If you’re a BC resident who loves to sleep, you’ll have to park your butt in bed an hour earlier this week, as the Daylight Saving time change will force us to spring forward this Sunday at 2 am.
This comes after years of promises by the BC government to keep us at the same time all year round.
Some examples aren’t too far from BC, with Yukon keeping its clocks the same all year.
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In 2020, Yukon undertook a public engagement about the seasonal time change. Nearly 5,000 Yukoners were asked about their views and a few options were presented:
- Yukon stays on year-round Pacific Daylight Saving Time
- Yukon remains on year-round Pacific Standard Time
- No change: Yukon maintains twice-annual seasonal time change
The results were near-unanimous. A total 93% of respondents wanted to end the time-changing practice. 70% of these folks, who clearly enjoy keeping their sleeping habits the same all year round, indicated they wanted to remain on Pacific Daylight Saving Time.
The most cited reasons these Yukoners had the preference they did were the availability of sunlight or health and wellness reasons. Safety, family commitments and schedules, and professional and economic impacts were also cited.
Interestingly, some written submissions suggested that Yukon should’ve only made changes if BC also did.
Obviously, BC did not.
What are we waiting for?
Thongden Studio/Shutterstock
BC isn’t stopping the time changes yet because of its commitments to its partners south of the border. The province wants to wait to align with certain states when it comes to the clocks.
Mike Padden is a US senator who recently commented about Daylight Saving. A coalition has been formed by California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho with hopes of proposing legislation to make Pacific Standard Time permanent.
“If there is one issue most people agree on, it’s the dislike of moving their clocks from standard time to Daylight Saving Time in the spring and then back to standard time in the fall,” Padden said.
“There have been scientific studies connecting several health problems with switching back and forth between standard time and Daylight Saving Time, including greater risks of heart attacks and more frequent workplace injuries. This bill would allow Washington to finally ‘ditch the switch’ by keeping us on standard time permanently.”
It turns out that the BC government is waiting on three of those states.
Eby’s office says, “People in BC have told us that it’s important for them to maintain alignment with our neighbours in Washington, Oregon, and California.”
If only BC would align with Yukon and Atlin, which also sticks to one time all year.
How disappointed are you to be losing an hour of sleep this weekend?
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