Dropping time change doesn’t make sense: Horgan

VICTORIA Of all the issues facing businesses, getting rid of daylight time doesn’t come up in boardroom discussions about how to improve Canada’s economy, says the president of the Business Council of B.C.

Greg D’Avignon said Friday that businesses spend little time considering the pros and cons of moving clocks backwards and forwards by one hour in the fall and spring.

“It’s not even in the same constellation of issues that are of concern to businesses at this point,” he said. “I talk to a great many business leaders that are international, national and local, and the barrier caused by daylight-savings time is the least of the concerns around how we can become more efficient as a country.”

The time change occurs Sunday at 2 a.m. when clocks roll back one hour in much of Canada, except in most of Saskatchewan, parts of northeast B.C., and small pockets of Ontario and Quebec.

Premier John Horgan said he receives many requests to drop the time change to allow for more normal sleep patterns, but discussions with local businesses and trading partners convinced him to maintain the status quo.

He said it doesn’t make sense to stop the time changes when B.C.’s neighbours and trading partners in the United States use daylight time.

Members of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, the body that represents local governments in the province, narrowly voted last September to lobby the provincial government to eliminate the time changes. President Arjun Singh said he expects the debate to continue in the future.