Image Credit: PEXELS
October 30, 2020 - 8:44 AM
Even though 93 per cent of British Columbians want to stay on Daylight Saving Time, it’s not going to happen this year.
That means, at 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, clocks need to fall back one hour to Pacific Standard Time.
It’s not that the B.C. government didn’t listen to the results of a survey last summer that had almost all of the 223,272 respondents wanting to stop the twice annual time change.
It’s because the legislation to allow permanent Daylight Saving Time lets the government tie it into similar changes in the western United States.
“The move to permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST) is planned to be brought into effect at a time that maintains alignment with our neighbours,” states an email from the B.C. Attorney General’s office. “The Interpretation Amendment Act that was passed in 2019 makes provisions that allow for us to make the change. We will continue to monitor proceedings in the U.S. as they unfold."
Last year, both Washington and Oregon passed similar legislation but want to coordinate with California, where the whole movement has stalled.
In the fall of 2018, California voters passed a ballot measure supporting the change to permanent Daylight Saving Time, starting the cumbersome process of passing through the State Assembly and Senate.
It was passed unanimously in the Assembly in May 2019 then moved to a Senate committee in June. The chair, who hails from San Diego, put the bill on hold, saying it would put California out of sync with Mexico, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Even though Mexican border communities are allowed to align their clocks with the U.S., the bill has never resurfaced.
Given that California is being hit hard by a resurgence of the COVID-19 virus, it’s not likely to come back any time soon.
Even if it does, that’s not the end of it. The U.S. Congress still has to approve the change.
Daylight Saving Time is set to return on March 14, 2021. Don’t expect that to be the last time you’re confused about whether you’re gaining or losing an hour of sleep.
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