British Columbia will change its clocks for the final time on March 8, then switch to daylight saving time permanently.

Pacific time in Canada will be set seven hours behind co-ordinated universal time, matching the offset currently used during daylight time, the province of British Columbia said in a statement.

That means B.C.’s clocks will be one hour ahead of U.S. states on the West Coast — California, Oregon and Washington — from November through March. The provincial government had been waiting for them to synchronize such a change for several years. State lawmakers had tried to create or pass legislation, but the shift has never been approved by Congress, the province said.

In Canada, provincial governments have jurisdiction over time zones. “We’re done waiting,” Premier David Eby said at a news conference Monday. “British Columbia is going to change our clocks just one more time and then never again.”

“We had committed to wait for our American partners, but the reality is that they’re stuck and we want to help give them the push that they need — someone’s got to go first,” he added.

The premier noted that Yukon, the Canadian territory north of B.C., actually went first, adopting permanent daylight saving time in 2020.

The change means that from November to March each year, it will be the same time in Vancouver and Calgary.

Eby said people get less sleep as a result of the clock changes, with adverse side effects like more car accidents. Some 93 per cent of B.C. residents surveyed in 2019 supported the change, the province said.

The premier also alluded to the rift with the United States, saying B.C. is now doing what’s best for its residents.

“Recent actions from the U.S. have shifted how B.C. approaches decisions that merit alignment, including on time zones,” the government said.

Greater Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Bridgitte Anderson called the unilateral move an “additional headache” for companies that straddle the border, saying it makes it “more difficult to attract and retain businesses” in British Columbia.

There are a small number of areas in eastern British Columbia that aren’t on Pacific time. Those regions aren’t affected by the policy change.

Bloomberg.com