona!). Woudn't you just get used to changing your clocks crossing the US border, just as you do crossing the province line to Alberta?

 

British Columbia shares its border crossings with 3 US states – Washington, Idaho and Montana. There are, on average, over 30,000 vehicle crossings every day and far more passengers than that. Thousands of people also travel by air.

Expecting so many people to change their clocks every time they travel north or south would not make a unilateral time change in BC worth the trouble. Trust me.

 

What do people in the US do where time zone boundaries go through the middle of big cities?

I looked at a handful of roads on google street view where they cross time zone boundaries, and couldn't see any signs warning people!

 

Here in Canada, we do our best to ignore most of what Americans do.

 

Hence my post #27... :-)

 

The only real difference between the continual standard time and continual daylight savings time is whether the noon is at 12:00 or 13:00. Practical people and traditionalists are favoring standard time, irrational utopists are favoring daylight savings time.

 

You're comparing apples to oranges, Michael. I'm not going to engage any further. If you want to take up your arguments with our premier, here is his contact info:
Premier John Horgan premier@gov.bc.ca or phone at 1-250-387-1715.
I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.

 

Permanent daylight saving time hits brick wall in House

 

To be clear, this is a US headline. Here's an overview from the CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-time-change-timeline-1.6238804

In other words, nothing is going to change anytime soon.

 

That's right. We follow the elephant in whatever and whenever it decides to do in the matter. At least it gives hope to people like @wcutler that the choice between DST and standard time is still undecided.

 

Yes, I was not looking forward to walking to the Y to swim on winter mornings in complete darkness.

 

B.C. springs forward, more than 4 years after move to adopt daylight time | CBC News

 

I'm surprised that WA state is looking at standard time. I've always been odd person out with that preference, but a lot of the folks on the Facebook Whatcom County Weather page have recently expressed a preference for that.

 

Absolutely as an early commuter person (leaving at 5:30am) keep PST

In any event, please keep one time year round

 

As I was trying to point out a couple of years ago, BC will not change to permanent PST or DST unilaterally. It would cause unnecessary confusion when travelling between BC, Washington, Oregon, and California.

"B.C. premier says change will be enacted once Washington state, Oregon, California also make move."
B.C. springs forward, more than 4 years after move to adopt daylight time | CBC News