Clocks “fall back” an hour this weekend as daylight time ends

Clocks are set to “fall back” across much of Canada this weekend, as daylight time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2.

Some parts of B.C. stay on mountain standard time year-round, including parts of the Peace River Regional District, Fort Nelson and the Creston area in the southeast.

Yukon, most of Saskatchewan and some communities in Nunavut, Quebec and Ontario also don’t change their clocks in the spring and fall.

Daylight time was introduced in Canada during the First World War, mainly to conserve energy. There have been numerous calls over the years to end the twice-yearly time change.

A 2015 petition to stop the time change in B.C. garnered more than 26,000 signatures. 

The province conducted a survey in 2019 that found 93 per cent of British Columbians supported moving to daylight time permanently.

Some stakeholders, including the Vancouver Airport Authority, said it’s important that B.C. observe the same time as its neighbours, particularly Yukon and the U.S. west coast, to avoid confusion for businesses and travellers. 

B.C. introduced legislation in 2019 that paved the way for a move to permanent daylight time. But the province said the change won’t take effect until Washington, Oregon, California and Yukon are all aligned on the move. 

Several U.S. states have enacted legislation or made moves toward maintaining daylight time year round, but the changes can’t take effect without movement from Congress.

A 2022 report by researchers at the University of Ottawa and Université de Montréal, submitted to the Canadian Sleep Society, found that losing an hour of sleep in the spring can negatively affect functioning for weeks.

The report also found some research to support the notion that there are higher rates of cardiac incidents, mental health issues and workplace injuries following the spring transition.

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