{"id":515412,"date":"2026-03-05T06:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515412\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T06:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:32:07","slug":"as-b-c-moves-to-permanent-daylight-time-what-could-that-look-like-if-alberta-follows-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515412\/","title":{"rendered":"As B.C. moves to permanent daylight time, what could that look like if Alberta follows suit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With British Columbia officially moving to permanent daylight time, Alberta may soon\u00a0also broach the idea of getting rid of twice-yearly time changes.<\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby announced Monday that the province will change its clocks for the last time this weekend.<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith issued a statement the same day saying Alberta’s government is once again considering a shift toward a permanent time zone.<\/p>\n

She noted that with Saskatchewan already on year-round central standard time, B.C.’s decision raises questions about whether Alberta should aim for consistency across the western provinces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s government has mulled over such a change before, even putting it to a 2021 referendum that narrowly failed, with 50.2 per cent voting against and 49.8 per cent in favour.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Should Alberta follow B.C.’s lead when it comes to scrapping biannual clock changes?:\"\"<\/p>\n

Should Alberta follow B.C. in adopting permanent daylight saving time?<\/p>\n

British Columbia has announced it will be adopting permanent daylight time but Saskatchewan operates solely on standard time. Premier Danielle Smith says Alberta should take another look at the topic, but which time should we choose?<\/p>\n

University of Calgary psychology professor Michael Antle, who studies sleep and circadian rhythms, said he believes Alberta should follow suit with its adjacent provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither of our neighbours [are] going to be changing their clocks, \u2026 so we should probably do the same thing \u2014stop changing our clocks,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s important that we pick something that\u2019s going to be right for Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which time zone is best?<\/p>\n

A shift to a permanent time zone would allow Alberta to abandon biannual clock changes, a move Antle said he has advocated for over three decades.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday, Antle said he believes seasonal time adjustments twice a year have tangible health consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to get rid of the time change,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s acute harm that comes with the spring forward that we\u2019re going to do this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antle added that while he believes ending the biannual switch would have benefits, it is also important to consider which specific time zone Alberta would ultimately adopt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to get the timing right. And so you\u2019re left with the choice: do you stay with daylight saving time or do you pick the more natural standard time?\u201d Antle asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlberta has major cities that are so much further north. \u2026 [and] our days in the winter are very short relative to other major cities in Canada. So it\u2019s going to be more critical for Alberta to think about what is right for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Antle said he believes Alberta should follow B.C.’s lead by ending the time switch, he thinks it would be better to adopt Saskatchewan\u2019s permanent standard time over permanent daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

Antle highlighted that other countries around the world have tried \u2014 and given up on \u2014 permanent daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

He said Russia tried it in the 2010s, the United States in the 1970s and the United Kingdom in the 1960s, but they all switched back after dealing with very dark winter mornings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they saw what daylight time was like in the winter, they realized, \u2018Woah, that was a bad choice,\u2019\u201d Antle said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If daylight time was adopted year-round in Alberta, December sunrises would occur around 9:50 a.m. in Edmonton and just after 10:20 a.m. in Grande Prairie, according to National Research Council data. If Alberta switched to permanent standard time, the latest sunrise would be 8:50 a.m. in Edmonton and 9:21 a.m. in Grande Prairie.<\/p>\n

Antle argued that standard time is better for health and circadian rhythms because it more closely aligns with the solar cycle.<\/p>\n

Albertans react<\/p>\n

Meagan Parisian, vice-president of the Alberta School Councils’ Association, said her organization would consider calling for school start times to change if Alberta adopts a permanent time zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s entirely possible our membership would bring forward a resolution to say, \u2018Hey, we need to advocate to the government of Alberta that \u2026 school start times need to align with the rising and falling of the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parisian said the reason that alignment is important is because it relates to safety concerns when it comes to student transportation.<\/p>\n

Some Edmontonians said they would prefer a switch to permanent daylight saving time to ensure later sunsets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would prefer to spring forward,\u201d said Savana Brown. \u201cI think that\u2019s mostly in preference of having longer days than falling back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmontonian Nicklaus Neitling echoed that sentiment, stating he would also prefer a shift to permanent daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would prefer longer days, obviously, living this far north, \u201d he said. “It\u2019s not great when you leave work at [4 p.m.] in December and it\u2019s pitch black.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most of B.C. is moving to a new year-round Pacific time zone instead of Pacific standard and Pacific daylight time, some parts of that province already use mountain time. As a result, those areas in B.C. and Alberta will be in sync from November to March, with Alberta remaining an hour ahead from March to November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-515412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}