BC will fall back one hour in a couple of weeks despite years of promises that we may finally be able to live without letting our smartphones automatically adjust our clocks for us.
We’ll still have to adjust the clocks on our microwaves and stoves this November, and we do get to “gain” an hour of sleep.
However, there are proven health impacts to switching the clocks, and the BC government has promised residents that we may be able to avoid having to switch them altogether.
So where are we at, and what’s holding the process up?
Where the idea to ditch the switch originated
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Falling back occurs on Saturday, November 2, when Daylight Saving Time ends, and we roll the clock back an hour.
2019 was when the first bit of real action was taken to stop the yearly time switch.
That was the year the BC government, then led by John Horgan, introduced the Interpretation Amendment Act, allowing the province to adopt permanent Daylight Saving Time.
This was after 93% of BC residents who were surveyed about the issue indicated support for the change.
The act said, “The bill will amend legislation that enabled the bi-annual change from standard to daylight time and will rename the province’s time zone as Pacific time. It will not affect the long-standing ability of certain local areas in the North and Kootenays to remain on mountain time, as they have for decades.”
There have been various health reports that have noted the impacts of the changes in time.
In one report, the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health stated that the time change can lead to health risks because our internal clocks do not align with the new time. Some of the risks include an increased likelihood of car accidents. The report also notes that adolescents can have behavioural, learning, or attention issues.
Waiting on our neighbours
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Following Horgan’s departure, BC NDP leader David Eby’s office told Daily Hive that Eby would honour his predecessor’s commitment to the issue.
“In 2019, more than 93% of a record 223,000 British Columbians told us they wanted to remain on year-round Daylight Saving Time,” Eby’s team told Daily Hive.
In that communication, we were told that BC is waiting for Washington, Oregon, and California.
The most recent positive update occurred earlier this year when California made some moves.
A story from CBS News reported that California State Senator Roger Niello was collaborating with other leaders from Oregon and Washington to say adios to the time change.
“If my legislation prevails next November, we’ll turn them back again, and we’ll never change them again after that,” Niello said in the CBS report.
However, that would mean permanent standard time, not permanent Daylight Saving Time in California, so clearly, there’s still a bit more work to do on the legislation to ensure alignment among all the regions involved.
Mike Padden, a US senator, also commented on the plight of Daylight Saving Time.
“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.
Since this spring, when we sprung forward, BC hasn’t publicly commented on the matter, and it hasn’t come up on the campaign trail with any of the BC leaders. We’ll likely have to wait until November to see what happens with the US legislation before BC commits to the change once and for all.
How do you feel about the time change in BC as we prepare to fall back?