VICTORIA -- While the B.C. government is still committed to implementing year-round daylight saving time, the change will not be happening this year.
In 2019, the province passed legislation that outlined its plans to switch to a “Pacific Standard Time,” alongside jurisdictions in the U.S., including Washington state, Oregon and California.
However, B.C.’s transition to a permanent daylight saving time will only take place in coordination with its neighbours to the south.
While year-round pacific time has been approved in Oregon and Washington state and is being considered in California, any move to enact the change still requires state legislation to be approved by the U.S. federal government.
Given the state of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, a switch to permanent daylight saving time has been put on the backburner on both sides of the border, for the time being.
“I think it’s quite clear that in the middle of a pandemic, making changes to daylight saving is not an urgent issue on people’s minds,” said B.C. Premier John Horgan in a statement Friday.
“Our government is currently focused on putting in place the details of the economic recovery while taking the steps we need to protect British Columbians during this pandemic,” he said.
“On a less serious note, I don’t think anyone is looking forward to an extra hour of 2020 right now.”
Last year, the B.C. government conducted a survey to see if British Columbians were in favor of switching to permanent daylight saving time.
Out of the 223,273 people who responded to the survey, an overwhelming 93 per cent approved of ending the seasonal time change.
British Columbians will be turning their clocks back one hour on Nov. 1, 2020, from 2 a.m. backwards to 1 a.m.
With files from CTV News Vancouver Island’s Todd Coyne
