Manitoba adopts permanent daylight time

Manitobans no longer need to remember to spring forward or fall back one hour on their clocks.

Daylight time will be in place permanently, Premier Wab Kinew announced in a news release Thursday.

This change means clocks will not revert to standard time on Nov. 1.

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Manitoba joins several other provinces and territories that have adopted or are moving toward a permanent time, including British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Just six months ago, Kinew said his government was too busy with more important matters to consider changes to the clocks.

He was asked about it in early March, shortly after B.C. announced it intended to remain on daylight time permanently.

He later softened his stance, suggesting it may be time to revisit the issue for Manitoba.

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In April, Alberta announced plans to table legislation to cement a move to permanent daylight time. Days later, the Northwest Territories said it will also end time changes. Yukon has been on permanent time since 2020 and Saskatchewan since 1966.

In May, Manitoba launched a survey, asking the public to weigh in the issue. For those who did want to see the twice-annual changes halted, the survey asked if they preferred to stay on standard or daylight time.

In its news release at the time the survey launched, the province included a link to an analysis by Manitoba Health, which concluded that eliminating the time change would be better for population health.

The National Research Council of Canada's map of Canadian time zones. (National Research Council of Canada)

On Thursday, the province said nearly 72,000 votes were submitted in its survey, with 92 per cent of respondents saying they wanted to see an end to seasonal time changes. Among respondents, 58 per cent preferred permanent daylight time and 34 per cent sided with standard time.

Permanent daylight time is good for health, business and families with young kids, whose routines, especially sleep cycles, can be disrupted for days with those one-hour time changes, Kinew said in Thursday's news release.

The province is working with organizations, businesses and industry partners to adapt to the change, he said.

Manitoba enacted the Official Time Act, bringing provincewide daylight time into official effect on May 12, 1963. However, some cities, like Brandon and Winnipeg, had been experimenting with daylight time off and on since as early as 1916.

Under the Official Time Act, daylight time began on the first Sunday in April and went until the last Sunday in October, when clocks fell back to standard time.

Daylight time was extended in 2007, starting the second Sunday in March and continuing until the first Sunday in November, to match U.S. changes.

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This article, written by Darren Bernhardt, was originally published for CBC News.

Thumbnail image courtesy: Getty Images