{"id":617291,"date":"2026-04-20T20:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/617291\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:47:13","slug":"alberta-expected-to-make-switch-to-daylight-saving-time-permanent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/617291\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta expected to make switch to daylight saving time permanent"},"content":{"rendered":"

It appears that Alberta\u2019s United Conservative Party government is expected to permanently make the switch to daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

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Government sources have confirmed to Global News that making the move permanent will be part of an omnibus bill that will be tabled in the Alberta Legislature later this week.<\/p>\n

The confirmation comes after Premier Danielle Smith said in an interview with Postmedia that the move to daylight saving time this spring was the last time clocks in Alberta would be changed, meaning the clocks will not be falling back an hour in the fall, nor will they be moved ahead an hour next spring.<\/p>\n

The legislation to make the move permanent would still need to be voted on in the Legislature, but judging by Smith\u2019s comments to Postmedia, it appears that is just a formality.<\/p>\n

Going forward, this means Alberta would be on the same time as Saskatchewan year-round.<\/p>\n

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Alberta clocks would also be an hour later than British Columbia, where the switch to daylight saving time was already made permanent<\/a> when B.C. residents moved their clocks forward an hour on March 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta mulls ditching clock changes as B.C. moves to permanent daylight saving time\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The move also comes five years after Albertans voted in a province-wide referendum<\/a>, by the narrowest of margins \u2014 50.2 per cent to 49.8 per cent \u2014 to reject the idea of moving permanently to daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

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Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n

However, following B.C.\u2019s decision to make the switch permanent this spring, Premier Smith said her government would once again consider abandoning the practice<\/a> of changing clocks twice per year.<\/p>\n

The province traditionally \u201csprings forward\u201d on the second Sunday in March and \u201cfalls back\u201d on the first Sunday in November.<\/p>\n

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However, according to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, only about a third of the world\u2019s countries follow daylight saving time. The vast majority of them are in Europe.<\/p>\n

A survey by the provincial government in 1991<\/a> also showed that 91 per cent of surveyed Albertans were in favour of moving permanently to daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

If the legislation passes and Alberta sticks to daylight saving time yar-round, the province would also be on the same time as Manitoba in winter and one hour behind Manitoba in summer.<\/p>\n

However, that could change as Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has recently mused about going on one clock year-round.<\/p>\n

The change would mean much of Ontario and Quebec would be one hour ahead in winter and two hours ahead in summer.<\/p>\n

Most of the Atlantic provinces would be two hours behind in winter and three hours back in the summer.<\/p>\n

Alberta adopted daylight saving time in 1971 after a referendum on the subject passed with 61.5 per cent of voters in favour.<\/p>\n

Since then, politicians across the spectrum have periodically petitioned for changes.<\/p>\n

The former NDP government explored doing away with daylight time in 2017, but did not go ahead in part over concerns about the impact on airline schedules<\/a>\u00a0and starting times for NHL games.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

With files from The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShould Albertans follow B.C.\u2019s lead and stop doing a time change?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears that Alberta\u2019s United Conservative Party government is expected to permanently make the switch to daylight saving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[231952,100486,46,5105,43,890,44,714,64,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-617291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta-time-change","tag-daylight-saving-time","tag-economy","tag-features","tag-headlines","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-tech","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617291","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=617291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}