To change or not to change.
If the B.C. government has its way, Premier John Horgan said residents won’t be making the time change on their clocks and watches in the future.
“Today is a very good day for those who are tired of changing their clocks. We heard overwhelmingly from British Columbians that they wanted to stop the process of falling and springing forward,” Horgan said.
The countdown is now on towards staying on permanent Daylight Saving Time or Pacific Time. The legislation is now tabled to get rid of changing the time twice a year. According to 93 per cent or more than 225,000 British Columbians who responded to a government survey, they want to stop the clocks.
But sleep experts say the switch should be to Standard Time. Wendy Hall is a professor of Nursing at UBC. She said the decision about time change should be based on what’s good for the health of British Columbians.
“If we follow what the provincial government wants to do which is to stay on Daylight Savings Time, the sun will not rise on December 21st until 9 a.m. That is very late in the day for a sunrise,” Hall said.
Horgan is going to lobby his provincial counterparts across the country to persuade them to drop the fall and springtime changes. But he said there’s no set time for the change in this province.
“We’re having a Council of the Federation phone call tomorrow on a couple of issues. And I plan to bring it up and tell my colleagues what I’m doing here in B.C., and encouraging them to follow suit,” Horgan said.
Mary Griffin
