MLA asks for input on daylight time plan

As a kindergarten teacher and mother of a seven-monthold, Ashley Dermody knows that daylight time can throw a wrench into any carefully planned routine.

When she travels with her daughter, Ivy, she leaves her on Alberta time, rather than try to adapt to a new time zone. But when the clocks change, she doesn’t have a choice.

“It takes a long time to get (kids) on a schedule to begin with,” Dermody said Monday.

Travelling is one thing, but Dermody can’t see the point of needlessly inflicting a time change on people.

In the classroom, she said teachers know that the Monday after daylight time starts — when the clocks spring forward and kids lose an hour of sleep — is always trouble.

Dermody was at the Cafe O’Play in southwest Edmonton as NDP MLA Thomas Dang announced further consultations into his plan to scrap the time change.

Dang said he’s heard from hundreds of Albertans in support of the change since first proposing it, mostly from young families who are tired of having their routines thrown into disarray.

“We think this is something people are actually very passionate about,” Dang said.

Dang hopes to have a private member’s bill ready by the middle of March.

Albertans who want to weigh in on the proposal can do so with an online poll at albertandpcaucus.ca or at a town hall meeting at the Federal Building in Edmonton on Feb. 17 at 6:30 p.m.