Get ready to reset your clocks! Daylight saving is coming up this weekend. The change in time will begin on Sunday, March 11 at 3 a.m. and continue until Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2 a.m. PDT this year.
While most smartphones will be able to adjust the time automatically, you may need to turn your clock one hour earlier before going to bed on Saturday. Many dog owners in Richmond discussed online that they can’t wait for the time change because it allows them to walk their dog in the daylight after work. But some businesses in B.C. have different opinions towards the annual time change.
B.C. Chamber of Commerce proposed that the province should abolish the time change and stay on daylight saving time year round — noting the time change every spring brings with it an increase in workplace accidents and injuries, traffic crashes, and a decrease in worker productivity, due to a loss of sleep.
“From an efficiency point of view I think the membership was at that point looking at workplace accidents, looking at productivity, they just got to a point where they thought, ‘You know what, it’s time to keep it on one time zone whether it’s Pacific standard time or daylight saving time,’” said Dan Baxter, director of policy development, government and stakeholder relations with B.C. Chamber.
“We have a number of tourism-related businesses that really believe that having that extra hour at the back end of the day just means people can get out into the community more. A province like British Columbia where we have a lot of great tourist attractions, outdoor tourist attractions especially, if we can give that extra hour on the backside it can actually be a real boost for our tourism industry,” he added.
Changing the time zone cannot be done alone. The chamber is pushing for a harmonized approach with neighbouring provinces and states.
“That was a big part of the discussion as well at the policy review level at the B.C. Chamber and I think amongst the membership and the delegates… is that if we do it ourselves we would be introducing more misalignment of the pacific economic zone,” Baxter said.
“Our big thing was for the government to move forward to try to do it with partners like the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, which includes Oregon, Washington State, Alaska,” he said. “Anyone who’s on that pacific time zone trying to get them to go along so we’re harmonized, which is better for business.”
Municipal governments in the province have also joined the call to end the time change. A resolution asking the province to consult with the public “with a view to abolishing daylight savings time” was endorsed by the majority of delegates at last September’s Union of B.C. Municipalities conference.
If B.C. abolishes the time change, it won’t be the first jurisdiction to do so.
Saskatchewan does not change its clocks twice a year along with the rest of the country; it is permanently on daylight saving time. In the U.S., Hawaii and Arizona do not observe daylight saving time. Several other U.S. states, including Oregon and Washington have considered making a change.
