Manitoba adopts permanent daylight time

Manitoba joins several other provinces and territories that have adopted or are moving toward a permanent time, including British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan. (Elise Amendola/The Associated Press)Social SharingManitobans no longer need to remember to spring forward or fall back one hour on their clocks.

Daylight time will be in place permanently, Premier Wab Kinew announced in a news release Thursday.

This change means clocks will not revert to standard time on Nov. 1.

Manitoba joins several other provinces and territories that have adopted or are moving toward a permanent time, including British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Just six months ago, Kinew said his government was too busy with more important matters to consider changes to the clocks.

He was asked about it in early March, shortly after B.C. announced it intended to remain on daylight time permanently.

He later softened his stance, suggesting it may be time to revisit the issue.

Then in May, the province launched a survey, asking the public to weigh in the issue. For those who did want to see the twice-annual changes halted, the survey asked if they preferred to stay on standard or daylight time.

In its news release at the time the survey launched, the province included a link to an analysis by Manitoba Health, which concluded that eliminating the time change would be better for population health.

On Thursday, the province said nearly 72,000 votes were submitted in its survey and 92 per cent of respondents wanted to see an end to seasonal time changes, with 58 per cent preferring permanent daylight time and 34 per cent siding with standard time.

Permanent daylight time is good for health, business and families with young kids, whose routines, especially sleep cycles, can be disrupted for days with those one-hour time changes, Kinew said in the news release on Thursday.

Darren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.