There is a good chance that soon, after more than a century of zig-zags, opt-outs, local referendums and general confusion about what time it is, all of B.C.’s clocks might finally line up.
Premier David Eby ended twice-yearly clock changes as of March 8 for the parts of B.C. that use Pacific time, which make up the bulk of the province. But he is leaving it up to local governments currently on Mountain time to decide whether to end clock changes as well.
Signs are that those areas will move to match the rest of the province
Since most of B.C. will now remain on summer time (daylight time) according to Eby’s edict, if areas on Mountain time decide to stay on winter time (standard time), the whole province will be on the same time year-round.
Eby endorsed these efforts to bring all of B.C.’s clocks into alignment, saying this was one of the benefits of the province choosing to stay on Pacific Daylight Time permanently, instead of Pacific Standard Time.
“Having a unified time zone across the province will be an advantage for all of British Columbia,” he said on Tuesday, March 17.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, it will be entirely up to local elected officials to decide what time zone they observe.
All a local government needs to do to observe Mountain Standard Time year-round (putting it in line with B.C., which is on Pacific Daylight Time) is to pass a resolution indicating that the municipality or regional district wishes to do so.
“No further provincial approval of such a resolution is required,” said a ministry spokesperson via email.
Parts of northeastern B.C. that are already on year-round Mountain Standard Time (having opted not to change their clocks back in the 1970s) are now automatically aligned with the rest of the province.
Others are already making moves.
The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) voted on March 13 to seek permission from the province to transition to year-round Mountain Standard Time (unaware that a resolution is all that is needed). There is still a chance the RDEK will revisit the issue, but the regional district could not confirm on Wednesday (March 18) whether it would be returned to the agenda.
The Town of Golden is also making preliminary moves with its local council voting on Tuesday (March 17) to direct staff to prepare a report outlining the municipality’s options.
The remaining areas are governed by the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District (CSRD). These areas around the outside of Golden include Field, the tiny hamlet wedged into the side of the Rocky Mountains along the highway as it spills out of Banff National Park.
A CSRD spokesperson said the district has not yet taken up the issue. At this point, officials still want to gather more information before making any decisions — but they are open to working with other local districts and towns on a common approach.
History of the East Kootenay time zones
B.C. has a confusing system of time zones, with a zigzagging line of shifts in the eastern part of the province that don’t necessarily adhere to the actual time meridian.
This dates to the creation of the hourly time zone system itself, a proposal credited to Sandford Fleming, an engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR), who wanted to make rail travel scheduling easier and end the practice of individual Canadian towns adjusting their clocks to align noon with the moment the sun reached its highest point in the sky.
This idea led to the creation of 24 time zones encircling the earth. Under these newly established zones, Crowsnest Pass is the dividing line between Pacific and Mountain time. This is also where Alberta borders B.C.
But, according to Tammy Bradford of the Creston Museum, CPR had tracks extending from Alberta to Kootenay Lake, which meant most local trade flowed back and forth from the east.
And the railroads held sway over local clocks (the idea for time zones came from a CPR engineer, after all). So, in 1898, the railroad decided to harmonize East Kootenay time with Alberta.
“It just made more sense to put the time change where you change methods of transportation,” Bradford said. “You’re getting off the train, you’re getting on a steamship, you’re taking a four- or five-hour trip down the lake.”
In 1916, CPR reversed course for unknown reasons and, according to Bradford’s research, decided that East Kootenay towns ought to be on Pacific time.
Then, in 1918, the federal government implemented daylight saving time to boost productivity during the First World War. The East Kootenays followed suit, jumping ahead an hour like everywhere else.
Later that year, the war ended, and Canada switched back to standard time. But the East Kootenays did not, opting instead to stay on daylight time, which would be the same as Mountain Standard Time and align with Alberta once more.
After another short-lived federal foray into daylight saving time during the Second World War, B.C. adopted a twice-yearly clock change in 1952 through referendum, creating a system of daylight time in the summer and standard time in the winter.
But the province allowed local communities to opt out — and East Kootenay towns chose again to stay with Alberta, sticking with year-round Mountain Standard Time. In 1971, when Alberta implemented twice-yearly changes, East Kootenay towns followed suit again, except for one.
Creston, like the rest of the East Kootenays, switched to Mountain Standard Time in 1898 as mandated by the CPR, then “grudgingly” switched to Pacific time in 1916.
And, like the rest of the Kootenays, seeing an opportunity to shift back after the First World War, it chose to realign with Alberta. In 1952, when the rest of B.C. started changing the clocks twice per year, Creston again opted out, remaining on Alberta time.
But when the East Kootenays followed Alberta in 1971 and started changing the clocks twice a year, Creston did not.
Basically, this means Creston has not changed its clocks since 1918 but has been out of sync with the rest of the region since 1971.
To add to the confusion, a slice of northeastern B.C. — the Peace Region — also falls within the Mountain Time Zone.
An area referendum was held in the 1970s, and northeastern voters voted against joining Alberta in the twice-yearly clock changes, opting to remain on Mountain Standard Time year-round.
And Golden has also aligned its clocks with Alberta since 1905, according to an article in the Golden Star newspaper from the period. That decision was made after a petition circulated among local business owners and merchants to keep the town on the same time as Calgary.
With B.C. ending the clock-changing ritual for most of the province by making Pacific Daylight Time permanent as of March 8, this chaos could soon end.
Because they are already on Mountain Standard Time, which equals Pacific Daylight Time, Creston and the northeast don’t need to do anything – the time in those places is now aligned with the rest of B.C.
It will be up to the CSRD and the Town of Golden now to decide whether they get on board with the RDEK and adopt either Mountain Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Time, thus bringing all of B.C.’s clocks into alignment for the first time since at least the First World War.