We’ve had our leap year, now it’s time for a time change.
This Sunday at 2 a.m. Canadians from coast to coast to coast will turn their clocks one hour ahead and spring forward as we approach the end of winter and daylight saving time (DST) will remain in effect until Nov. 3, the first Sunday in November.
There are a few exceptions.
In B.C., parts of the Peace River Regional District (including Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Hudson's Hope, Taylor, and Tumbler Ridge) are on Mountain Time and do not observe DST. The same goes for the East Kootenay region including Creston, Cranbrook, Kimberley, Invermere, Fernie, Sparwood and Golden, who don’t make the switch.
Parts of Ontario, Quebec and Nunavut also do not change their clocks.
In February 2020, 93 per cent of voters in Yukon Territory elected not to change their clocks. Yukoners remain on Mountain Standard Time permanently, which means they align with B.C. time in the summer and Alberta time in the winter.
Saskatchewan, despite being geographically located in the Mountain Time Zone, will remain tied to Central Time, as it does all year long. That stems from a 1966 vote in the province that created the Time Act, which gave Saskatchewan cities on the western border with Alberta the option to align with Mountain Time. Lloydminster is the only large Saskatchewan town that sticks with Alberta time.
This year, the time change in B.C. happens nine days before the first day of spring on Thursday, March 19. With the leap year February had 29 days and that means the spring equinox (when daytime hours are approximately equal to nighttime hours) lands a day earlier on the 2024 calendar than most years.
Canada was among the first countries in the world to adopt DST to create more daylight hours when most people in the Northern Hemisphere are out and about. On July 1, 1908 Port Arthur, Ont., became the first city in the world to move its clocks ahead.
During the First World War, in 1916, Germany made DST a federal law to help conserve coal, and England followed suit shortly after.
Now there are 71 countries that make the switch every year, representing 40 per cent of the world’s population.
Equatorial countries never bought in because the seasonal change of lengths of day and night do not change much throughout the year.
Moving the clocks ahead means one fewer hour of sleep this weekend, so be careful in the first few days after the switch. Losing sleep can increase the risk of heart attacks, susceptibility to illness and seasonal depression. There’s also increased likelihood of car crashes and workplace accidents.
