Western Canada continues to make changes to daylight saving time practices, with Manitoba being the latest province to opt for a permanent time system. This decision follows similar moves made by British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Saskatchewan in recent years.
Manitoba’s choice to stick with daylight time will streamline life for its residents but will create a unique situation for a small part of northwestern Ontario. This region, including Kenora, shares a time zone with Manitoba rather than the rest of Ontario. As a result of the new decision, this portion of Ontario will find itself in its own time zone during the winter, one hour behind Thunder Bay to the east and also one hour behind Winnipeg to the west.
Other provinces in Canada also have variations in time zones. For instance, the Kootenay region in southeastern British Columbia aligns its time with Alberta, while Newfoundland and Labrador observe Atlantic time. Nunavut spans three different time zones.
In 2020, Ontario passed a law to cease the practice of changing times semi-annually, contingent on Quebec and New York taking similar actions. While Quebec has not made any changes at the provincial level, the northern region of Nunavik has transitioned to permanent daylight time.
In the United States, the House of Representatives has approved a bill to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, with the legislation now awaiting consideration by the Senate. Similarly, the New York state Senate is currently deliberating on a comparable proposal.
