When Ontario falls back from daylight savings time, much of Canada will opt out. Sleep experts say it’s a mistake - Toronto Star

For the first time, B.C., Alberta and the Northwest Territories will not move their clocks back on Sunday.

Sleep experts are calling for an end to time changes — but they say B.C., Alberta and the Northwest Territories are approaching it the wrong way.

On Nov. 1, clocks will fall back an hour for Toronto and much of Canada as we transition back to standard time. Not so for British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories: For the first time, these provinces and territories will be ditching the time change and sticking with daylight saving time year-round. We’re resurfacing this story, first published on April 30, 2026, in which we asked sleep experts whether Ontario should follow suit.

Ontario sleep researcher Joseph De Koninck has spent the past two decades fighting to abolish the twice-yearly time change across Canada.

So when B.C., Alberta and Northwest Territories recently moved to adopt daylight saving time year-round, you’d think the 79-year-old professor emeritus would have been ecstatic. But all he felt was frustration.

That’s because from a health perspective, he feels the change is going the wrong way. “The worst situation by far is making daylight saving permanent,” said De Koninck, who researches sleep and dreams at the University of Ottawa. “The best is standard time year-round.”

While most Ontarians will turn their clocks back an hour this weekend, some communities in the province will no longer have to make the switch.