Most of Ontario will set their clocks back one hour on Sunday, signaling the end of daylight saving time, but some areas in the province won’t be changing theirs.
Regions in northwestern Ontario are aligning with several western provinces and territories that have opted for permanent daylight time as part of a significant update to Canadian time zones. Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and most of British Columbia have decided against switching their clocks twice a year.
The Ontario government aims for all regions in Ontario to adopt a similar approach. In 2020, the province passed the Time Amendment Act to eliminate these frequent clock changes.
However, this law won’t take effect across the entire province unless Quebec and New York make comparable changes. An announcement from Ontario’s attorney general states that it’s essential for these three areas to remain synchronized for trade, stock markets, and broadcasting purposes.
Those trading partners are also mulling over the change, but so far there’s been no progress; neither party wants to be the first to act.
A map of time zones in Ontario. The area that’s in the central time zone will be switched to permanent daylight saving time on Nov. 1. (Government of Ontario/Provided)
No benefit in being first: expert
Patrick Baylis, an associate professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, believes it’s smart for governments to wait before making any changes until their trading partners do likewise.
“There’s no first-mover advantage to changing time before everybody else does,” Baylis said. “It just means you, sort of, sow a bit more confusion in your own area.”
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Manitoba is now among those provinces that have stopped switching between daylight saving and standard time after B. C., Alberta, and Northwest Territories made similar decisions recently.
Quebec will still turn back its clocks this weekend but plans from its newly elected Parti Québécois government indicate that might soon change.
In a recent Facebook post, Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon remarked about the upcoming change: “This is probably the last year we’ll be imposing such unnecessary constraints on ourselves.”
In New York State, Republican Senator Joe Griffo has sponsored senate bill S3380 which would set daylight saving time as standard year-round throughout New York.
Griffo noted that while the U. S. House has approved this bill, he still requires action from the Senate for it to advance.
“The Congress, under the Uniform Time Act, has ultimately determination to tell us what time we can be on,” Griffo told CBC Toronto. “You can’t have 50 states doing 50 different things which I understand and appreciate.”
For now unless both chambers of U. S. Congress reach an agreement along with Quebec implementing similar changes too, Ontario will continue dealing with two different times within its borders.
Areas sticking with daylight savings are already located in central time zone westward past the 90th meridian-a longitudinal line running through northwestern Ontario.
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