Switch to permanent DST should be in sync with U.S.: Surrey business group

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A local business group says if B.C. is leaning toward permanent Daylight Saving Time, it should be in sync with western U.S. states. This comes after a provincial survey indicated overwhelming support for the switch.

Many of us have had miscommunications around time zones when it comes to conference calls and this change would complicate things if we went it alone, says Anita Huberman with the Surrey Board of Trade.

Her hope is consistency and a coordinated approach, should B.C. go ahead with the change.

“I think that has to be done in concert with Washington state, Oregon, California, etc., because we are in this significant Cascadia Innovation hub,” she says, but adds she would support B.C. taking the lead as long as there were assurances those states would follow.

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“It is a step in the right direction, and needs to happen.”

In 2015, Fort Nelson made the switch to year-round Mountain Standard Time, and Acting Mayor Lorraine Gerwing says there are real benefits to not changing the clocks twice a year.

“Shifting back and forth – it made absolutely no sense to me and definitely affected my sleep patterns,” she says. “I was very much in favour of it and so many years later, I still really like it.”

The results of a weeks-long public consultation found 93 per cent of respondents in B.C. say they would like to stick to Daylight Saving Time all year long. Premier John Horgan has previously said he would consider making the change when the time was right, and now says it’s likely to happen soon.

With files from Lasia Kretzel and Kurtis Doering.