KENORA – Representatives for almost every community west of Thunder Bay met to discuss a switch to permanent daylight saving time.
That’s according to Kenora Mayor Andrew Poirier, who told Newswatch that mayors, reeves and First Nations leadership were invited by Kenora–Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford to meet virtually and discuss the option of joining Manitoba in nixing the biannual clock change.
On Thursday, the Manitoba government announced that Manitobans would not be setting their clocks back this November and are moving to permanent daylight time.
If they don’t make the switch, communities in Northwestern Ontario will be in “an island of central daylight savings time in the winter,” as described by MPP for Kiiwetinoong Sol Mamakwa.
“Everybody was asked what their preference would be and what they thought they could do in their community in order to make a decision one way or the other,” Poirier said.
“We just wanted to see if there was a consensus around a majority going with one model or the other.”
There was a lot of favour shown for what he called the Manitoba model, or permanent daylight time, during the meeting, he said.
“And, I keep reaching out to people just to ask them what they think, and so far, its been in favour of ‘we should just change with Manitoba,’ but again that’s not an entire snapshot of the community,” Poirier said.
He continued that the next steps are for leaders to go back to their respective councils, and that there will be community engagement soon.
“It’s not just about what I think, it’s about what the community thinks and what an elected body thinks is the right thing to do,” he said, adding that members of the community may raise concerns that they have not yet considered.
“We’ll have to wait and see if there are some (communities) that are closer to Thunder Bay that may wish to just go to the Thunder Bay model …. But (they would) be kind of smothered in between everybody else with different times,” he said.
Poirier said he is considering the connection between Kenora and Winnipeg, with many residents going across the Manitoba border for medical appointments, and also a “huge influx” of Winnipeg residents to Kenora every year.
He plans to ask city council for a special meeting of council or some type of public meeting, and that Kenora and other communities will continue to discuss the options.
Poirier also told Newswatch that Rickford said he is actively updating Premier Doug Ford and the Attorney General, as communities only have six weeks to reach a decision.
Atikokan and Pickle Lake already use the system Manitoba is now adopting. Both sit within the central time zone on a map, but don’t change their times during daylight saving time. So, in the fall and winter they align with Eastern Standard Time, and in the spring and summer with Central Daylight Time.
Some communities have already posted public surveys on their municipal websites to see what their community thinks is best come November 1.
