British Columbians will adopt year-round daylight time, springing forward by one hour this Sunday for the last time. 

In an announcement on Monday, B.C. Premier David Eby said that following the upcoming time change on Sunday morning, when the clocks will “spring forward,” there will be no further time changes.

The decision means that B.C. will be on the same time zone as the Yukon and will match Alberta from November to March, while it will remain one hour behind Washington state, Oregon and California during the winter months.

“When we change our clocks twice a year, it creates all kinds of problems,” Eby said.

“Kids get up at the same time, even though the clocks changed. Dogs get up at the same time, even though the clocks changed. Parents lose sleep, kids lose sleep and, even people without kids or parents they’re losing an hour of sleep and they’re getting less sleep. And so what we see is more car accidents and people not feeling well and impacts, that have a huge, unnecessary impact on the lives of British Columbians.”

Attorney General Niki Sharma said that she is looking forward to more stable and predictable schedules.

“On Nov. 1, when clocks would normally be turned back, no change will be made and we will have fully transitioned into our brand new time zone called Pacific Time,” she said.

“Pacific Time will be set seven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time.”

As of November 2026, B.C. will be two hours behind Eastern Standard Time. In March 2027 B.C. will be three hours behind Eastern Standard Time again.

Under former premier John Horgan, B.C.’s NDP government passed legislation enabling the province to end the biannual time change, but the measure was never enacted.

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That’s because B.C. sought to align the shift with jurisdictions along the west coast, like Washington and California, and avoid business disruptions.

In 2020, people in Yukon moved their clocks ahead for the last time, switching to permanent daylight saving time following a wildly popular public consultation.

“We had committed to wait for our American partners,” Eby said.

“But the reality is that they’re stuck. And we want to help give them the push that they need. Someone’s got to go first. To be fair, the Yukon went first and we thank them for that. But we’re going to give them a push. And we’re also going to make decisions right now where British Columbia decides what’s best for us.”

According to the Pew Research Center, only about a third of the world’s countries practise daylight saving time, and the vast majority of them are in Europe.

In Canada, the majority of Saskatchewan does not observe daylight saving time.

-with files from The Canadian Press

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