Alberta has no plans to do away with twice-a-year time changes

Electric Time technician Dan LaMoore lights up a two-dial Howard Post Clock, Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Medfield, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

As the United States moves one step closer to potentially adopting year-round daylight time for all states, Alberta remains steadfast in its decision to continue changing the clocks twice a year.

The U.S. Senate approved the 'Sunshine Protection Act' on Tuesday, paving the way for the potential elimination of seasonal time changes. The bill would need to pass in the House of Representatives and be approved by President Joe Biden to be enacted.

The office of the minister of service Alberta confirms that the province has no plans to reopen a discussion on keeping the clocks on the same time throughout the year.

"We know that many American jurisdictions had already passed legislation or resolutions to move to summer hours permanently," said the ministry in a statement to CTV News. "We are not surprised to see the recent Senate decision to make daylight saving time permanent in the United States. This is one of the reasons why we held a referendum on daylight saving time last year.

"However, following the close result of last fall's referendum, it is clear that while many Albertans do not like changing their clocks, they can't agree on whether to pick permanent daylight time or standard time."

Albertans rejected a move to permanent daylight time in an October 2021 referendum, with 50.2 per cent voting 'no'.

"Given that we just held a referendum on DST, we have no plans to revisit this matter at this time," read the statement. "We are focussed [sic] on Alberta's Economic Recovery Plan, creating jobs, attracting investment, and growing and diversifying the economy."

B.C. passed legislation in 2019 that would see the province adopt permanent daylight time if the states of Washington, Oregon and California did the same. The move followed an online survey where 93 per cent of the more than 223,000 respondents said they were in favour of ending time changes.

Ontario also passed legislation to move to permanent daylight time contingent on similar moves from Quebec and New York state.

Permanent daylight time is currently in place in several areas of Canada including:

• Northwestern B.C.;
• Creston, B.C.; and,
• Yukon.

Permanent standard time is observed in:

• Most of Saskatchewan;
• Southeastern Labrador;
• Southampton Island in Nunavut; and,
• Two communities in northern Ontario.

With files from CTVNews,ca