For the first time in decades, B.C. will not be taking part in the annual fall back time change, having established a new time zone code, and some Bellinghamsters are sharing their thoughts about that shift.
On Nov. 1, Washington and other States will move back an hour, but B.C. will not, meaning the two regions will be an hour apart. While many States have legislation in place to join B.C., they are awaiting official approval.
Many workers who travel between both regions have chimed in on a Reddit discussion about the time change.
“I drive a truck around Metro Vancouver every day, come Nov. 1 gonna have to start coming in an hour early for 6 months. Not looking forward to it,” someone said.
Others chimed in about how it would impact their commute.
One person who visits Vancouver fairly often said, “That really sucks. I go up to Van every week to check in on my parents. I will leave at 10 am and get there at noon but actual driving time is still 1 hour. Oy!”
For B.C., the official change came seven years after the idea was first floated around. In 2019, a public survey found that 93 per cent of B.C. residents supported year-round daylight saving time.
When it became official for B.C. earlier this year, the Seattle Times reported on how Washington was approaching the situation, saying, “State lawmakers made an effort to adopt permanent daylight saving time in 2019, the same year as British Columbia, but it is stuck in a yearslong wait in Congress even after then-Gov. Jay Inslee signed it.”
It dropped off the priority list for the B.C. government last year, before the time change officially went ahead this spring.
Turning back to the Bellinghamsters, one resident suggested that folks think of it in terms of two different time zones, “Canadian Western Time” and Pacific Standard Time.
That prompted a response about potential confusion, as B.C.’s new time zone code is actually PCT.
Our friends in Bellingham aren’t the only ones expressing a bit of confusion.
“It will be confusing in Canada too. Ontario and some other provinces are going to dial back 1 hour on November 1! So from November to March, Ontario will only be 2 hours ahead of BC. This started to feel like the beginning of some problem in a math test,” someone chimed in.
Another pointed to a comical potential silver lining, saying, “But think how many Canadians won’t miss their flights because they’re accidentally an hour ahead of schedule.”
B.C. pointed to several scientifically backed reasons for the change, including benefits to overall health and the lack of impact on cardiac rhythms.
Neither the City of Bellingham nor the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce have issued any official public-facing statements about the time change.
Daily Hive attempted to contact both agencies for comment, but we didn’t hear back by the time of publication.