On Nov. 1, for the first time in many, many years, B.C. will not be falling back for daylight saving time; instead, it will stick to the newly established time zone, PCT.
PCT simply stands for Pacific Time. The B.C. Ministry of Citizens’ Services shared more info about it last month.
B.C. first began the twice-yearly clock changes over 70 years ago, following a plebiscite.
A report on daylight saving time from 2019 says that it wasn’t until 1945 that provinces took over the responsibility for legislating time observance. Canada didn’t begin observing DST until 1915, apparently to reduce coal consumption, extend daylight hours for factory work, and to aid in war efforts.
Over 50 per cent of British Columbians voted in favour of the 1952 plebiscite to introduce DST observance.
In 2019, a survey proposing year-round daylight saving time saw over 220,000 participate, with 93 per cent in support.
It was late B.C. Premier John Horgan, who first proposed the idea before resigning, and B.C. Premier David Eby made it official earlier this year.
PCT for dummies: Important things to consider
Theerapat_T/Shutterstock
In previous years, clocks would go back an hour for the “fall back” time change in November. That will no longer happen, nor will we spring forward next year.
This is it. It’s the new permanent time. (Unless a future government decides to reverse it).
There are a few important factors to consider. If you’re someone who travels across the border, B.C. did not wait for the United States to align before making the change, meaning that if you drive to Bellingham, you will essentially time travel an hour backwards.
As we reported last month, some Bellinghamsters aren’t too jazzed about the move.
Additionally, UBC Today shared some useful information about the potential calendar mishaps. If you’re someone who lives by your calendar, you’ll want to go in and update dates on Nov. 1 and beyond.
UBC Today suggests updating your time zone settings, installing the latest updates, and double-checking all of your times in the first week of November.
Big tech corps like Google, Microsoft and Apple actually patched operating systems with the new PCT code.
This may also be a useful Reddit thread to see what some people have been experiencing in relation to PCT.
Some regions will align with B.C.
Calgary, Alberta (Habanero Pixel/Shutterstock)
B.C. isn’t completely alone in not falling back.
Some B.C. regions, like Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, are already on Mountain Standard Time year-round. These regions will align with the change for the rest of the province.
Both Alberta and Manitoba will stick to permanent daylight saving time as well.
Alberta will have a different time zone code, ABT. You can read more about the Alberta changes on Daily Hive. Parts of Alberta will see a 10 a.m. sunrise in the winter.
Yukon hasn’t been switching clocks for a bit, so Yukon will also stay aligned with B.C.
Eastern provinces like Ontario and Quebec will continue to fall back, meaning that there will be a two-hour separation between our regions instead of three.
B.C.-based CRA call centre workers’ hours will shift because Eastern Canada is rolling the clocks back while B.C. isn’t. The federal schedule will force B.C. workers to adjust their hours. Instead of them working till 5 p.m., they’ll now be working till 6 p.m.