B.C. is 'step toward' permanent Daylight Saving Time after U.S. passes Senate bill, says premier

(Gastón M. Charles / shutterstock.com)

Last week, B.C. Premier John Horgan said he was "hopeful" that this would be the last year that British Columbians would have to change their clocks for Daylight Saving Time (DST).

Now, the premier says the province is another step closer after the U.S. passed a senate bill that would have the country move to permanent DST.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved the "Sunshine Protection Act," which would rid the country of the seasonal time change. However, the bill must still passed by the House of Representative before being signed by the president.

In 2019, B.C. conducted an online survey and found a record-breaking 93 per cent of the 223,273 respondents voted in favour of ditching the time change.

That same year, B.C. passed legislation that allows the province to switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time, called "Pacific Daylight Time," if the states of Oregon, California, and Washington state do the same.

While those states had moved towards ending the time change over the past three years, they were still waiting on federal approval. Now that approval could be coming soon.

"For B.C. families who have just had to cope with the disruptions of changing the clocks, the U.S. Senate bill passed today brings us another step toward ending the time changes in our province for good," reads a statement from the premier's office on Tuesday.

"While the bill still requires congressional approval before it can go to President Biden to sign, we’re well positioned in B.C. to do away with the time changes once and for all and move to permanent DST."

With files from David Shepardson, Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama, Reuters