Manitoba’s adoption of a 365-day calendar reliant on central daylight time — as well as an ambiguous new abbreviation, MBT — was marked by missed appointments and mundane administrative tasks.
Health-care providers, public schools and other workplaces began the week by resetting clocks and appointments that fell back an hour over the weekend.
“It’s amazing how time zone information is (embedded into everything),” said Charlie Marks, president of the Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders.
“It’s amazing how time zone information is (embedded into everything).”
“There’s lots of places to look and think of and in every system, you make changes a little differently.”
Despite the best efforts of the IT consultant and his colleagues to prepare tech users and their servers for the transition, some troubleshooting was required across the education sector Monday.
For the first time in more than 60 years, clocks across the province are staying on permanent daylight time, meaning there was no extra hour of sleep Sunday.
For many residents, nothing has changed. But for some, especially those wrestling with technology glitches on phones and personal computers, the month began by trying to figure out what time it was.
Manitoba Standard Time, which is five hours behind co-ordinated universal time, is the new year-round time zone. MBT is the shorthand so local time isn’t confused with Mountain Standard Time (previously observed in Alberta and some parts of B.C.) in western North America.
Evergreen School Division has, among its changes, reprogrammed door systems that limited access hours and communicated with third-party vendors to avoid service disruptions.
Marks’s team solved the former challenge before Gimli students showed up to classes Monday, but problems have persisted elsewhere in the province.
In Winnipeg, principal Frank MacLean contacted Laidlaw School parents to provide reassurance and tips to reset their educational calendars.
“As we navigate the effect of the new time zone changes, I wanted to share that our IT department is working on fixes that affect our learning and data collection platforms,” MacLean said in a memo to families in Tuxedo Monday.
Cassandra Valgardson has been grappling with clock-related chaos in north-central Winnipeg, but the mom of two said the tradeoff — more sunlight in the evenings — will be worth it.
“My kid’s phone fell back. My phone fell back. Our laptop fell back, but the microwave and the oven didn’t change, so that was good because I was very confused,” said Valgardson, who has students in Grade 3 and Grade 6 at Lord Nelson School.
Valgardson said she dreaded twice-yearly time changes because of how much they affected her children’s after-school exercise and bedtime routines.
“If we did the time change, I’d be pulling them in at 5 p.m. now and then they’re just cooped up. It’s already a long winter, so I want them to be outside as much as possible,” she said, adding she’s strict about calling her kids inside when the sun goes down.
“My kid’s phone fell back. My phone fell back. Our laptop fell back, but the microwave and the oven didn’t change, so that was good because I was very confused.”
Neither the City of Winnipeg nor Manitoba government reported any significant issues, citing extensive preparation work ahead of Sunday.
A city spokesperson said there were “some traffic signal timing issues” between 6 and 7 a.m. and within the hour after 9 a.m., but everything was fixed by 10 a.m.
Aside from a few reports of computer issues and reservations snafus, Sunday was a relatively quiet, uninterrupted day for restaurants, said Shaun Jeffery, president of the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association.
Nothing eventful happened at the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport as a result of the changes. A spokesperson for Winnipeg Airport Authority could not provide flight-related information because individual airlines are responsible for such matters.
At Constant C Technology Group, a Winnipeg-based IT firm, the phones were a little busier.
President and CEO Jason Kolaski scheduled nearly two dozen people to be on hand Monday and Tuesday to deal with potential issues that might arise for clients.
While the transition has been relatively smooth for his clients, unexpected technical issues emerged related to business phone systems, outdated devices and calendar appointments, Kolaski said.
At an Osborne Village indoor cycling studio on Sunday morning, about five people no-showed their scheduled high-intensity workout.
It wasn’t because they were nursing a hangover from the night before, and it wasn’t down to sheer laziness. Instead, the culprit was technology.
“Because their phones led them astray,” said Dustin Marks, who owns the indoor cycling Saikel Studio at 437 Stradbrook Ave.
One health-care administrator, who was not authorized to do an interview, indicated their Winnipeg office was overwhelmed with the tedious task of manually inputting new appointments to reflect MBT.
Multiple IT professionals told the Free Press the relatively limited disruptions reflect the considerable preparation that’s been undertaken in recent weeks.
“Time will tell how kids respond to it.”
“We’ve been busy the past six weeks preparing for all of this, ever since the announcement. It was a tight turnaround, but we made it work,” said Marks.
He called Monday “uneventful,” considering how many things have changed inside and outside the public education system.
“Time will tell how kids respond to it,” said Harpreet Panag, principal of Amber Trails Community School.
The school leader’s prediction is that more families will choose to drive kids to class because of perceived safety concerns on dark mornings while “learning readiness” will be negatively impacted.
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At the same time, she said change is always hard but Manitobans are resilient and adaptable.
In her building — where it was a “happy coincidence” that professional development was scheduled Monday — custodians kept busy resetting computers and digital classroom clocks.
Panag said it was an ironic contrast to years prior, given custodians previously had to take down every analog clock and change the hands.
scott.billeck@winnipegfreepress.com
maggie.macintosh@winnipegfreepress.com
Several wise folks — ok, ok, journalism types — once told Scott he better make sure he can report on news before he learns to write about sports. In what can only be described as a minor miracle, he listened.
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