A northern territory is the latest in Canada to end the practice of seasonal time changes.
The Yukon government announced Wednesday that after clocks are adjusted on March 8, the territory will permanently stick with Pacific Daylight Saving Time. That means clocks won’t be changed again in the fall or spring, when most other provinces and territories will be doing so.
The territory said in a news release that it received more than 4,800 responses from Yukoners on this topic earlier this year and 93 per cent surveyed wanted seasonal time changes to end. Seventy per cent of respondents said they wanted to keep Pacific Daylight Saving Time year-round.
The territory said it received nearly three times as many responses on this issue than it did about cannabis legalization, setting a new Yukon record for online surveys.
Yukon Premier Sandy Silver said the government made an informed decision based on the feedback of residents.
“Yukoners clearly want to see an end to seasonal time change and we are listening,” he said in the release. “The response to this engagement speaks to the importance of this issue for people.”
The territory is the latest jurisdiction to weigh in on time changes.
Last December, the Manitoba NDP announced they were launching a website and public consultations to get feedback from Manitobans on whether the province should continue springing forward and falling back.
That came after the British Columbia government said it would be keeping the province’s seasonal time changes for now but was open to changing once other U.S. states got on board. South of the border, the West Coast states of Washington, Oregon, and California have considered adopting daylight time on a permanent basis, but the change hasn’t been made yet.
B.C. surveyed people to see how they feel about the twice-a-year time change, which normally happens in March and November. More than 220,000 residents responded to the survey and 93 per cent were in favour of year-round Daylight Saving Time.
B.C. introduced legislation last year aimed at allowing year-round daylight time. Some parts of the province, including Peace River and Creston, are already ignoring time changes.
“British Columbians have said loud and clear that they want to do away with the practice of changing our clocks twice a year and our government is taking action,” said B.C. Premier John Horgan said in a statement last October. “While the bill doesn’t immediately shift the province to permanent DST, it puts us in position to do so quickly.”
There’s currently only one province in Canada that doesn’t force its residents to change their clocks: Saskatchewan. While millions of Canadians will be losing an hour of sleep this weekend, the residents of Saskatchewan will be spared.