BC changes clocks again this weekend.
After years of promises that the province would eventually end daylight savings time and stick with daylight saving time, it remains an uphill task.
And while an extra hour of sleep may be great on Sunday morning, it only means we’ll lose an hour come spring.
Former Premier John Horgan promised in 2019 that BC would end semiannual time changes, but gave no firm timeline. However, both he and current Premier David Eby have said the legislation will not be enacted until British Columbia’s American neighbors, including Washington state, Oregon and California, do the same.
“With two young children at home, I know how disruptive this schedule change can be for families,” Eby said in a statement emailed to Breaking: on Friday.
“We all want this to be the last time we make the change and look forward to working with our West Coast neighbors to make sure all of our clocks are aligned.”
SEE | Eby says the provincial position has not changed during the March interview:
featured videoBC passed legislation in 2019 to maintain daylight saving time, but wants to make the change in conjunction with the entire West Coast.
The Sunshine Protection Act passed the U.S. Senate in 2022, with hopes of making daylight hours permanent last spring. But it has not yet been approved in the House of Representatives, which has the final say.
It was reintroduced in the House in March 2023, but there has been no real movement since then.
The opposition party BC United, formerly the BC Liberals, says it has been pushing for change for more than five years.
“Most countries, and 79 percent of the world’s population, do not change their clocks and for those of us who do, the time-changing process disrupts sleep schedules and has been linked to an increase in accidents and a decline in productivity,” press secretary Andrew Reeve said in an email.
He pointed to a public consultation in 2019, where more than 223,000 British Columbians voted on whether to stop changing clocks or not. A whopping 93 percent of participants voted in favor of moving to permanent daylight saving time.
“Meanwhile, the NDP government has dragged its feet on this for years. It is long overdue to permanently end daylight saving time,” Reeve said.
