Days of time change ‘pretty much at the end’ in Manitoba, premier suggests

Manitoba’s premier is moving the needle a tick closer toward ditching the spring forward, fall back ritual, in a move that could usher in a “Prairie time zone” he thinks could be good for business.

Weeks after saying “not yet,” Wab Kinew is now suggesting Manitoba is closing in on a decision, “likely by the end of the year,” that would freeze the clock in the same time zone year-round, as other jurisdictions to the west and north do the same.

“I think the days of Manitoba switching the clocks twice a year are pretty much at the end,” Premier Kinew told CBC’s Rosemary Barton in a Friday morning interview.

“The question for us is whether we want to move to … permanent daylight time [or] permanent standard time. This is where it always gets muddied and confusing.”

Currently, Manitoba observes central standard time from November to March, and daylight time the rest of the year.

The premier repeated his comments on ending the time shift during an unrelated news conference Friday afternoon, saying Manitoba “is almost certainly at the end” of changing clocks twice yearly.

The news comes days after Alberta announced plans to table legislation that would cement a move to daylight time. The Northwest Territories said days later it will also end time changes.

Both came after B.C.’s decision last month to adopt permanent daylight time.

Saskatchewan switched decades ago to permanent central standard time. The Saskatchewan Party government is now assessing whether the province may need to amend its legislation and time standard, given Alberta’s plans.

On the heels of B.C.’s decision, Kinew suggested last month Manitoba had more important matters to attend to than the time change discussion. A little over a week later, the premier hinted there could be a time on the horizon when Manitoba would reconsider seasonal time changes.

While leader of the Official Opposition in 2019, Kinew’s NDP surveyed the public on whether Manitoba should abandon time changes.

That generated mixed reactions, he said last month.

On Friday, he suggested adopting a fixed time is not a matter of if, but when. The main impediment is whether or not to land permanently on daylight or standard time, Kinew said.

“I think we should go to Saskatchewan [standard] time year-round: it’s better for the health benefits, slower incidence of stroke and other chronic health conditions,” he said.

“But most people, they want to go the other way — they want the extra hour of sunlight in the summertime.”

Biologist Patricia Lakin-Thomas said the science supports keeping the clocks fixed on standard time because of harmful health effects associated with extending daylight later into the evening through daylight time.

“Our body wants to clue into the sunrise, and the sunrise hasn’t risen yet, and we’re trying to get up before that,” said Lakin-Thomas, a biology professor and principal researcher at York University’s Clocklab.

“We’re out of sync, it damages our health. And we know that there are some long-term negative health impacts of being constantly out of sync with your body clock and your social clock.”

Kinew says the plan is to again gauge public interest, raise awareness of the health benefits of standard time and then take the pulse of what the majority wants, Kinew said. He hopes to arrive at a decision by the end of 2026.

The premier also suggested there could be economic benefits to having Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta harmonize on a permanent time zone.

“If we move to permanent standard time, you could have a Prairie time zone,” he said.

“That might be beneficial for interprovincial trade, and it might be a little bit of an unforeseen benefit if the three Prairie provinces are all on the same time zone year-round.”

The modern origins of daylight saving time trace back to the First World War, as fuel and energy were conserved across parts of Europe.

People realized they could cut back on fuel use by pushing clocks back an hour, extending available sunlight later into the evening and reducing the need to burn electric lights, said Chad Orzel.

Orzel, the author of A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks, said by the 1960s, the framework was codified as a general practice.

Energy saving from using less artificial light isn’t as significant today — the real drain is on widespread air conditioning use in the summer, Orzel said.

“It’s hung on, in large part, because people really like having those long summer evenings,” said Orzel, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

“People really hate having the sun rise at 9 a.m. in the winter, which is what happens when you go on daylight saving time year-round.”

As for what’s led to the recent wave of changes in Canada, Orzel said people have always been annoyed by the changing of clocks.

“The internet has made it much easier for people who are annoyed by things to find each other and sort of rally together and form a coalition to push for something to be different,” he said.