British Columbia is adopting year-round daylight saving time, meaning that clocks will spring forward by one hour for the last time on Sunday.
After that, there will be no more seasonal time changes in the province, Premier David Eby said Monday.
The decision means B.C. will be on the same clock as the Yukon throughout the year and will match Alberta from November to March. The province will also remain one hour behind Washington state, Oregon and California during the winter months.
“When we change our clocks twice a year, it creates all kinds of problems,” Eby said in announcing the new policy.
“Kids get up at the same time, even though the clocks changed. Dogs get up at the same time, even though the clocks changed. Parents lose sleep. Kids lose sleep. And even people without kids or parents, they’re losing an hour of sleep… So what we see is more car accidents and people not feeling well and impacts that have a huge, unnecessary impact on the lives of British Columbians.”
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Attorney General Niki Sharma said that she is looking forward to more stable and predictable schedules.
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“On Nov. 1, when clocks would normally be turned back, no change will be made and we will have fully transitioned into our brand new time zone called Pacific Time,” she said.
“Pacific Time will be set seven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time.”
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As of November 2026, B.C. will be two hours behind Eastern Standard Time. Starting in March 2027, B.C. will be three hours behind Eastern Standard Time.
Under former premier John Horgan, B.C.’s NDP government passed legislation enabling the province to end the biannual time change, but the measure was never enacted.
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That’s because B.C. sought to align the shift with jurisdictions along the west coast, such as Washington and California, to avoid business disruptions.
In 2020, people in Yukon moved their clocks ahead for the last time, switching to permanent daylight saving time following a wildly popular public consultation.
“We had committed to wait for our American partners,” Eby said.
“But the reality is that they’re stuck. And we want to help give them the push that they need. Someone’s got to go first. To be fair, the Yukon went first and we thank them for that. But we’re going to give them a push. And we’re also going to make decisions right now where British Columbia decides what’s best for us.”
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According to the Pew Research Center, only about a third of the world’s countries follow daylight saving time. The vast majority of them are in Europe.
In Canada, Saskatchewan is the lone daylight saving time holdout, with only a few border communities making the seasonal change.
-with files from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
