Monday March 2, 2026 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 2:45 pm PST | Updated March 3 & 4, 2026]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
“Thanks for dancing, thanks for bringing your clocks!”, said Premier David Eby to a group of school-age kids from Sundance Elementary in Victoria (SD61).
They were gathered in the Hall of Honour at the BC Legislature over the noon hour today, to be part of the Province’s announcement that British Columbia will make a permanent shift to Daylight Saving Time (DST).
Clocks spring forward this weekend, as planned, at 2 am on Sunday March 8. But now they won’t ever be turned back. (The previous fall-back to Standard Time was previously set for November 1, 2026).
DST has been observed in BC on and off since 1918, so it’s been over a century of clock-changing. DST was originally brought in to save energy.
Pacific Time:
The new time zone will be called Pacific Time. It will be set seven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which matches the current offset used during DST.
During winter from November to March, Pacific Time will match Alberta and other regions that now observe Mountain Standard Time (which includes some parts of northeastern BC).
In the summer, Pacific Time will align with California, Washington, Oregon and other Pacific daylight jurisdictions.
Being on UTC -7 will align BC with Alberta and other areas that follow the current Mountain Time.
In summer, BC’s time will align with Washington, California and Oregon.
People in northeastern BC (Peace River region and the northern Rocky Mountains) who currently observe mountain standard time (UTC-7) year round will continue to do so and all areas of BC will observe one time zone.
Social-emotional vs basic health benefits:
“BC is going to change our clocks just one more time and then never again,” it was stated in today’s announcement.
There is a scientific position that human biology (circadian rhythms) is in synch with the planet and therefore staying on Standard Time would be of benefit to human biological health.
“Circadian research supports the benefits of sticking with standard time year-round to avoid Mornings Artificially Darkened (M.A.D.),” according to Dr Michael Pollock who is a psychology instructor at Camosun College in Saanich.
“In countries like Canada that are far from the equator, switching to permanent daylight saving time would mean we would be going to school or work in the dark for most of the winter,” says Dr. Pollock.
“The really big problem with this is that getting early morning sunlight exposure is essential for keeping our brain’s internal clock synchronized with the natural day-night cycle. Without that bright light in the early morning, our internal clocks will keep wanting us to sleep in and stay up late each day,” the Camosun instructor says.
Eby himself pointed out some visible evidence of that — children and animals still wake up at the same time (Standard Time) when clocks are moved forward to DST. Plants and nature respond to the Earth’s natural rhythms, not a clock-time overlay. More people would have car accidents and confusion after clocks were turned forward by an hour (and back in the fall), said Eby, offering further proof of bodies aligning with natural earth cycles.
But Premier Eby outlined the benefits of families having more time to spend together in daylight at the end of work/school days, and that there would be more time for outdoor activities which many people in BC eagerly participate. In today’s society those are strong arguments for pushing all things forward.
“People and businesses will have the necessary time to prepare for the transition,” said Attorney General Niki Sharma today.
Nurses, paramedics, hospitality workers, TransLink drivers and many other shift workers won’t have to face a twice-yearly adjustment period, said Sharma.
Ministry’s statement: (added to this article on March 4, 2026)
“People have different preferences regarding whether they want that potential extra hour of light in the morning or evening, and each has its own benefits backed by research,” says the Ministry of Attorney General in a statement received by Island Social Trends.
Meanwhile, the next part of the Ministry’s statement still doesn’t address a conclusion on the analysis of choosing Daylight Time over Standard Time: “The consistent conclusion in scientific studies is that there is higher health risk associated with maintaining the twice-yearly change than having one time year-round.”
“For BC, 93% of participants in the 2019 survey indicated that they wanted to adopt year-round daylight saving time, so that is the direction the Province is moving towards,” the Ministry of Attorney General stated.
Why now?
“Every once in a while our government will try to do something that is popular,” said Eby today, with a bit of jest.
But at least two deeper political messages can be taken from the timing of this announcement:
- The proposed shift to permanent Daylight Saving Time was first handled politically by the late former Premier John Horgan; it had in that sense a ‘BC stamp’ on it and was a topic with one of the highest levels of public engagement ever in BC (over 200,000 responses in favour of not changing the clocks back and forth). A current NDP government is simply smart to capitalize on that politically at a time when a lot of other challenges confront people in their daily lives.
- Back in 2019 the BC NDP government passed legislation (Interpretation Amendment Act) that would activate the permanent shift to DST, but with the condition that BC would wait for the northwest US States to catch up (Oregon, Washington and California) so that economies on this coast could be aligned. Oregon, Washington and California did pass legislation for this change, but still required approval from the US Congress — something which has not yet happened). Now Eby can use this shift as a way to show BC’s independence from the USA (seen as less of a problem during times of a trade war with the US) and leadership for the northwest coast region (where the Yukon territory, north of BC, has already taken the permanent step to DST). “Today we are done waiting,” said Eby in his press conference today. “Someone’s gotta go first. Yukon went first and we thank them for that,” said Eby. Attorney General Niki Sharma said the amendments will come into effect in BC next week.
Done waiting:
“We’re going to make decisions right now where BC decides what’s best for us,” said Premier Eby.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Attorney General Sharma today during the press conference.
Music played for the students to dance at the Legislature today after the formal announcement,,, Daft Punk lyrics and beat were catchy. ‘One more time, we’re gonna celebrate‘.
When clocks spring forward on March 8 “it will be the last time ever for most of British Columbia”, said Sharma. “On November 1 — when most clocks would be turned back — no change will be made,” she told students, teachers and media.
There will be more stable schedules and more predictable mornings, said Sharma. “Just steady time, straightforward, the way we like it.”
Astrology component:
Astrologers will take note of the time zone change (as they would for any part of the world) but in their work make serious note of the impacts to a person’s natal chart and life impacts.
Reader comments:
Reader comments welcome by email to letters@islandsocialtrends.com or in social media (LinkedIn, X and Bluesky).
===== RELATED NEWS COVERAGE (2018 to 2026):
- Go back in time! Clocks back one hour on Nov 2 (November 1, 2025)
- Daylight Saving Time continues in 2024 (March 10, 2024)
- Daylight Saving Time in BC for another year (March 12, 2023)
- Daylight Saving Time in 2022 starts Sunday March 13 (Mar 12, 2022)
- Daylight Saving Time in 2021 starts Sunday March 11 (March 12, 2021)
- Back to standard time for COVID winter (November 1, 2020)
- Daylights Saving Time 2020 begins March 8 (March 7, 2020)
- BC is ready-set for sticking to one time zone (November 2, 2019)
- Daylight Saving Time 2019 begins March 10 (March 9, 2019)
- Daylight Saving Time won’t be cancelled in BC (November 1, 2018)
===== NEWS SECTIONS:
HEALTH | ASTROLOGY | TIME & CALENDAR
===== GOVERNMENT LINKS:
- British Columbia’s 2019 public engagement on Daylight Saving Time
- Stanford Medicine report on the effect of changing clocks