Have another say on daylight saving
Lethbridge MLA helping with public sessions
Should Alberta scrap daylight saving time?
Local residents are going to have another opportunity to be heard on the issue.
The provincial government is planning a number of public sessions regarding the draft of Bill 203: “The Alberta Standard Time Act.”
Maria Fitzpatrick, MLA for Lethbridge East, is on the subcommittee handling the sessions. She said there has been a lot of support for ending DST in the province.
“What they want is to stop changing time,” she said.
Fitzpatrick said consultations are moving quickly, as a decision is expected to be made in the upcoming fall session.
“The Monday after time changes, I have a run on people coming into the office to stop changing the time,” she said. “Right since I was elected, people have been coming in.”
The bill would end the practice of moving clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall, and replace it with “Alberta standard time.”
Alberta standard time, recognized as six hours behind Universal Time, could also be referred to as “summer” time or “Central Standard Time.”
Alberta clocks would align with Saskatchewan clocks year-round, and align with Manitoba clocks in the winter.
Moving west, Alberta would be one hour ahead of B.C. in the summer and then two hours ahead during the winter.
Back in April, the bill was referred to committee to collect public input for consideration.
During a submissions phase which ended in July, the committee received 13,500 submissions from Albertans.
Around 75 per cent, or about 10,000 respondents, indicated they want an end to DST. About 24 per cent, or 3,000 respondents, indicated they wanted it to remain. About one per cent, or 200 respondents, were undecided.
The committee received submissions from 15 stakeholders — seven of whom were against the idea of ending DST. Four expressed support for ending DST, and four did not take a side.
Of the “no” groups, some, such as WestJet, the Calgary Airport Authority and Edmonton International Airport, expressed concerns to how the loss of DST might affect the aviation industry.
The Oilers Entertainment Group noted the loss of DST could adversely affect when hockey games start and finish, and potentially harm television viewership and attendance as a result.
Supportive groups, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Schools, noted an end to DST could eliminate the stresses and disruptions for students which occur when the time changes.
Another supportive group, the Alberta Association of Agriculture Fieldmen, noted a majority of their members wanted to see an end to DST.
Groups who expressed neither support or opposition to the bill included Canadian Pacific, Alberta Chicken Producers and the National Golf Course Owners Association, citing different reasons for being undecided. Those reasons included DST having no effect on their industry, to the effects being to widespread to come up with a consensus among members, to lacking information on what ending DST might look like.
Daylight saving time has its roots in a letter Ben Franklin wrote to the Journal of Paris in 1784. Its widespread implementation in North America is tied to the fuel shortages that came with the First World War. It is not universally used around the world.
In Canada, five cities used DST prior to 1918. DST in Canada has been synchronized with the U.S. since the 1960s.
A public session will be held in Lethbridge on Sept. 15 at the Coast Lethbridge Hotel and Conference Centre from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
While the session is open to the public, anyone interested in making a presentation to the committee is asked to register in advance by calling Aaron Roth, Committee Clerk for the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future at 780-415-2878.