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KAMLOOPS - A local man wants the province to stop turning clocks back in favour of remaining on one standard time year-round.

Former Kamloops Chamber of Commerce president and local business owner Bob Dieno no longer wants to spring forward or fall back and has created a petition to call on the province to consider dropping Daylight Saving Time. 

"I would love to see the next (change) be our last one," he says. "It's getting the conversation going. It's going to take a while to do it, but if we don't start it, if we don't push it forward, we don't have a chance."

On his petition, Dieno outlines the various reasons why he no longer wants the change saying it's not only annoying, but can affect sleep health and create unnecessary schedule re-arrangement.

"The primary goal of Daylight Saving Time is to conserve energy but whether (it) actually saves energy is unclear and there are many contradictory studies. There are, however, even more studies that tell us that the change itself can cause accidents, injuries and even deaths. Many of these issues are related to sleep pattern change that the biennial shift mandates,” he says. "Moving clocks forward and backward every year in an ever increasing complex digital world is not without consequences either. Air traffic schedules, train schedules, public transport schedules, all must be changed biennially. It complicates timekeeping, disrupts meetings and even livestock have been shown to have trouble adjusting to new routines."

Dieno, who owns NuTech Fire and Safety, says he became annoyed with the tradition after missing a final exam because of it. He says he started looking into its affect on safety and health after bringing a similar proposal to the chamber, which was later dismissed. In his studies, Dieno says he discovered a time change can have deleterious effects on seniors and can lead to incidents caused by sleep deprivation. 

But beyond sleep, Dieno notes most people are likely concerned with the lack of daylight once they finish their work day. 

Along with Dieno’s petition, there’s a Facebook page to carry the message.

The next time change is scheduled for Nov. 1.

What do you think? Should B.C. move away from Daylight Saving Time?

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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