Although we’re only a few weeks into fall, it’s already time to start thinking about the winter ahead and the increased darkness we Canadians will soon have to endure.
Daylight saving time 2024 will come to an end on Nov. 3, so consider this your one-month warning.
Canadians in most time zones can “fall back” on Saturday, Nov. 2 this year before they head to bed, as the clocks roll back in the wee morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 3, while most people are sleeping.
(The Yukon, most of Saskatchewan and some parts of British Columbia and Quebec stay on standard time.)
Nowadays, most digital and Wi-Fi-connected devices will roll back automatically, but it never hurts to check your clocks on Nov. 3, and save yourself the embarrassment of showing up to work late on Monday.
For years, Canadians tired of this twice-yearly, time-travelling switch have argued that daylight saving time should be permanent across Canada.
Peter Graefe, an associate professor of political science at McMaster University, previously told Global News it wouldn’t be an easy switch, unless all provinces — and even our neighbours to the south — were to sign on.
“It’s difficult because it’s a collective action problem,” he said.
“If all the provinces and the states move at the same time, then we’re all in the same relationship with each other. Whereas if just certain provinces were going to move, then suddenly they would be off-kilter with their neighbouring states and provinces.”
According to some historians and archivists, DST originated around 1908 and 1909 in what is now Thunder Bay, Ont.
But the province where it likely began has indicated that it wants to end the time-change system. In 2020, the Ontario legislature unanimously passed a private member’s bill called the Time Amendment Act, which sought to make DST permanent.
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While some jurisdictions in Canada, including the Yukon and Saskatchewan, have permanent DST, Graefe said many will look to Canada’s most populous province as a bellwether.
“I suspect other provinces would see whether the sky fell or not if Ontario was to be the first mover,” he said.
But Ontario is looking for cues south of the border. The 2020 bill had one key stipulation — Ontario would only move on DST if New York and Quebec did.
“Economic problems would be caused if you have a single mover rather than having everyone move together,” Graefe said.
British Columbia, too, took a big swing in this direction with a 2019 law that would make the change permanent, but it did not set a date for the change. The province said it wanted to align with Washington, Oregon and California. All three West Coast states have passed their own bills to remain permanently on DST.
Proponents of permanent DST saw some hope in 2022, when the United States Senate voted to make the change permanent. However, Werner Antweiler, associate professor at UBC Sauder School of Business, told Global News that the bill, dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act, has not made any further progress.
“The efforts are stalled until the U.S. Congress passes the enabling legislation,” he said. “That then triggers the existing legislation in several U.S. states, and ultimately decides the fate of our own legislation in places (such) as B.C. that are waiting to move to adopt year-round DST if/when it aligns with the U.S. states in the same time zone.”
The idea behind the clock shift is to maximize sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, as days start to lengthen in the spring and then wane in the fall. The logic is that by springing forward and falling back, people add an hour of sunlight to the end of the workday. But the benefits of this change are controversial, and the shift can have measurable impacts on health.
Doctors from the University of Turku in Finland have suggested that the risk of strokes and heart attacks increases by seven per cent following the time change.
And earlier this year, a report published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health noted that the annual switchover in March disturbs the circadian rhythms of Canadians.
“The March switch to DST is the one that induces the most disruptions since it forces a misalignment of the photoperiod that will continue through the next 8 months,” the report read.
“The potential one hour loss of sleep can contribute to the immediate negative impact of DST on daytime functioning, physical and mental health issues, as well as reduced overall performances.”
